Bluebird's Nest

Today I’ve asked the tweenager to be my guest blogger. I wanted to capture her thoughts on the cross Canada trip we made by interviewing her. Please feel free to comment and ask any questions to her. She will be sure to reply.

1. What was the part of the trip that you liked the most?

   My favorite place we stayed was in with John and Sylvie, I enjoyed that the most because it was soooooo pretty! The most peaceful thing I ever did was fly-fishing on the river there. Also the beds where really comfortable and camping doesn’t provide luxurious mattresses .

2. What was the worst part of the trip you disliked the most?

   My least favorite part of the trip across Canada was Morse (middle of no where) Saskatchewan. I disliked this the most because (and I may sound like a downer) it was the most hot I’ve ever felt, and the most mosquitoes I’ve ever seen, all thought the thunder, lightning and down pour cooled things down a little and put the mosquitoes partially at bay. That was the first night in the tent and so far not so good .

3. Which city was your favourite and why?

   My favorite city was Riviere du Loup in Quebec, the day we traveled there over all was the best day of driving because we stopped in Quebec city for an hour and a half, but when we got to Riviere du loup we stayed in our very first B and B (Bed and Breakfast) it had the most amazing view of the Riviere Saint Lawrence, (Saint Lawrence river), welcome cocktails/orange juice and topped off with an amazing sunset and my own room. Plus an awesome breakfast in the morning!

4. What was the most memorable experience and why?

   Wow that’s a hard one and I know I hate it when people do this to me and it sound really stupid like can’t you just pick one but the whole experience was soooo memorable for me, the boring days in the car on the west coast the fun touristy things in the east coast, the good food, laughs, wild life, almost squishing wild life (porcupine… ouch!), rain storms, swims, hot days and so many things that I have missed but will one day come back to me.

5. What was your favourite meal and why?

   Lobster at Johns house, yummy, yummy lobster, it tastes like heaven, I don’t know what else to say.

6. If you could have done something differently, what would that be and why?

   If I had the option I would have spent more time in hotels, camping is fun for a while but it’s difficult and boring when you do it too much plus we had quite a bit of rain (mostly nights when we where in a tent… what luck).

7. If you could have not done something, what would that have been and why?

   Wow my only regret is taking a little lick of mama’s ice cream before she got it and not telling her, I’m guilt ridden to think that I didn’t ask, I hope you will forgive me Mama …

8. What do you think you learned about yourself?

   I learned that I can almost sing baby beluga in my sleep, baby beluga is the wee babes fav song and some times the only thing that will make her shut up in the car, personally I think it’s almost as annoying as the crying.

9. What do you think you learned about the others you traveled with?

   Hmmm… I don’t really have any dirt to dish on the “hubby” (as you know him) and Mama.
   I learned that the wee babe is prone to mood swings, that Mama is a princess now and “the hubby” can’t not lead us around cities.

10. If you had to describe the trip in 3 words, what would those be?

    I love Canada

Finally I have to mention that I hope I didn’t disappoint you with my answers, I’m not all that heartfelt or serious, I’m only the tweenager after all.

There you have it! Straight from the Tweenagers mouth! You can follow along on her blog as well at Live, Love, Laugh by JJ.

I’m going to start out with an update on the wee babe.

Wee babe update:

• She’s officially crawling. She’s actually moving in a forward motion with both her hands and feet. It’s really cute. Before I know it I’m going to have to be fencing her off.
• She’s also pushing herself into a sitting position.
• She’s loving her index and middle finger on her right hand to suck. She uses these to soothe herself a lot. It also helps her to go to sleep sometimes.
• She just cut her 6^th tooth! Feels like she’s been teething for half her life now…

At the dinner we had at my in-laws house, there were many presents from them, my belle soeur, relatives and friends that were given to us, the tweenager and the wee babe. The wee babe is now dressed from head to toe. There aren’t enough days in the week to wear everything once. She has more outfits than all of us put together I think (ok, maybe not me LOL!).

A moment of reflection:

I’m feeling really good about being back here. Since this is my fourth trip here, life is beginning to feel really familiar now. I remember how things work differently here and I can actually speak better French than I ever have. (OK, I didn’t say perfect by any means. Just better.)

Although, last night we went to one of my hubby’s friend’s houses and it was like a blast from the past when all the friends showed up. Talking too quickly with too much slang. I couldn’t keep up. It’s times like that that I wonder what they think of me, this mute foreigner who’s 6-7 years older than all of them. My internal dialogue takes over.

I’m sure I’ll improve. I was happy to have 30+ minutes with our hostess to catch up on the wee babe, her upcoming wedding and her new condo. She speaks great English and with my broken French it was a wonderful conversation. We figured out that we’ve spent four 1^st of August’s together. I’d say that it’s now a full fledged tradition.

A funny foreigner story:

My Swiss mister had left for the stag so it was just me and the girls who were left to do the first shopping trip. To be honest with you, I was kind of excited to be driving by myself and figuring out the shopping by myself without the assistance of the hubby.

We started the morning off right with a brunch at the mister’s parent’s house in the pergola. This was really welcome as we had no food in the house (yet) and I love eating outside in the company of his mom and dad and sister.

After that it was time to get on the road. The tweenager was so much help. We both successfully (after one wrong roundabout exit) got to the shopping centre. Then we were faced with the shopping cart that you need to insert a coin into to free it from the other cart ahead of it. Cue looming music. Since I only had a bank card and no actual cash we took the elevator up to see if we could find an ATM.

We walked around the mall for a bit, me trying to summon up the courage to ask someone for directions to the machine, if there even was one. Finally, I stopped a man and asked if he spoke English (yeah I know, chicken right?) he did and he instructed us one floor below. Then again I asked another man (this time in French) to the nearest ATM. Ok. Mission accomplished. I had the $50 Swiss franc in my hand. Alas, you can not stuff that into the cart so I needed to get change.

Over to another shop to try my hand at more French (getting more confident now) and I then had the 2 francs in my hand for the carte. A half hour after we arrived at the mall, I finally had the carte in hand. Now I just needed to make it through the grocery store.

The grocery store was fairly uneventful save for every single item in the store is in different packaging than what you’re used to and written in a different language (thankfully I brought my human translator with me). Oh, and it was also slightly embarrassing when I didn’t realized that I needed to get on the other side of the cart when going through the checkout so the cashier needed to help me.

Then the drive home. Wow, can I just take a moment to let you know how much my tweenager is growing up? She did about 80% of the navigating that was needed to get us out of our wrong turn. We drove around the little village of Bussigny for about 10 minutes before deciding that we needed help and that we were just going to go back to the hubby’s parent’s house to get a chauffeur back. We came back out to the main road and at the next set of lights I recognized the gas station where we normally turn. After that, the tweenager navigated us through the little streets and walla! We were back home.

I have a feeling I just made a memory

Tomorrow I’m going to have the tweenager on as a guest blogger on my site, giving us some of her thoughts on our cross Canada trip. I’m looking forward to that!!