The Arrival

14 June 2011

I can’t tell you much yet about Montreal or Canada, but I can say a lot about the Portelance-Lavoie family and how fantastic they are. Upon a somewhat shaky arrival in Canada, I was greeted with smiles, hugs, and gifts. They’ve told me over and over again to make myself at home and to tell them if I need anything. Just as important as taking care of the kids is that I be happy. I guess part of this making me happy bit includes giving me a Blackberry, bike, and fully stocked cabinet of Yves Rocher products in my own bathroom. I bet I’m going to have to try really hard to be happy.

I haven’t had much trouble with language so far. At the airport, I spoke in English for the most part because that it was I was addressed in. We had a fairly long car ride in which I was extremely aware of how dry my mouth was and how dreary Montreal looked. I tried to make it look like I was impressed with the little bit of we were driving through for their sake, but it was a rainy, miserable day (and I was not impressed). Guylaine had apparently instructed the kids to not sink into their Canadian accent too much, to enunciate, and to speak very slowly. As such, I understood a lot of what was said to me and could give decent responses, but when they would rapidly speak to each other, I couldn’t make out much. The Canadian accent is much more nasally than the French I’m familiar with and the Canadians like to use more ‘contractions’, which makes the language a lot uglier in my mind (e.g. something like pt instead of petit, which made it extremely hard for me to order a pizza convincingly at lunch). I’ve also noticed an odd contradiction between being the “protecteur de la langue” that they claim to be and letting English slip in. Fabrice and Ophélie say things I never heard in France like “Oh my god” and “cool” but at the same time the stop signs here actually say “arrêt” (they said stop in France), the license plates say “je me souviens” (I remember, referring to their French history), and the Quebecois are generally known for their refusal to borrow English words.

So let me tell you a little bit more about my family and new home. Richard and Guylaine are the names of the parents. They are both pretty fluent in English and work in marketing (Guylaine for a pharmaceutical company and Richard for a printing company). Guylaine is the most kind-hearted person. She has provided me with so much and is incredibly easy to talk to. She adores her children and they adore her, and it is easy to see why. Richard is a very smart man and good cook. My first night here he cooked a fabulous meal of soup, duck, green beans, and potatoes. And of course, wine and bread flowed steadily throughout the meal. Richard and Guylaine and I spoke about languages, cultures, and even a little bit of politics. Richard was telling me about some of the perks of a socialized government (healthcare, education, banking regulations, recession-free), so I said maybe the United States should learn a little from Canada. He just stuck his hand out and shook his head, “No, no! No country is called perfect.” I think I’m going to enjoy more of these conversations.

Fabrice and Ophélie, my ‘charges,’ are 9 year old twins. Fabrice is very smart and a huge joker. He likes to do funny dances, tell jokes, and do impressions. He says random stuff like “C’est ma visage” (this is my face) while holding a weird picture in front of his face or “Je suis un raton-laveur!” (I’m a raccoon!) while contorting his face to look somewhat rodent-like. I suppose he reminds me a little of me when I am in my weirdest moods. Ophélie is so sweet and caring. She watches me carefully to make sure it looks like I am having fun or that I’m not too confused. She speaks to me very slowly and asks if I understand things. She has already taken a liking to me I think because she has shown me her dance recital video twice already and always wants to sit by me at dinner. The first day I arrived, I spent a lot of time with the kids. They played music for me (piano and guitar) and then we played some Wii, a game that was the Toronto winter Olympics and it was hilarious to hear the announcer say names like Bowswer Jr. and Yoshi with a French Canadian accent. Next we went next door to Ophélie’s best friend Eva’s house to fetch her and play outside. We played on the playground and played some hide and seek (called 1, 2, 3, 4 Me in Canada), but it was pretty muddy. In a heated race to base, Fabrice fell and skinned his knee so we went home to clean it up. This whole time I was pretty worn out from the early morning and the traveling, but the kids had other plans for me. We continued to play a card game kind of like War and the most fun game of Twister I have ever played, to do a puzzle, and to play some soccer. All of this playing confirmed what I already kind of knew, that these kids were wonderful and that I was going to have a great time. And that the phrase “zut alors” (something like a silly, outdated version of darn) is hilarious to all French-speaking people.

Dinner came and went and we were all happy with the food and each other’s company. Eva’s parents came to pick her up, so I got to meet them and I think Guylaine and Richard were happy to see me interact with them so well (I told a good anecdote about my dad’s work) because they had told me they had plans for me to meet a lot of people.

My second day, Monday, was long and lonely because everyone was at work and school, but it was nice to have a day of recuperation and exploration of the house. I am living in a large, modern house in a town 20 minutes outside of Montreal called Longueuil. Where I am is like a housing development, but there is a nice downtown area that I was pleasantly surprised by. The house has some interesting eccentricities that I’m not sure are common to Canada or not, but they include a refrigerator that must be 6 feet tall and seems more like a bank vault than a fridge, a third drawer in the dish washer exclusively for laying out the silverware, and the world’s smallest water glasses. I don’t drink much, but during dinner I had to refill my glass at least three times. I don’t know how these people stay hydrated.

When Richard returned we went to pick up the kids from their after school program. They go to a private school (not Catholic though) that has a swimming pool and lots of good programs for the arts and sports. The kids (there had to be a least 50 of them) were all playing in two giant courtyards and I was surprised that we could just walk in and take the kids without talking to anyone or signing anything. We had a quick dinner (soup and lasagna) and then went to Ophélie’s soccer game, which was a fun practice in vocabulary building. They lost, but I think that is the norm for them as they are more orientated on having fun as Richard explained. I helped the kids with their English homework, which was very difficult actually because I wanted to be able to explain more about why we do this or that but couldn’t find the words to do so. Hopefully I get better at this as we go along. Richard and Fabrice watched the Stanley Cup finals while Ophélie and I did another puzzle. Guylaine has been in Québec City for work. I am now about to go to the city to see the charming, old part that is supposed to be beautiful. I hope it doesn’t disappoint (and that I don’t get lost!)

Gros bisous,

Meredit (that’s how they pronounce my name her and I have to stop myself from smiling each time)