Quebec- Part Deux

Yesterday I said my goodbyes (still not good at that) and hopped on a plane eastwards to the land of winding cobblestone roads and sun soaked boardwalks.

  I was the first of the group to arrive, was able to check in early, catch up with one of our instructors from last year and unpack everything before my roomie arrived.   Luckily we pulled some strings and Francesca and I were able to book our room together.  We had thought that it was a 3 person room and had wanted Sarah with us, but instead Fran and I are together and Sarah is next door - not too bad :)  After a few more people arrived we headed out for dinner - it was so nice to see everyone again.  Most of them I haven't seen since last year!

Luckily when 10 o'clock rolled around the bizzarr-o movie from last summer was not up and running, so we watched The Young Victoria before bed - just like last year :)

This morning was breakfast and a walk through the old town before we laced up and headed out for our regular run - along the boardwalk, past the cruise ships, along the river, up the muderous stairs, through the plains of abraham, down through the old towne and back (see the pics below).  It was so so so beautiful - I can't believe I am lucky enough to get to stay here.

16

Last tuesday I experienced an epic failure at the gym, I was set to run 16km - not a new thing to my legs - but for the entire time I was running I felt awful.  My legs were tired, my calves were burning, my lungs were unhappy... WTF?! I stumbled off the treadmill with only 7.5km completed... it was crap, I was pissed off and I moped for the rest of the evening.

Fast forward to yesterday.  I had originally planned on running outside, the weather was amazing all week and I was looking forward to the sun shine.  Saturday rolled around and it was cold and windy, so I opted to try the treadmill again.  This time I rocked my 16km.  My legs were awesome until about 13 kms in when they started to get a bit fatigued, and my lungs were great... quite the difference from tuesday I would say!

Today was suppose to be a quick recovery run but I decided some power cardio-burn yoga would be better for my hamstrings - and I was right, it felt wonderful.

This week I have some more 6.5 km runs scheduled and a great big french test on thursday - yikes!  I've had the test on my goals list for ages and I really would like to get an "exempt" (meaning I scored high enough that my bilingual status will be good forever).  However, my french has been,- how you say - non-existant since I graduated so I may not get that E.... oh well, anything would be beneficial from a job standpoint so off I go.

34 days until I leave Borden for Quebec City!!!  Although leaving my cosy private room, my car and the closeness of my awesome in-laws is not ideal,  I will be finally completing my training and getting a promotion - another stripe, and a pay raise!  Hooray!!

Back to studying I go, night.

Happenings

After a good amount of research P and I decided to take the plunge and sponsor a child through Plan Canada.  He picked South America as our preferred location and I sent in the request.  Now all we have to do is wait 2-4 weeks for the picture and profile of our child and voila- we are foster parents!  I'm amazed it took me this long to sign up,  $35 / month is not a lot of money, and with all the perks we get from being in the military we are quite certain it won't even change my budget.

The neat thing is that now I can write letters in Spanish again.  It's been a while since I actually used my languages, and with my upcoming french profile test ( 12 days from now - yikes!) I guess this marks my return to my languages - thank goodness. 

I've also been course loaded on my next course in Quebec City... I'm rather excited to get back to the 400 and the gorgeous atmosphere that is QC... I'll be (hopefully) driving home and staying for a day or two before flying out east and then back home for a week or so afterwards.  P has his course in Shilo in May and then back to Gagetown in september.  We are trying to arrange a stay in Ontario at the cottage for a week or so in August - wish us luck ;)

Due to schedule changes this year we have also decided that 30 April 2011 will - barring any new  training schedule changes - be our wedding date.  I have a shopping trip booked in 2 weeks with an Aunt to the garment district of T.O. for my dress material and if I have enough time in April when I am home I will consult with my dressmaker.  I do have a year to actually plan this thing so I'm taking it slowly.  I have a pretty good idea of how this wedding will pan out and I don't see it taking up much of my time to plan, logistics are my speciality these days after all.

 

I should get back to the books though, I have an essay due on tuesday and I have a lot of work to do.  I'm hanging out at the in-laws' this weekend, I'm on duty next week (including the weekend) so I'm stuck on base, or very close to it - boo!

