June 27

Monday, June 24, was “Quebec Day.” We didn’t have class, so that morning we went back to one of the waterfalls we had already been to. 

This time we got as close as we could to the falls! This is a totally dorky picture, but it was the only one we got from that close!

Afterward, I had just sat down to study when Marie came in the door and asked if I wanted to go to the “island” and pick strawberries. How could I resist? She took me to a big island inside of Quebec City and we handpicked a basket of fresh strawberries. J

Then she took me on a tour around the entire island. We stopped to climb a tall tower that overlooked these gorgeous fields, which made me really miss home! This island has many homes on it, but it is also filled with fields of crops, fruit, and COWS! Who would think that after being gone for only a month I would miss things like this?

For all of those people who say there is nothing to look at in the MidWest, they obviously haven’t really opened their eyes while passing through! Call me crazy, but I honestly think that a field full of wheat has all the beauty in it that a river does. So needless to say, I was more excited to see the fields than to see a horizon full of mountains and other small islands. J

Moving on to QC cuisine…

Who’s up for some Chinese fondue? We’ve got lots of different meats to chose from: rabbit, “red” deer, lamb, and horse!

And if you’re still hungry after the fondue, you can just grill up one of these lamb-burgers. ;)

For real, though. We found these at a grocery store the other day. (I just hope Marie hasn’t snuck some horse into our dinners!)

And here’s a taste of the traffic we encounter almost daily. Three people trying to get in the same lane at the same time? No problem! While this is nothing compared to the traffic we found ourselves in two years ago in Port-au-Prince, it is still surprising that this happens as often as it does in a civilized country that actually has paved roads and stoplights. 

In order to save money on gas and parking we have been riding our bikes to schools a few days a week. It has been way too cold, rainy, or windy to ride every day, though! The day we took this photo was right after a big rain.

This past week we’ve kind of hit a rut with our school. We are trying to be patient, but new students are continually being added to our class, which really puts a hold on our learning. This week has been the worse; two new students who are very far behind our class level joined us. That meant that our class had to backtrack really far just to try to catch these students up. Things haven’t really progressed, so we are working on switching classes completely so that we can learn at a faster pace.

Long before we arrived in QC, Ryan was asked if he would speak at a church while we were here. So tomorrow (Friday the 28^th), Ryan has to speak in French on the Beatitudes! Just kidding. But really, he is speaking there (in English) tomorrow evening. More on that subject later. J

Not a whole lot has been happening here the past week. The house has been full of people since the weekend, we’ve celebrated Mathias’ 10^th birthday, and we’re wearing jeans and sweaters again because it has been really cold and windy here! Oh – and the Drahotas surprised us on Monday during our weekly Skype date - we got to see the Geyer family! That was a nice surprise. J

If you have a moment and would like to pray for us, we could definitely use some prayers for patience. Our classes in general have been pretty slow lately, but even outside of class we feel like we are running out of words to memorize and things to study on our own. It’s easy to forget that learning a language isn’t going to happen in a week! But of course that doesn’t stop us from wishing that the French language would magically pop into our heads and stay there. J

There are a few other more demanding things that you can pray about, too. 

(The Fisher Family)

I mentioned Sage Fisher in a post the other week. She is back in NE for recovery, which could take a while – but her MRI’s have shown that she is 100% tumor free! What a blessing it is for this family to hear such great news. You can pray for her recovery, as well as well-needed prayers for her family in general.

Lastly, if you have a few minutes, take some time to read this article on Stacy’s blog and send some prayers for Ezechiel -  an inspiring, God-loving man that is in a really tough situation.  http://mshaiti.blogspot.ca/2013/06/not-afraid.html. 

What a Day..

Well this has been yet another eventful week. I hardly remember what all has happened since Friday!

We spent all of Saturday afternoon with our host family, walking up and down the streets of old Quebec.

I think we could spend the entire summer walking around down there and we would still find new things!

Sunday we got such an overload of the language that by mid-day I think that both of our brains literally hurt from thinking so much. Ryan put it pretty well by saying, “I think that was the first time I have ever had to use my brain as a muscle.” He said that until that day he had never tried to think or understand so hard that it made his head hurt. ;)

We went to a long church service that morning. I couldn’t help but think of what it is going to be like going to 2-3 hour long services each Sunday in Haiti. After a while we will be able to understand the language so we will actually understand what is going on, so I’m not worried about that. However, I cannot even fathom what it will be like to be under a 100-degree tarp completely filled sweaty, joyous, Christ-loving with people. Here in North America many people dread sitting through 1-1.5 hour long services in nice, air-conditioned churches where everyone keeps their distance. Even though I read the Ayar’s blog a lot and “know” what to expect, I am going to be in for one hot, sweaty shock when we get there!

