Day 5 and last one: Québec-Montréal

By Yvan and Bobby

We left the hotel early in the morning and went to a restaurant specializing in Brittany-style crêpes for breakfast. All of the choices involved standard breakfast foods like eggs and bacon, except one: the apple crêpe. After the breakfast, we traveled to a local supermarket and embarked on a scavenger hunt or “chasse au trésor.” In three teams of three, we raced to find certain food items used in common Québecois idioms and expressions. For example, someone who is “une bonne poire (a good pear)” is someone who is usually exploited for being gullible, a situation that is “tomber en compote (falling into applesauce)” is getting worse and worse, and a moody person is “soupe au laît” or milk soup. Following the hunt, we took a long ride in our “moach” from Québec to Montréal and decorated a Québecois flag with expressions and words we learned during our trip, like “c'est malade,” “mué pis tué,” and “avoir du fun en masse.”

We proceeded to go to a unique fast-food restaurant called Gibeau Orange Julep. Shaped like a giant orange, the restaurant is a famous Montréal favorite, specializing in its orange juice concocted using their secret formula. While eating our lunch on the bus, we took a quick bus tour around Montréal. First, we drove to Mont Royal (“royal mountain”), the mountain around which Montréal is centered, and we stopped at a vista point, allowing us to take a plethora of beautiful, scenic photos. After that, we topped off our tour by driving past other landmarks and important sites, such as a large statue dedicated to the founder of Montréal and an art museum. Finally, we arrived at the airport and said our final goodbyes and thank you's to Melanie, our guide, and Jean, our “moach master.”

All in all, we all thoroughly enjoyed the trip, with our favorites being playing in the snow, curling, and tubing. We all learned a lot, and had lots of fun!

From Mesdames Tchourilova and Pommier: 10:30pm, curfew time! We had a smooth flight home and were happy to leave 9 wonderful, curious, enthusiastic Harker Eagles with their parents for a restful night and relaxing Presidents' Day.

Day 4: Valcartier - Last Parade of the Quebec Carnaval

By Alexa and Anna

Today we went to the ice hotel and a tubing resort. While having a guided tour of the ice hotel, we learned that although the price to stay at it was already really expensive, the cost to build and demolish was just as unbelievable. Because all the thousands of tons of ice melt into water in the summer season, the company needs to take chunks out of the walls and ship it to an ice reserve or snow dump. Now I see that the starting price of 750$ per night is reasonable. Ice furniture needs to be frozen from the inside out, while the water is moving around, so the bubbles escape and form a glass-like solid. Then, the ice is finished with a blowtorch for a sleek and shiny surface. The cost of the hotel also comes with a spa session to bring up the body temperature before the cold night in the ice. There was also an ice bar in the largest room of the hotel where drinks were put in the signature ice cups. Although the idea of drinking from cups is exciting, it looks cool, but isn’t practical. The cup was really thick and didn’t hold much liquid. Along with that, your lips are stuck against a block of ice and go numb after a while. Yet I do not regret buying it.

Tubing is just like skiing, except you are going down the slopes on a tube. It was something new for almost all of us. The heavier your group is, the faster you slide down the slope. It was extremely fun, but you don’t get as much adrenaline as in a roller coaster. The angle of the slopes are pretty steep, but not long. I wanted the speed of the tube to go on for a bit longer. Just as I was getting used to the scary feeling of falling, it slowed down. The different slopes were very fun to try, but the exhilaration on the slopes only lasts for so long. Tubing, "c'est malade"! (It's really cool!).

After a long day of tubing, we came back to the hotel for an hour and a half to rest. After, we left the hotel and went to the winter carnival again. We looked around for a while for places to eat and finally found a place we agreed on. There were a lot of options but most of us agreed on getting the Quebec burger. We enjoyed a local band that was playing.

After, we ate we walked onto the busy streets. When we got to the parade, it had just started. We couldn’t really see at first because of how crowded it was. After numerous attempts of trying to find a place to stand and see all the floats go by, we finally found a place behind a fence up in some 3 foot deep snow where we all stayed and watched the parade. We all took many pictures but it was super cold and our hands froze. When the parade ended with fireworks, there was all these people flowing out. We had another snowfall fight again before getting on the moach to finish out the night and pack our suitcases.

