Explore Day 9

Shameless selfie: New dress for the wedding

Day 9. One week, two weekends. Sometimes it feels like I’ve been here forever, other times it seems like I just got here.

The second half of this week has been far better than the first half. While certain things haven’t changed—such as my prof’s opinion of me—other aspects of life here have definitely improved. For instance, a bunch of my tea-making friends and I have decided that we’re gonna start cooking together, and sometimes making big dinners with cuisine from different cultures. Is it sad that I’m most excited that a girl from Nova Scotia is planning on making lobster?

Explore kids by this gorgeous lake before the ropes course

Student life here has been great over the past few days, as I’ve participated in some fun activities and made a bunch of new friends. I’ve been shopping (there’s a great mall right next to Laval), had lunch in Old Quebec, and spent the day at a ropes course in Duchesnay. The ropes course was great fun, even though I stupidly decided to take the ‘extreme’ lap. Apparently my friend and I were the only girls who did the extreme section, and my muscles are definitely paying for it today!

Birthday party bonfire

Off-campus, I’ve been getting more involved with the church community. On Friday night I went to a wedding, Saturday night to a birthday party, and two church services today. It’s been lovely getting to know some of the people in the church. Many of them speak English quite well, but I also enjoy talking to the ones who barely know English, because it forces me to speak French. Also, it’s helpful for me to listen to actual Francophones speaking French, since most of the time on campus I just hear Anglophones like me butchering the language… :)  

Throwing rice at the new couple

I think this next week will be a turning point, since I have my first test on Tuesday, and a bunch of other assignments coming up. If I do well on the test, the academic side of life here could improve drastically. Right now, I kind of dread sitting in class for 3-4 hours every morning. Then again, it is just the morning, and I have the rest of the day to enjoy Quebec City.

Tulips along the walk to church

Also, it could really stand to get warmer. I’m ready to ditch the jeans and sweaters in favour of sundresses. But this is Canada, after all…

Quebec City: Day 6

Quebec City. 6 days down, 30 to go.

I’ll admit, it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster. My safe arrival was a miracle in itself, since I managed to navigate Montreal and the closure of my Quebec City exit without any problems. It took a little while, but I eventually found my residence, dragged most of my stuff out of my car, and got settled in.

The most important part of Explore is the French Immersion. The ‘animators’ who run the activities, the professors, and the university admins speak only French—at least to us. Classes are conducted exclusively in French, and all important information is also delivered in French. That means that students who know only a little French (like me) have a pretty steep learning curve for the first few days!

Fortunately, adjusting to speaking French was actually easier than I expected. On Day One of the program I was already having basic conversations with my classmates, and by today (class 4) I was able to have a basically normal conversation. My grammar is horrible, of course, and I’m often scrambling for vocabulary, but I can get my point across.

Being able to speak and understand French is pretty exciting, but the difficulty is that my writing and grammar aren’t as advanced as my oral and comprehension skills. This means that I’m at a distinct disadvantage in my grammar class, especially since the professor thinks that my oral/comprehension skills are as poor as my writing. It’s difficult to succeed in a class where the professor thinks you’re stupid, especially since every time she calls on me for an answer I manage to mess up somehow. At this point, I’m just hoping that the first test (next week already!) goes well, so that I can prove that I actually belong in this level.

The other low point in my week has been adjusting to residence. I’ve never lived in residence before, and I must admit that I’m not really a fan. I dislike going down the hall to the bathroom or showers (although my room does have a sink), and the impersonal feel of the endless hallways is anything but homey. The main problem, though, is my inability to cook. There is a huge kitchen in the basement, but I have no cooking implements, and, most importantly, no fridge. This means that I can’t buy meat, milk, yogurt, vegetables, frozen deserts… anything that needs to be kept cold. My meals, then, are limited to cafeteria/restaurant food, or little fresh-made microwave meals from the grocery store. For someone used to following the sales and cooking healthy meals on just $2 a day, going to the cafeteria every day is painful.

As a pleasant note to end today’s blog: I have bought a kettle. This may seem like such a little thing, but once you’ve had to go down three flights of stairs to microwave water to make tea, having a kettle in your room is a big deal. I also met a bunch of lovely tea-lovers in the kitchen last night, and we’ve decided to enjoy evening tea parties more often. There’s no better way to end the day. :)

That’s all for now! I’ll try to post a little more often and get into the specifics of what’s going on here, rather than just general summary. But now… over to you! Have any of you done an immersion program, and, if so, what was your experience like?

A Little Switcheroo

Once again, I interrupt this blog's regularly scheduled programming of (well) nothing, to bring you an announcement. I intend to start blogging a little more often.

Yes, I've said that before, and it hasn't happened. But this time I actually have something to blog about, rather than simply clogging up your blogger feeds with more posts on  how to 'Show, not Tell' or 'create great characters.' I'm currently at Laval University in Quebec City, (Quebec, Canada) as party of the Explore French Immersion program. This means that I'll be spending five weeks in a French city, speaking nothing but French (supposedly....). 