Rain

For some reason I had decided that it wouldn't rain in Quebec City this summer.... Back when I lived in Montreal for the summer I don't remember it raining - ever so I assumed it was the same here. How wrong was I? This is the 3rd day in a row that it has down poured. Yesterday I was caught in the rain on the way home from MEC, today it was in the middle of my run, and the forecast looks the same for the entire week... very uncool Quebec! However, having said that I did enjoy the total soaking, it was actually quite funny. The group of us drenched and laughing hysterically must have been quite the sight. We were all reminiscing about last year in the field and how miserable we all were, cold, wet, stressed... oh the fun!

Anyways, our first week of course has been really interesting. I never did take accounting in high school or university so this is my first go at it. It doesn't seem too difficult (knock on wood!) but it can be tricky and requires some studying so thank goodness this weekend is a rainy disaster and I have an excuse not to want to be outside. Tonight though we are breaking the study-a-thon for the new Transformers movie - yay!

Running here has also been challenge - the humidity this week was much different than Victoria's levels.... well that and the fact that we are all masochists here in the Navy and enjoy things like what I call the stairs of death, the city's longest staircase, 398 steps of hell. This picture only shows a very small fraction of it, it kicks my butt every time I try it but a group of us on course have resolved to integrate it into our runs at least 4 times a week. Plus, when you arrive at the top you are greeted with such a spectacular view of the St. Lawrence, and of course you are standing on the Plains of Abraham so that isn't too bad either!

Tomorrow is the Défi des escaliers de Québec, a 15km run which hits every staircase in the old town, including my personal fav to the left.... my knee is a bit weird these days so I am not going to run it in the race but I've got the course map so I'll get going on it when I feel my knee can take the 2600 stairs!

Alright, I should get back to the accounting, à bientôt

Roomies

I arrived in QC yesterday with a handful of course mates that I met in the Toronto airport. It was a quick flight over here followed by a huge logistical organization blitz trying to get as many van taxis as we could to transport our menagerie of luggage to the Naval Complex - Good thing that's all of our specialties! After we all got our room assignments - no one had the other as a roommate sadly, which of course meant my roomie from last years BOTC (Munroe) was in a room two down from me. I unpacked my huge suitcases and was pleased to see almost everything in the suit bag was quite wrinkle free - thank god for that!

Dinner was at a pub in the old towne, the atmosphere was fantastic, the food was great, and I remembered why I love Quebec so much. My room itself is awesome, great views of the marina on the St. Lawrence, a nice bed, alcove for my desk, free internet courtesy of someone across the street in the condo complex, and a HUGE armoir! The boy's rooms are pretty ghetto (we joke that they live in the projects) but all the girls have offered an open invitation to visit anytime so hopefully they won't have to spend too much time in their rooms.

This morning Miss Monroe and I found a grocery store and dollar store to kit up with laundry detergent, hangers and a few snacks for our night time munchies and had a leisurely walk around the lower old towne. Afterwards we headed to the gym for a run cause it was threatening to rain and then off to lunch it was. I've heard horror stories from this galley - stuff like: The vegetarian option (quiche) had bacon in it, sometimes the only meal choice is Poutine or Pogos (corndogs). However the salad bar is pretty big and has protein options that work when the hot food is awful. The only complaint though is the desert bar... the Navy has a horrendous reputation for being desert gluttons and I see why - it is huge and has the yummiest looking deserts I've ever seen on a military base. I managed to escape lunch without desert and even got an afternoon stair climbing session in which I interpreted to mean I could have a small rice krispy square at dinner, this in going to be a once a week occurrence I've decided.

My roomie showed up an hour before dinner and I was excited to see she was uber positive and so nice. She is three months pregnant and gets to wear the cute prego uniforms to class, plus she is french so I can practice my french to my heart's content. This is handy because I made a goal for 2009 to take the forces french exam and get exempt on all the sections so I can add some umph to my personnel file. Everyone that is on this course so far is just wonderful - I am so excited to learn my actual trade and hang out with them all summer!

After dinner a large group of us zipped out to the Body Expo - an exposition where cadavers are show in various stages - muscles exposed, bones, nerves, tendons etc... it was very interesting and slightly weird but the fetus section really hit most of us quite hard.

Now, I'm just getting all my kit ready for tomorrow, the my high heels are laid out and shinned up, the skirt is pressed, my shirt is hanging up complete with rank insignia and name tag, and the sweater has been delinted... I love being in the military!