Friday, August 12, 2005

Top 10 Things That I Learned in Quebec

10) The book stores only have one book in English: The latest Harry Potter release.
9) Pizza Hut calls their Canadian-style pizza Le Quebecoise.
8) Les Cinemas (movie theatres) are somewhat behind the times, apparently because they wait for French-dubbed films. Some theatres did have the latest releases, but I don't know if those had subtitles or dubs.
7) French computer keyboards are hard to use. Y'know how the numeric keys on an English keyboard have a second Shift-character listed above them? The French keyboards have allow for three characters from any one button. I never did find the @ symbol.
6) Small church cemetaries have limited occupancy. People in "Pauper's Graves" get to use a plot for one year before they are dug up and moved to a new location and the space is reused. Others have a much longer time span that is still limited at some point.
5) Gas in much more expensive in Quebec compared to Ontario. Tha elevated taxes have something to do with it, but it's around 10 cents more per litre.
4) Everybody is somehow related to everybody in the small farming towns that dot the province.
3) The Appalacian mountains are cool but they can be a little scary to drive sometimes, like going over the top of a coaster.
2) My great (great-great...) grandfather was a French soldier in the 1700's that was given an enormous plot of land, an axe and a saw in lieu of returning to France. And that's how the Boutin part of my family started life here. (Boutin is my grandmother's maiden name.)
1) French people in Ontario corect the French of non-French people. French people in Quebec correct the French of Ontario people. French people in France correct the French of Quebec people. And we wonder why people think that the French are snobs.

1 comment:

Jamie A. Grant said...

Well, I guess that makes you a snob, Jevant. Heh.