I realize that my experience learning French doesn't seem to have much to do with writing, so it doesn't quite fit on a blog mainly meant for YA authors. However, the experiences I'm having are so relevant to writers. I'm living in a new culture, being thrown into a new language, and meeting tons of new people. I'm navigating residence life for the first time, and adjusting to being almost completely on my own in a new city.

As writers, we describe characters in extraordinary circumstances. To do that, we have to step out of our comfort zones ourselves, leaving our cozy little writing nooks and getting out into the world. This blog, for the next five weeks, will be the story of a little English major thrown into a world of French. Enjoy! :)

A Double Life

“I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked but really being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.”

                ---- Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

I lead a double life.

This may not seem surprising. After all, what writer doesn’t? Except for those fortunate few who can afford to make writing their careers, we all have to put down our pens (or shut our laptops) and get on with the normal business of working, parenting, or school.

For me, though, even my writing has fractured. Online, most of you know me as part of the YA literature scene. I write YA, blog about YA, and write reviews of YA novels. However, in “real” life, most people know me as the straight-A student who loves reading Shakespeare or Milton in her free time and has plans to do her PhD and be a professor. Those people are shocked that someone who reads The Wasteland for fun, or who can recite Yeats from memory would also have a shelf full of YA novels.

People normally see “high brow” and “low brow” literature as completely separate. They don’t think that Joyce’s Ulysses and Twilight could have anything in common.

Wait.

Did I just suggest that one of the greatest novels in the English language is somehow similar to a teen vampire story?

Yes. Yes I did. While there are many differences between the two, they are, fundamentally, about what it means to be human. Leopold Bloom wanders aimlessly around Dublin, and Bella Swan falls in love with a sparkling vampire, but both are ordinary humans seeking fulfillment. Well-written or not, “teen trash” or highly literary, entertaining or tedious, these stories tell us something about the human condition.

For me, that’s the point of any and all literature. To reach out to other humans, to overcome, as Joseph Conrad would say, “the loneliness of innumerable hearts,” and to truly communicate with someone else.

That is why I can’t find any disconnect between my scholarly studies and my YA writing. Because whether I’m reading The Hunger Games or Beowulf, Paranormalcy or Pride and Prejudice, J. K. Rowling or Virginia Woolf, I’m still reading about fundamental human issues. The need to be loved. To have faith. To belong.

The style may be different. Yes, some styles may even be “better” (but that’s a completely different argument). But, at the core, they are the same.

That is why I can be both 100% YA author and 100% academic. Because I am also 100% a writer. 

Not Quite Graduating

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang, but a whimper.

---- T. S. Eliot “The Hollow Men”

To begin on a cheerful note, the lines I just quoted from Eliot’s brilliant poem kind of reflect how I’m feeling right now. I have just a week left of classes, and I’m done at King’s forever. I’ll never have these profs again, or go to classes with many of my friends. When exams end in a month, I’ll never return as an undergraduate.

There should be ceremony. There should be speeches, and prizes, and fancy black hats, and flowers. Instead, I’m just sort of leaving. After all, I’m only done third year. I’m not even graduating. And yet, because I’m going to Scotland next year, I might as well be.

Maybe this is one of the reasons they don’t advise going on exchange in your fourth year (aside from the fact that getting all your required courses done can be a headache). There’s no closure. There’s no recognition of everything I’ve accomplished at King’s. Even next year I won’t be at the May convocation with the rest of my class since I’ll still be writing exams in Scotland. I’ll have to graduate in the fall, with all the kids who needed summer school to finish up. I’m just sort of slipping away.

I don’t regret deciding to go to Scotland. I’m beyond excited to head off, and I know I’ll have an amazing time. BUT… leaving King’s is a little bitter-sweet. I’ve only been here for two years, and it feels like I’m not really quite done yet. I could do another year.

Maybe it’s a good thing to leave now, when I’m still going to look back fondly on my years at King’s. I see so many of my fourth year classmates sighing “I can’t wait to get out of here!” and I completely understand their perspectives. Four years at the same school could get a little old. For me, I’ll have attended four different universities by the time I’m done my undergrad. I’ve had so many opportunities, and no time to get tired of anything.

I’m excited to move on, but I’ll definitely miss King’s. I guess that’s how life is, constantly mediating between the past and the future. But for the present, I’ll enjoy my last month at King’s, even if that last month is spent frantically writing exams. :)

I'm Going to Scotland!

I’m going to Scotland.

Let me repeat that, with the proper emphasis.

I’M GOING TO SCOTLAND!!!!!!!!!!

It’s still seven months away, and it’s been a long process so it all feels a bit surreal now, but the fact remains: in September I will head off to St. Andrews and spend a year there.