After church, we then spent the afternoon at one of the malls near where we are staying. We met a few new people that go to the university here and who we look forward to getting to know better!  Not only do we hope to build new friendships with them, but by spending time with them we hope to really improve our French! J

Afterward, we went to see the new Superman in theaters. Marie surprised us with the tickets because we had stayed home with the kids a few nights last week while her and Yan went out. It was, um, interesting? To be honest – I had no idea what was going on the entire time. Oh well! Either way, in English or not, I don’t think I’ll be watching that movie again.

Since we got here, we have had a hard time staying on the weekly budget that we made previous to arrival. Little did we know beforehand, we have to pay for hourly parking 5 days a week since our school is in the heart of the downtown. And the parking here is NOT cheap.

So… Yesterday we (or Ryan will say “I”) came up with the brilliant idea of riding bikes to school. Not only is the traffic horrible here, but also paying for parking and gas was costing us upwards of $65 each week, which is over half of the budget we made (which includes money to pay for food!). And on top of that, it would take us anywhere from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours each way, depending on how the traffic was each day.

And those reasons are why we rode our bikes somewhere between 10-15 18 miles today. It was insane. And I am sore. This morning we decided we would take a new route to school because we thought there would be less traffic and that it would be easier to get there. We gave ourselves 50 minutes from the time we left our house to get there. At church on Sunday someone had told us it used to take him 30 minutes to get downtown from where we are living, so we thought that would be plenty of time. Boy, were we wrong!

Not only did we get lost on the way there, which resulted in us finding this (above) cool little garden, but it took us 1.5 hours to get to class! So, inevitably, we were late to class.

Our way back home was even WORSE. We decided to take the route back home that we used to drive. It has a bike trail where you ride right alongside the river, which is really pretty! But after a few miles we basically had to ride our bikes up a cliff. Well.. let me rephrase: We had to walk our bikes up a cliff. J

I thought that once we got to the top of that horrible, treacherous cliff, the hard part would be over. And for the most part it was! But it turns out that the entire rest of the way (which was at least 4-5 miles) was a slight but steady incline.

Ah – it was horrible. And I am sore. And then since we didn’t drive our car today, we left our keys inside the house – which meant we were locked out for 45 minutes until the family arrived! Oh, what a day…

Now to rest for a day or so and see if we are up to doing it all over again. I’d like to think that it will get easier with time, but I have a pretty strong feeling that in two days or so the ride is going to feel even worse since we will really feel the soreness then! And no matter what we will have to face that horrible hill on our way home! 

Oh, boy. This was kind of a pointless entry. Now it's time to study and then get some sleep! To end on the same pointless theme I have going here, I'll leave you something we saw over the weekend that might make you giggle: 

Good Fellowship with Great People

Wow - it’s hard to believe that Ryan and I have been here for almost one month! So much has happened since we arrived.

We had an eventful weekend that consisted of meeting some really great people and had the joy of celebrating Marie Eve and Yan’s 12^th anniversary! Saturday evening we tagged along with our host family and went a BBQ. We found ourselves inside a house FULL of French-speaking children and adults. Talk about a good way to show us just how little French we know! ;) Although the multiple conversations at once in French were quite overwhelming, it was really great to meet a lot our host family’s Christian friends.

There was one conversation that evening that stuck out to me the most while we were talking about evangelizing and missions. The couple that was hosting the BBQ began talking about the mission field of Quebec. They said that even though the province of Quebec has one of the lowest percentages of Christians in the world, no one comes to evangelize here.

Thousands of people (like us) come to Quebec every year to learn the French language and then go to other places in the world for missions. The reality is that more people should be coming to Quebec not only to learn the language, but to move here and proclaim the gospel. What a vast mission field this beautiful place is! While I know that the entire world is sinful (including the US), sadly it is very easy to see the corruption here. We all need to pray for this country and pray that God might open our own hearts, along with others, to bring the Good News to the people in the province of Quebec.

(photo is from Tumblr)

Woah. That was a heavy load. On to a lighter topic: Sunday was a lot of fun, too! Marie spent the afternoon preparing a beautiful dinner to celebrate 12 years of marriage to her husband, Yan! She made an entire “fondue” meal, which I did not even know existed. I wish I had taken a photo of it! We had shrimp, salmon, and a beef-with-cheese-cubes-thingy, and we cooked them ourselves right there on the table. It was quite the experience! And along with the lovely meal, we had some great fellowship. Two other girls, Ashley and Jesse, joined us who were staying here for the week (one of which had previously stayed with them like we are).

After dinner, we finished the meal with some chocolate fondue and fruit! Yum.  Then I spent the evening with Marie and the two other girls, talking about life and gawking over girly things like weddings! That led Marie to showing us her wedding dress. Of course we bribed her into putting it on and giving Yan a view of his bride in the same exact dress that she wore 12 years ago on the day they married. Awww. What a beautiful lady and an amazing couple! We couldn’t be more blessed to have been welcomed into such a loving home.

