Entry 54: Day 1-3

After having wait twice as long as my in-air time, I finally arrived in Mont-Joli airport. I flew in a turbo-prop plane which holds only 30 people at the max (estimate), so my ears were ringing from sitting near the propeller, my feet were freezing from the air being forced in.

The guy beside me was trying to strike a conversation, but 4 hours of pure waiting and the sound of high-speed props didn't make things easy for us. Anyway, turns out he's from Montreal, went to Kansas to work, and now he's going to Rimouski for some Telus (local telecoms company) conference or something. He has hilarious business partners too.

So I checked in at Motel de la Mer, a small motel by the huge sea. I get full view of the sea when I open my window, and at the back of the motel is a nice dry forest. I'd say I feel like an Ernest Hemingway, but I don't think he lived by the sea. He only wrote a novella about an old man who lived on the sea. If I'm wrong, just keep it to yourself.

Had poutines the night I arrived. Frankly, barely speaking a word of French (apart from salut, bonjour and that myriad of French words that I learnt from restaurant menus) is turning out to be a bitch because I have to use hand signals. It turns out that because Rimouski (also Pointe-au-Pere where I am now) is a relatively small town, the population is slightly older. And because their generation didn't learn English, they speak purely French and hence I have difficulties. It's like speaking Hokkien and Teochew and Cantonese in fish markets back in Singapore.

So anyway, poutines. French fries, chopped steak with chicken gravy and mozzarella cheese sticks turned out to be an awesome, albeit really filling, dinner. Ate it at some roadside stall with an old lady running it. Coffee was really burnt though, sadly.

And by the second day I got my first racist (or homophobic) comment directed at me, maybe because of 1) my Asian-ness or 2) my right earstud. Wasn't too bothered though. I hiked for a whole 2.5 hours from Pointe-au-Pere to Rimouski just to absorb the daily life of this place, and by the end of the hike I was chock full of sea smells, the sound of gulls, dust thrown up by cars and French place names. People here are generally friendly (namely the older generation), smiling at me while I was hiking through their neighbourhood.

Also went to the local epicerie, which is similar to the Marsh supermarket we have in West Lafayette. Except the seafood is awesomely red and fresh. Which is also the reason why I broke the traveller's code and had sashimi for lunch despite being in a French colony. But quite frankly, there's nothing much different about eating in Rimouski than anywhere else because it's like a school-town (refer: West Lafayette).

So tomorrow I am going to go take a look at the Maritime Institute, as well as this Museum of Modern Art and the local CEGEP. I mean, after all, if anyone went to Lafayette I'd probably bring them to go see Purdue University too.