Day 39 - Trois Riviéres - Day 16

Today was the big day of the presentations. I think we enjoyed them more than we expected. Instead of 5mins each being agonizing we were so interested in the topics chosen that some people kept talking for 15-20 mins. 

Jenny and Melissa even had some video footage... (click on the links below)

Jenny's first slide

My first slide

Here is the run down of the presos;

• André Mathieu  "le petit mozart canadien" by Cassey
• Maurice Richard "the Rocket" by Barry
• Yvanne Cournoyer  "the road runner" - a Montreal Canadiennes 1960‘s NHL Player by Nee (Lee)
• Henri Bourassa - Political Figure by Elizabet
• André-Philippe Gagnon "l'homme de  deux milles voixs (the man with the six thousand voices) by Melissa
• Le Cirque du Soleil "Guy Laliberté by Jenny
• John Molson  "un vrai entrepreneur du Québec" by Alan
• Alexandre Despatie "le plongeur quebeçois" by Helene
• Dominic Demers - childrens author en franca is by Laura

I have to admit some people were better prepared than others. I have found the miracle of Google translate. I typed in my english preso and cut and pasted my french preso. Then I just had to try and deliver it as smoothy as possible. Not bad, a bit rushed... no questions.

Then there were others who had obviously written their own preso (in French) had practiced it and delivered it with the occasional reference to notes.

Finally there were the professionals who used thier slides simply as cues to talk about the subject. OK, there are some ringers in our class!!!

Overall the subjects were fascinating and all of us agreed, after the initial hand wringing and hair pulling out that it was a great exercise.

Also, I think we got off a little light compared to the A group who are preparing a little concert for us on Thursday. They will be performing a handful of classic french songs for us. And I thought our exercise was outside my comfort zone...!

We are now seriously considering our next two weeks. We are booked into a campground on Saturday and Sunday night at the Valcartier water park (sshh the kids have no idea). It's only the biggest water park in Canada that just opened this year!
We will leave here at 8:00ish Saturday morning, drive the 2hrs to Quebec City and then up to Valcartier Park another 20mins away. We will park the van and trailer and spend the day at the water park. 
When our camp site is available at 3:00pm (check out is at 11:00am - what can take so long? It’s a square of dirt! No vacuuming, laundry, cleaning of washrooms...) no I’m not bitter...Where was I? Oh, yes when we can check in to our square of dirt at 3:00pm we will have a rest before heading into Quebec City on Saturday night for some crêpes and a free Cirque du Soleil show. 
Before you go on about us being cheap, have you any idea how much the shows cost? The nose bleeds are $45 per person. A decent seat is about $60-90 EACH! We are on a budget people! Do I sound stressed?

Maybe because after completing our FANTASTIC presentations Mdme Paradis gave us about 2hrs of homework! The homework is on ‘imparfait’, whatever that is. The only parfait I’m interested in is the ice-cream kind.

If you had seen Jenny’s preso today you would know that this Cirque du Soleil has been paid for by the City of Quebec at a whopping $35M for a five year contract! And we get to see it for free!! So it’s under an overpass. Try saying that in French!

So that will be awesome. We will spend Sunday at the waterpark too and then Monday we hit the road. We will put in a long day and try for New Brunswick. We plan to spend a week in the Maritimes before pointing the van West again and starting our trek back.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We have a fund day tomorrow. We are going to the Cabana Sucre (the sugar hut) where maple syrup is harvested from the maple trees. Apparently it’s a blast. I will take lots of photos.