Let me tell you how this happened…

The picturesque town of St. Andrews

I’ve always wanted to go to the UK. One of my dreams has been to go on a “literary pilgrimage” across the British Isles visiting all the places that my favourite authors have lived. I could see a play at the Globe, visit Milton’s house, have a drink at the pub where the Inklings met… my only problem was having enough time to do everything!

In early December an email arrived in my inbox advertising a scholarship opportunity for studying at St. Andrew’s for a year. Since I was just at the beginning of my Christmas break and had very little else to do, I was able to devote plenty of time to the lengthy application. I had to fill out 18 paragraph questions (detailing everything from my volunteer experience to my future career plans), send official transcripts, and write an essay about the famous golfer “Bobby” Jones (the scholarship was provided in his memory). In the beginning of January I got back in Ontario, dropped off my application, and waited.

Coat of Arms

A couple weeks later, I got an email informing me that I was selected for an interview. An interview? I had no idea an interview was involved. I was nervous, but also excited, and waaaaay overthinking it. Eventually January 28^th rolled around and I went in for my interview… and I think I can quite frankly say that, aside from the enormous stress, this was the most fun interview I’ve ever had. All six interviewers were pleasant and friendly, and I felt comfortable from the instant I walked into the room. As it turned out, several of them even liked Doctor Who, and chatting for a minute about David Tennant made for a lovely icebreaker. J

At the end of the interview I was informed that I would learn their decision by Wednesday at the latest, which was yet another shocker, as the website stated that decisions would be made my Mid-February. For the next twenty-four hours I obsessively checked my email until finally, on Tuesday afternoon, in the middle of class, I got the message: “Decision letters are available for pickup.”

Imagine the stress! I had to sit through the remaining twenty minutes of class (apologies to my professor for paying very little attention), before dashing out to catch the bus to the Exchange office. That half hour was quite possibly the tensest time of my life. I arrived at the office at the same time as another girl, and we both picked up our envelopes.

One of St. Andrew's lovely old buildings

I opened mine, and the first word I saw was ‘Congratulations!’ I could barely refrain from jumping, and I definitely couldn’t stop smiling. I just repeated “Oh my God, thank you!” over and over all the way back to King’s. Then I pestered everyone for the rest of the afternoon showing them my acceptance letter… J I’ve got to thank all my Facebook friends for being so supportive and excited for me; it really means a lot. I plan to keep blogging more often over the coming year as I learn more about the exchange. Sometime over the next week I’ll post again about what exactly St. Andrew’s will be like. 

The Big Picture: Why I Don't Like Post-Apocalyptic Novels

When I read a story, I don’t care about the small stuff. Personally, I don’t care if the hero and the heroine end up together or if they’re forever kept apart. I don’t care if a couple characters in an isolated situation live or die. What I want is the big picture: what is the government doing? What’s going on at a global level? If the conflict of a story affects less than, say, fifty people, I’m normally not that interested.

A lot of people feel exactly the opposite; they’d rather read about a couple characters struggling for happiness than a whole world on the brink of disaster. That’s great. I love how everyone has different tastes. But for myself, while I love well-crafted characters, what I want from a story is a mass conflict.

This is why I dislike post apocalyptic stories. Because they promise me a global plot (after all, a catastrophe has just occurred which could destroy the entire earth) and what they deliver is a usually the story of just a couple characters trying to survive.

Take Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts. It’s by far my favourite post apocalyptic novel because the characters are so well crafted, but the story was just about the four characters surviving. Same with The Forest of Hands and Teeth, which centers on a girl leaving her insular community and venturing into a world of zombies. Same with Life as We Knew It, which concentrates on a single family coping after the moon crashes into the earth. The Eleventh Plague is a little broader, but still stays within one community. Right now I’m reading Ashfall, and that’s just about one boy trying to find his family. Basically, all of these novels are about a single individual/family/community coping with a global catastrophe.

I hate to say it, but I found most of these novels somewhat boring. My mind automatically goes to the big picture. How can the world be saved? If thousands of people are dying, why should I care about one character? Why am I reading about someone nearly starving in a shed when I could be reading about the people trying to save millions?

In this way, post apocalyptic novels infuriate me. The point of the story is so small, basically on the individual level, when I personally feel like it should be so much bigger, on a global level. I can handle reading a romance novel occasionally because there’s no bigger conflict looming on the horizon; it’s all light reading. But when there’s a huge catastrophe, I want to be reading about the people solving that, not the individuals slogging around trying to find food.

I have to add: what I’ve said here is completely personal taste. Every single one of the books listed above has plenty of fantastic reviews on Goodreads. Obviously, some people like it when their books follow just a couple characters rather than looking at the big picture. However, that’s not for me. For now, I’m done with anything calling itself post apocalyptic that concentrates on a single character. It’s just not my thing.

Now… over to you! I’m curious, which sort of reader are you? Do you want the big picture, or would you rather focus on just a couple characters? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.