Next Adventure - Quebec!

So - here we go again!

This is Ashley writing, and this will be a bit odd, perhaps, because the blog's URL, of course is "mortonsabroad.blogspot.ca", implying that we would be "abroad" when we wrote about things here. However, the title (see there, at the top of the page) talks about us "Go(ing) Places" - and that's about to happen again.

I have accepted a position at the Chantier Davie, the Davie shipyard in Lévis, Quebec. I start on Monday (the 27th of May). I can only imagine that this will be another fascinating adventure. It is certainly a comment on the state of things in Canada that I feel as much trepidation (probably more) about a move to a city within my own country as I did about two different moves to foreign countries. However, there has been a significant enough barrier built up between the unilingually-French parts of our country and we Anglos that it certainly is a challenge. Clearly, though, one that we're excited to take on.

In case you missed it, in between the last blog post and this one, there has been an addition to our family. Gwen, our daughter, is now 16 months old, and is awesome. However, I won't be writing much about her here - we've decided that it will be her decision about how much or how little of her life gets lived on the Internet - and she can't realistically make that call, yet, when the most complex conversation we currently get is a response to "What does a cow say?" (The answer, as you might have guessed, is "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!") We may blog a bit about how child-care works in Quebec, if that becomes relevant (we're not pretending that we don't *have* a child), but not about day-to-day occurrences in her life.

The shipyard is actually in the former town of Lauzon (Quebec has had a lot of municipal mergers over the last few decades, so that became "Lévis-Lauzon", and then just "Lévis" over successive rounds of mergers.) That's on the South side of the St. Lawrence River, but part of the broader metro Quebec City area. I think that it's most likely that we'll live in Quebec City proper, however. It's got most of the arts & sports facilities, has the kind of density that can support a decent transit network, and is where the University (Laval University) is located.

If we do, that will mean that my commute will include a ferry every morning and evening. I must admit - I'm kind of excited about that prospect. During my university time, I made one really big backpacking trip that ended in Hong Kong. I didn't have enough money to stay on Hong Kong island, so I stayed in cheap backpacker accommodations on the mainland, and took the ferry across to the island where most of the interesting things were, every day. It was then that I realized how wonderful it could be to have a few moments in transit on the water every day to start (and end) your day. There are times when it will be bad, I'm sure, with delayed sailings and terrible weather. However, I think that's a bargain I'm willing to take.

The shipyard is 188 years old. If you're interested, the main website is here: www.davie.ca A (very!) brief history of the place is here: http://www.davie.ca/index.php?p=7&l=en.

There will be lots more to write about in future posts (for example: did you know that women aren't allowed to change their name to their husband's at marriage, in Quebec?). However, this is just meant to get this up and running again!

All the best,

Ashley