Fresh, cold, freezing

It is winter in Quebec or 'le hiver' as the French say. But a winter in France is by no means comparable to that in Canada. The first settlers, who were able to survive here only with the help of the indigenous population, must have noticed this as well. Due to British control over the southern Canadian part of the country, the French spoken here has also remained unchanged over time. Nowadays it is referred to as 'Quebecois' and even causes difficulties for the French themselves in understanding it. So you can imagine how far I get with my broken French here! But not only the pronunciation is different, there are also new words in 'Quebecois'. Due to the different weather conditions, there are cold temperatures like nowhere else in the French-speaking world. Therefore, Canadians refer to this unknown cold as 'frête'! So, translated, the blog title means cool, cold, freezing. The same applies to any insults that emerged during the revolution. Due to the dissatisfaction with the Catholic Church and the removal of its influence from any offices in the country, such as hospitals, schools, etc., new swear words were added that expressed this resentment. 'Kalisse', synonymous with chalice, may still seem harmless, but 'je m'en chris', translated as 'I don't give a shit about Christ', I think doesn't need further explanation. So, anyone who thinks that Canada has no history despite its recent past can also take a look at the license plates in Quebec, which say 'Je me souviens' = 'I remember', and defy this debate. However, this development in eastern Canada also led to a lot of tolerance. Not only are various religions taught during school, but also high immigration numbers, especially in the area around Toronto, which show the international attractiveness of the country.

But enough about the past, how does winter live today?! We asked ourselves this question too when the temperatures dropped to -27 degrees for the first time. Thanks to the Internet, we also knew the best way to test this. So we took a pot of boiling water outside and poured it into the air. Indeed, before the water touched the ground, it froze into ice. Of course, we also had to take a walk outside of the tunnels to the lecture halls. During the 15-minute walk, not only was it harder to breathe, but the cold whipped like light blows on the face. So we preferred to spend the way back and the rest of the temperature drop in the warm interior of the campus buildings.

Apart from the two days of frosty cold, winter in Canada in Quebec went relatively smoothly. The snow conditions were better than ever, as Annabell, a Canadian from the north of Quebec, told us. So this means skiing for us! She took us to the ski resort 'Le Massif' on Saturday, which she prefers in Quebec. When the slopes led us directly to the lake, we also knew why. The view was outstanding despite the clouds. Two weeks ago, we went to another ski resort called 'Mount Saint Anne', where we spent a weekend in a chalet. However, since the ski passes are expensive due to low demand, we only stayed there for one day. But I can say that I have never seen so much snow, so even the 'prepared' slope felt like off-piste skiing. The only thing missing after such a skiing event was, of course, the apres-ski. Since the Quebecers are not really used to it, I quickly rented a music box and showed the British, Scandinavians, and Czechs some German schlager music. The weekend was perfect.