My mom, her friend Dawn, and I left Massachusetts around five o'clock Saturday evening. We arrived in Quebec around one or two o'clock Sunday morning and checked into the Travelodge. The decor of the lobby in the Quebec Travelodge has a very funky decor: bright colors, water running behind glass walls and neon lighting. There's a restaurant called Cafe Jules Verne which was where we had breakfast before heading over to the University of Laval.
After checking into my dorm room at Laval and unpacked my things, we went and explored the campus. Our first stop was the Pavillion Desjardins, where there is a cafeteria and a convenience store where you can buy bus tickets. Next we looked for the Pavillion Charles de Koninck, where I have classes. At Pavillion Charles de Koninck, we met a boy named Jordan, who is from Newfoundland. Jordan joined us for lunch at the cafeteria in Desjardins, then to a nearby supermarket called Supermarché Métro, where we bought groceries for the week.
Mom offered to bring Jordan along with us when we went into Old Town Quebec. We walked down to the lower part of the city via a series of staircases. Quebec is more like a European city than anything we usually see in North America with its narrow, winding, cobblestone streets. One of the streets is canopied by a number of brightly colored umbrellas.

Mom wanted to find a church called Notre Dame des Victoires which translates to "Our Lady of Victories": the name of the parish church in her hometown of Sayreville, New Jersey. Unfortunately, the church was closed so we could not go inside. On our way back up, we stopped for drinks at the Pub des Borgias; I had a rum and coke.

The day ended with window shopping at the stores near Chateau Frontenac Hotel. Across from the hotel is a street filled with booths for portrait artists. I've always wanted to have my portrait done, so I decided to come back when I had more time.

I had classes until 11:30 on Monday morning. Then at one o'clock, I went on a tour of the campus and saw its very impressive athletic complex. At 3:30 pm, there was an orientation meeting, then I was free.
I took the bus into Old Town Quebec, intending to return to Chateau Frontenac and have my portrait drawn. Following the directions given by my Google Maps app, I got off the bus at Parliament Hill and looked around for the Gare Fluviale stop, where I was supposed to get on another bus which would take me the rest of the way to Chateau Frontenac. But I could not find the Gare Fluviale, so I wound up on a magical mystery tour through Quebec as I looked for my destination. The Summer Festival was going on this week, so there were a lot of people downtown Monday evening. Some big name groups such as The Foo Fighters, The Chainsmokers, Machine Gun Kelly, Beck, Lorde, Cyndi Lauper, and the Dave Mathews Band were on the lineup.
I met up with Dawn and my mom in front of a restaurant called Bistro 1640. Today was the day I finally had my portrait done. I sat for one of the street artists, who captured my likeness in sepia colored pastels. The drawing was well done but, unfortunately, it looked like me.

The three of us had dinner at Bistro 1640. The bread was served with pâté; I had never had pâté but it was delicious. For my main course, I had a chicken caesar salad which was served in a very unique way: on a piece of slate with whole heads of lettuce and chicken thighs. Dessert consisted of maple sugar creme brulée which was fantastic. Monday was Dawn and my mom's last night in Quebec, so I said goodbye to them when the dropped me off at Laval.
My classes were over at noon on Tuesday and then I had to go to the registrar's office to get my student I.D. I spent the rest of the day at the Musée de la Civilization. My trip there went fairly smoothly until the bus drove past the stop where I was supposed to get off. After the bus dropped me off, I used my phone to find another way to get where I wanted to go. I had originally intended to go to the Musée du Fort but when I looked it up, I found that it was closed, so I decided to go to the Musée de la Civilization, using my phone to help me find the way.
Musée de la Civilization has exhibits which chronicle the history of Quebec. This region is fascinating. Both European and North America, Anglophone and Francophone, and completely unique. I saw artifacts belonging to the native peoples who lived here thousands of years before European settlers arrived, the belongings those settlers brought with them and imported from Europe when things became more civilized, and items which exemplify Quebec culture, ranging from the 17th century to the present. The territory of what is now Canada was first explored by Samuel de Champlain, who founded the city of Quebec, and immigrants from France settled the area. It was ruled by France until the Seven Years War when the British took it over. The province of Quebec has always stood out among the British Empire, being Francophone as opposed to Anglophone and Catholic as opposed to Protestant. The Catholic Church played a big role in the founding of Quebec and in the formation of its culture and the collection of the Musée de la Civilization has plenty of Catholic iconography and paraphernalia. Laval University, where I am studying, is named after Monseigneur François de Laval who was the first bishop of Quebec and was made a saint.
I have always been obsessed with porcelain and period clothing and the museum's collection is lousy with them.

