I had not originally intended to go to Vancouver during the Olympics, which made the trip that much more special for me. My first stop was at the opening of La Maison de Quebec.
After chatting with the security guard (en Français of course!) I was met by the assistant deputy minister and whisked past the red velvet rope. The interior more or less consisted of a stage, a make-shift restaurant and a bar. The venue was full of politicians, members of the media, artists and bureaucrats from Quebec and BC's francophone and francophile (a person with a strong positive disposition towards anything French) community.
I was introduced to several people, including Premier of Quebec Jean Charest who said that he was happy to see that BC's French immersion was working well. Having graduated from BC's French immersion program, I assured him that it was. I also met the mayor of my hometown, Richard Stewart, who speaks French very well. While chatting with him I discovered that he not only knew my family, but he also knew the house where I grew up! Talk about your involved politician - I thought that was great!
I left Quebec House and went for a stroll downtown. Previously I had read in the news that security for the Olympics was overdone. After seeing it first hand, I would disagree. There were definitely more police officers around, but other than that, in my opinion, the only noticeable security addition were these scuba divers.
The next morning was Canadian Francophonie Day and IGRS was organizing a breakfast in celebration of it. Here I am in the very popular 'photo spot'.
See what I mean? The event attracted some pretty serious players such as the President of the Francophonie, lots of politicians and ambassadors, and our Premier and Governor General.
My last stop for the weekend was at the Festival Du Bois, an event celebrating French Canadian culture which I used to attend as a child. We had a yummy lunch complete with tortière (meat pie) and sucre à la crème (creamed sugar).
I grabbed a quick picture with the Minister of IGRS, Naomi Yamamoto.
If you ever get a chance to go to the Festival Du Bois there is one thing that, if nothing else, you must do - eat poutine! This isn't your regular New York Fries style poutine, this is real poutine. Real potato fries, delicious gravy and enough cheese curds to put you in cardiac arrest. It was simply divine and the perfect way to wrap up my weekend.
