Holiday in Quebec City
I can't believe I still forgot to upload the pictures to
my photo album. That will have to wait until Friday.
Tuesday, I chose to take off to Quebec so that I can have a few days to deal with a few administrative issues. To name one, to make sure I get hired by a Quebec City school. Namely QHS.
Anyway, I spent a good brisk bus trip to the "capitale nationale" with surprisingly relatively few people on the bus. Figures, everyone's already gone on their trips or something. It'll be messier to get back though. I forgot to take my McGill student card, so that when it was time to pay, Jorgh had to use his card. I had no problem boarding in Montreal, but one wonders if they will ever check, and if they do will they check in Quebec...?
The weather is pleasant and gentle. No winds, no clouds from as far as the eye can see (except that wispy one outside my window) and very snowy. Just lovely! But it translates to messiness, as you will note later.
My mother picked me up at the bus station admittedly half an hour after I arrived because the bus just got here so darn fast. I had spent that half hour staring at slutty bar patrons and crazy old men who can't seem to read. ("Oui, la porte numero 6 is at the bout of the terminus.")
I was treated to a huge supper of steak (!!!) and more steak (!!!) with tomato and beef (!!!) and the usual (ie. rice (!!!)).
My mother informed me that something weird happened to the pipes in the basement neighbour's place or someone, and the carpet next to the stairs in the basement was soaked through. It had been like that since yesterday, she added. She kept forgetting to call the landlord, so I kept reminding her all evening to do so. The landlord scheduled to visit today, which he did...
My brother had a show last evening performing somewhere in Limoilou, so he insisted having the car that evening. This put a damper in my plan, because mum and I were supposed to visit the mutual funds guy to settle the crazy lump sum that I mistakenly stuck into a term deposit at the crap-as-wannabe bank Desjardins. But the mutual funds guy got wind that it was a significant lump sum that would be invested...
That evening around 7 pm, the investor came by our home and we chatted for about an hour. He seemed pretty friendly but shady at the same time. Even when I was trying to tell him that I was more conservative in investing, he checked off that I was a "moderate" level risk. This is pretty significant, because the conservative low-risk investor makes sure the principal is always guaranteed, while the moderate-risk investor doesn't mind a small loss compensating for a bigger potential gain.
Anyway, I have to go to the bank Thursday to get my freaking money out of the stupid term deposit and into that freaking mutual fund.
Today, I had a plan. I was supposed to get up early, make bacon and eggs and toast and other things requiring cooking, and then wait until the landlord was to come and check out the basement. Then I would take a hot shower, print out my revised CV, and go out to visit QHS.
Instead, I woke up to the landlord shouting across the apartment saying no one was home and he wanted to check the apartment. He had walked himself downstairs and was checking out the floor, all squishy and such. But in complete darkness...
Indeed, I tried to turn on the lights but no response... that was when I realized the
FREAKING HYDRO TRUCKS FOLLOWED ME HOME and cut off all the power to the building.
So the landlord came back and forth, with the guys from Qualinet to verify what was to be done. I, on the other hand, had nothing to do because it was freaking cold, there was no hot water, I couldn't watch TV or go on the internet, and I couldn't go outside without eating. I resorted to eating an orange and yogurt but I really wanted something hot because it was
freaking cold in the morning.
The Hydro trucks were cutting one of the wires across from the street to our back yard, and cut off the next building's wire as well. There seemed to be some ice damage on the wires they cut, so I figured they were just replacing them. Nevertheless, it took until 11 a.m. for them to put the power back on. Finally, I printed out my cv, bustled around, and then ran out to catch a bus at 11:50.
I was hoping to get to QHS for about 12:30 or so, but I forgot to take my transfer when I got on the bus, so when I got off the bus I was stuck at Universit? Laval. Stupid me. Anyway, I walked the rest of the way to QHS for 40 minutes, but I just missed the bell and everyone was gone off to class at about 1 pm. But walking was a doozy... the roads were wet and full of gigantic puddles, and the cars that "mach"-ed by nearly got me at least three times. By the time I got to school, the back of my pants were covered with mud and slush. Woowee... what a nice impression. At least the front doesn't look too bad... (But I just washed these pants!)
The principal is now Mr Sutherland, who was busy at the time. One of the secretaries recognized me and we chatted briefly. It has been 7 years indeed... I lingered about the school with permission from the office, after dropping off my cv. I walked by the halls a few times, stopping by the teachers' offices. Mr David Benning was standing about and I chatted with him for a while. He informed me that most of the teachers I had were probably gone, and the most senior one about was himself. Good grief! I got to see Mme Couturier who did forget my name but was still pleasant to speak to. I spotted Mr McGillivary who didn't seem to recognize me as he walked by (but this was the same teacher who taught me for about 4 months, about OBEs and other odd things). I also saw Mr Grant, who was my soccer coach in secondary 3 (?) but still remembered me. I also spotted Mr Eames whom I barely recognized without his mustache... but he didn't seem to recognize me neither. I was going to say hello to Mr Glen McLeod, but he was concentrating on helping out his class in the computer room. Anyway, he had lost the ponytail but still looked pretty much the same. It was not until 2 pm that I got to see Mr Scott Cameron, whom I wanted to chat with just to see the status of the science program at school. He was pleased to see me and we chatted a bit more. I was ashamed for not remembering anything about the Quebec Education Plan, because I don't remember anything from my education courses about that since it has been a year since I last took a course in the Education faculty.
Nonetheless, the prospects were overall good, as everyone I encountered was pleased I visited, except for that vice-principal who kept giving me strange looks like he thought I was going to burn the place down or something. I was nonetheless too good in spirits...
I got on the bus to go home and remembered to take my transfer this time. But then I put it away somewhere and I forgot where I put it, so the entire trip back to the university was spent looking for the damn thing. I finally found it at the last minute, much to the dismay of the bemused passengers watching me panic over the slip of paper I had actually pushed into my pants pocket.
The landlord just came by to check the basement *again.* The Qualinet guys brought this fan that would blow on the carpet for two days to dry it off, and they sprayed some antibacterial substance (probably smelly ammonia mix or something of the like). They rescued as much as they could that got soaked, but unfortunately there were some books that got the worst of it. (Picture later.)
I'm hungry.