The earlier part of this week was filled with school and study. I think I have watched the movie “Tangled” – or as they call it, Repunz - with Marianne at least 4 or 5 times since Sunday. She is such an adorable girl! Although we have a really hard time understanding the kids, luckily the language barrier doesn’t stop us from spending time with them – even if that does mean I have to watch the same movie in French over and over again. J

Today was Marie’s birthday, so her parents flew in to take her out to dinner. It was really great to see her parents again because the last time they were here we could barely form a sentence in French! We spent a good hour conversing with them and it was great to see how far we have come since we arrived. The kids stayed here while they went out to eat, and you guessed it: we watched Tangled 1.5 times tonight! We learned what the hardest part about our language barrier with the kids is… Trying to put them to bed! That is not such an easy thing to do.

This coming Sunday will mark 4 weeks since we arrived. I feel like we’ve already learned a lot, but there is so, so, so much more to fit into our little brains! I hope that we can make the most out of our short time here and I pray that we will learn much more French while we are here. It is such a small amount of time to learn so much!

One last note.. A beautiful little girl named Sage Fisher from my hometown, Pawnee City, just turned four earlier this week. Last week, the Fisher family found out that their little girl has a big tumor on her brain that has been affecting her for a while now. A few days ago they found out that there was a second, smaller tumor. They traveled to the Mayo clinic and – thank the Lord - today she had an operation that removed up to 80% of the larger tumor and they may have gotten all or at least most of the smaller one. They will find out more within the next day or so after a follow-up MRI.

This is such a beloved family in the Pawnee City. Their lives have literally been turned upside down within a week. However, the community has not fallen short of their role in supporting Sage and her family while they go through this difficult, terrifying time in their lives. Please say some prayers for this sweet little girl and her family. If you want to keep informed about Sage’s progress, you can join the Facebook group that was made in support of her: https://www.facebook.com/groups/319877008143755/

Feel free to share this link with your friends and family, because the Fisher family can use as many prayers as possible!

Much love!

Week 2 in QC

I realize that by posting all of these beautiful photos on our blog, we look like total tourists (which in a sense, I suppose we are). I definitely take after my mom in the sense that I always have a camera on me - whether it’s a real one or just my phone. I am that person who is constantly stopping at every corner to take a picture of the scenery. I am thankful that even though I know I annoy Ryan at times, he is pretty patient with me!

But really - I just cannot believe how many amazing places there are just waiting to be discovered here. Quebec City is definitely a city for tourists; not only do you get to experience seeing the old, beautiful downtown city streets - but you can also view so many beautiful/natural/purely God-created places. We are so incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to spend the entire summer here!

Aside from taking a break every few days to get some exercise and see the sights of the city, we spend right around 50 hours a week (give or take a little) in and out of class studying our butts off! By the photos that I post, it probably looks like we are only here for vacation. However, we are taking this French-learning business very seriously!

After two weeks of being here, we have already learned so much about the language! By no means are we very good at speaking French yet, but considering the fact that we came to Quebec with absolutely no French language experience I think we are doing pretty well. It also helps that we try to devote 3-5 hours each day after school to studying. We sincerely hope that we will leave Quebec in the advanced level of French.

Anyway – here are some pretty pictures that don’t even come close to capturing the actual beauty that surrounds us here:

 Yan took us and the kids (MaryAnn and Mathias) took us on a walk this evening at "Le parc des Chutes-de-la-Chaudiére."

 When he asked us to go on a walk, we thought he meant a walk around the block! But instead we hopped in the car and I was so excited to find out where he was taking us.

 Apparently this is one of the many small waterfalls in Quebec! I really enjoy going to these places; it is almost surreal that you can find such beauty right inside a huge city like this!

 We walked from one side of the waterfall to the next, which involved going up and down a lot of stairs, crossing a bridge and strolling through the windy paths.

I think I now understand why we have seen very few obese people in this city. The traffic is horrible (so some people are smart enough not to drive) and there are so many places to go in which you can only travel by foot. The average person seems to get a lot more exercise here than in the US - or at least in the Midwest where we are from. ;)

Above is a photo of Mathias, Yan and MaryAnn crossing the bridge.

Ryan found out today what my kryptonite is: bridges! I am up for sailing across the ocean in a rinky-dink boat, bungee jumping off a bridge, and jumping out of a perfectly good plane - but I do NOT like crossing bridges! 

I get a major case of the hee-bee-jee-bee's every time I cross over one. Especially ones like the one we crossed today. You know what I mean - the ones that span over water and are only held up by two little poles on each side of the river. Seriously - HOW ON EARTH DO THOSE POLES HOLD THE BRIDGE UP?! The entire bridge sways back and forth as you walk across it and there is absolutely nothing you can do if it decides to collapse on you. Ahhhh - call me a weirdo, but I cannot walk over one of those suckers without getting some extreme butterflies in my tummy.

And last but not least, the above photo is just to give you a taste of what the traffic is like here. Today marks two days in a row that it literally took us 60 minutes to drive 6 miles. Ah!

Au revoir, mes amis!