Québec City Excursion

On Friday the 16th, we left for Québec City. It took about 2 and a half hours to get there, but the drive was really cool. On both sides of the road it was nothing but pine forest and lots of lakes. There were also mountains everywhere, and very few houses. When we arrived in Québec, we left our bags in our rooms at the University of Laval and went to the Museum of the Civilization. I was actually somewhat disappointed by this museum. You could tell that a lot of money had gone in to the displays, but they were all on really stupid things. For instance, there were displays on sand, blood, and the color blue throughout history. I was expecting more of a historic view of Québec, but instead saw really artsy, pointless stuff. After that, we walked around Old Québec some. I really liked the old section of the city, since there were lots of really old buildings, churches, and even the old walls of the city. We also saw a lot of really neat street performers, such as a guy juggling machetes while riding a ten foot unicycle. After that, we ate dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and went back to the university. The next day began with the Citadel, which is the military base located on the highest point in Québec. While there, we got to see the changing of the guard, and tour some of the buildings. There was a really great view from the walls of the Citadel where you could see the St. Lawrence river and most of the city. After lunch, I took a tour of the Chateau Frontenac, which is an enormous luxury hotel overlooking the St. Lawrence and Vieux Québec. I had hoped that we would get to go up into some of the tall towers of the hotel, but we ended up only getting to see a very small portion of it. That was the end of our Quebec trip. I enjoyed the city, but there wasnt as much to do there as there was in Montréal. I have noticed that my French has been improving. I think it is improving the fastest with vocabulary, because we arent doing much grammar in our classes. I am also more able to understand people and carry on conversations.