The battery on my phone was running low at the time, so I missed many opportunities to take pictures of the pieces I liked. There is so much that trying to take it all in was a bit overwhelming.
There was a special exhibit called "Ici Londres" or "London's Calling." I downloaded an audio guide on my phone which was narrated by a personification of the city of London, who for some reason had a Quebecois accent. Each section of the exhibit is meant to represent a different area of London which is also a fascinating place with a vibrant and fascinating art scene: a blend of tradition and the avant-garde, of capitalism and anarchy. "Ici Londres" is a celebration of the art, music, and fashion which put London on the map: from 1960s mods, the Beatles, and Mary Quant to 1970s punks, the Sex Pistols, and Vivienne Westwood, to 1980s new romantics and new wavers, David Bowie, and Body Map. I've always been an Anglophile and obsessed with music, fashion, and art, so I enjoyed this exhibit. The section of London I was most excited to see was Abbey Road which was dedicated to the Beatles, who made Abbey Road Studios famous.

I left the museum around 4:30 pm and took a taxi back to Laval and had an early night.

After our classes on Wednesday, we had a mandatory excursion to Vieux-Québec. We left campus at 1:30pm. Our first stop was at the Assemblé Nationale de Québec and the Fontaine de Tourny across the street from it.

We then walk through the old city fortifications and towards Chateau Frontenac.

Behind Chateau Frontenac is a boardwalk which overlooks the St. Lawrence River.

From there, we walked down the Escalier Frontenac to Le Petit Champlain, the lower part of the city, where Mom, Dawn, Jordan and I went on Sunday.

We walked through Place Royale, where Notre Dame des Victoires is, and back up Rue de la Montagne, a hike which nearly killed me.

Back on top, we looked inside the Cathedral-Basilica de Québec. The cathedral has a crypt, which contains the remains of St. François de Laval, but it was closed, so we were only able to look at the main part of the cathedral.

Jasmine and her family arrived in Quebec on Wednesday and I had been excited to see her. She and I had planned to go out to dinner and then for a swim at her hotel. Later on, she texted me saying that we could not go for a swim because her parents did not want to go out again after swimming. When I got back from my tour of Vieux-Québec, Jasmine sent me another text to tell me that they were too tired from their trip to go out again. So I ordered a pizza and settled down to finish watching season two of Thirteen Reasons Why.

On Thursday, Jasmine and her parents picked me up around noon. I wanted to show her the Musée de la Civilization, so we went there. My reason for returning was to take pictures of items in the collection which I had neglected to photograph on Tuesday. One exhibit tells the history of Quebec in chronological order: I photographed some dresses and hats ranging from the Edwardian era to the 1950s. The other exhibit has items muddled together without any apparent rhyme and reason. It has everything from Victorian wedding dresses and 1940s salon chairs to stuffed buffalos and polar bear cubs. One thing I was surprised to see was a computer like those we had in my elementary school computer lab. I feel much too young to see something from my childhood in a museum. I was able to take photographs of The Belle Inconnue death mask and of the hippy, mod, and new romantic clothing I liked in "Ici Londres."

We left the museum around three o'clock because I had to be back at campus for one of the excursions I had booked: a trip to Cabane de Pierre, a maple farm a couple of hours away from Quebec. We were shown a Cabane à Sucre, a hut where maple syrup is made.

Then we had a meal in the main building which included ham, eggs, sausages, pancakes and shepherd's pie, all drizzled with maple syrup.

A band played music from the traditional Québec music to a song from the film Titanic, to staples of middle school dances like "the Cotton-Eyed Joe," "the Hokey-Pokey" and "the Macarena." I did a little bit of dancing but it quickly tired me out. For dessert, we had maple candy made from maple syrup poured in shaved iced and then wrapped around a popsicle stick, which was delicious. I read about this type of candy in the Little House on the Prairie books and I had always wanted to try it.

We arrived back at Laval University around ten-thirty.

Saturday was my second excursion, which was to Lévis, the city across the St. Lawrence from Quebec. We took a ferry across the river and when we disembarked, I went to an Aux Petits Oignons and bought a ham and cheese sandwich, a bag of chips, and a soda for lunch.

    The first stop on our tour was a former Anglican church, which is now a theater, in Vieux-Lévis. We walked up there via an "escalier" which are becoming the bane of my existence. Our next stop was the house of Alphonse Desjardins, who founded a chain of banks here in Quebec, then we went to a well-known ice-cream parlor and candy store called Chocolat Favoris; I had the dulce de leche which was delicious.

The second part of our trip was to Fort Lévis. We were shown the artillery magazine and our guide demonstrated how to fire a canon. I was part of the demonstration: I used the brush that cleans out the canon before it is loaded.

Finally, we went to the Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, a waterfall outside of Lévis. We walked across a suspension bridge to the other side of the falls. The Chutes-de-la-Chaudière are beautiful and I would recommend going to see them. I would also recommend going to a Chocolat Favoris but Lévis is nothing special.

So far, my trip to Quebec has been tons of fun.