Day 3: Ste Anne de Beaupré with more snow!

Day 3: Ste Anne de Beaupré with more snow!

By Anzhelina and Shika

We made drawings out of copper, then went to a church - Ste Anne de Beaupré - where many pieces of art were made from the place where we embossed copper.

After that we ate our first poutine at a local restaurant. Then we learned about several different Quebec legends at a wood workshop, three of which were depicted on a beautiful mural. On our way to a waterfall - Chutes de Montmorency -, we reenacted one of the legends. Afterward, we stopped by "Chez Marie", where we tasted some delicious maple butter sandwiches. Then, we got to dog sled! It was really fun, especially being able to pet the dogs. At the sugar shack - L'Érablière -, we enjoyed really good traditional food, all of which with maple syrup, which was unusual to my stomach. Finally, we learned how maple syrup is made, and rolled hot maple Taffy on the fresh snow. Overall, it was a fun and eventful day.

Day 2: Old Town - Curling - Carnaval - Huron Wendake

By Isabelle and Austin

We started our day with breakfast at the hotel. After that, we took a bus tour of Québec City. Our tour guide, Richard, talked about many of the town’s landmarks, including the Notre-Dame Des Victoires, the oldest church in the city; the St. Lawrence River; Rue Saint-Pierre (a.k.a “little Wall Street”); the Plains of Abraham; and the Place of Arms. Richard told us some of the history of each landmark, including famous battles fought at the Plains of Abraham. After the tour, we had an hour of free time. One group went to a nearby bakery and did some shopping for souvenirs, and the other one had lunch at a fancy restaurant.

Afterward, we met at one of the gates in the wall surrounding the old town, and then boarded the moach to go to a curling lesson. At first, it was really confusing, but it was also interesting. We had a lot of fun trying to slide the stones towards the target and our two teams finished tied.

After we finished curling, we took the moach to the Winter Carnival. There, we explored the ice castle, met with Bonhomme Carnaval, built towers with ice cubes, played many more games.

We then visited a Native American reservation of the Huron Wendake. Our guide, Brian, taught us about many elements of the Huron culture, like the different types of shaman masks. We finished our day with dinner at the reserve, which was delicious. Right before leaving, we learned about the Huron creation myth and watched a performance by Huron dancers. For the last dance, they had us join in, and we danced out of the room!

PS: The internet connection is very poor, so we can hardly upload photos and will create a Google folder tomorrow with many more pictures. Time to go to bed!

Day 1: San Francisco-Montréal-Québec

By Tina

We started our journey to Quebec by meeting at SFO at 5:30 AM in the morning. We ate breakfast together at a Vietnamese eatery, which was a good ice breaker, and it allowed us to get more comfortable around each other. Although we pledged that we would sleep on the plane, we ended up watching movies the whole time except for Bobby. Afterward, we met our guide Melanie who drove us to dinner on a “moach” because it was a short name for a Motor Coach. On our way, Melanie gave us information about Quebec and told us that the meaning of Quebec in Amerindian language was “when the river narrows down.” This river is called the Saint Laurent river which narrows down in Quebec. When we arrived at the restaurant, we ordered pizza and spaghetti because they were the only options, but they were delicious. For the rest of the trip on the moach, we entertained ourselves with mafia, telephone, and two truths and a lie. It was a fun way to get everyone involved in a group activity instead of on our individual phones. Melanie even played with us and incorporated Québécois words to help us learn new words like "tiguidou" that means OK. We arrived at our hotel at 10:15 PM and we are looking forward to our next day of fun events.

6:30am at the gate: ready for the big adventure!

Harker to Quebec 2019!

Dear Families,

Welcome to our Harker to Quebec blog! Students will be blogging daily and the chaperones will do their best to upload their photos and writings daily. This is going to be a fun adventure!
Enjoy!