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!