Monique Venne
Q-Tips' Interpreter's Award

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Handel's "Water Music," because Monique missed hearing classical music while in Halifax.

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Editor's Blurb
Storming Downtown Halifax

Q-Tips' Tales
~ Nicole Bergeron ~ Josée Déraps ~
~ Nathalie Drouin ~ Claire Dubuc ~
~ Louise Girard ~ Lucie Grégoire ~
~ Lucie Lapierre ~ Francine Paquet ~
~ Christine Paré ~ Ada Perreault ~
~ Annie Racine ~ Guylaine Robitaille ~
~ Sonia Ruel ~ Dany St. Hilaire ~
~ Monique Venne ~

Their Instructors' Tales
~ Maria Desjardins ~ Leta L.-Malone ~
~ Maurice Michaud ~ Mary Lou O'Hara ~

Q-Tip Distinction
The Interpreter's Award
...for interpreting Shakespeare, the Tattoo, the museum, every sign, the other teachers, and for finding the essence of Nova Scotia.
 

he art of making U-turns is one of Lucie Grégoire's many talents. I don't mean the usual U-turns when you are on a street with its two lanes separated by a cement platform, and when you arrive at an intersection you make a safe one. No, I mean the more challenging one—the kind you make while driving on a highway at 100 kilometers an hour and finding out that you are heading west when you should be heading east and you don't want your co-pilot to waste time with the map to find the next exit.

Directions: In the nick of time, catch sight of the upcoming dirt lane perpendicular to the highway where you are and the highway where you want to go. Brake smoothily but powerfully enough to take your passengers'breath away and give a seizure to your co-pilot. Dive into the ditch. Put your foot down to make your car jump uphill and make your U-turn. And that's it.

But in order to do it as well as Grégoire, you better practise in Nova Scotia where traffic is never too heavy. Better still, try it on a Saturday morning when there are even fewer cars and when the other drivers would freeze at the sight of a crazy vehicle with a Québec license plate coming out of nowhere, thereby giving you all the time necessary to get into the right lane.

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Impromptu Beach Party Boosts Q-Tips
nthusiasm rose to a fever pitch when Maurice Michaud took 14 women teachers from Québec on an immersion session at Mount Saint Vincent University to Crescent Crystal Beach.

It was Monday afternoon, June 30, the first morning classes were over and the weather was gorgeous. The 14 students were waiting for their teacher. When Michaud arrived to introduce the Joint Travel Journal project, one student asked: "Why not do that later and go to the beach instead?" Michaud agreed that the idea was good and the weather beautiful. Before going, though, Michaud talked very enthusiastically and at length about the joint travel project, handed out questions about Halifax for the students to answer and to turn in at the end of their 4-week session, and gave them 15 minutes to get dressed for the beach.

Once the numbers of cars needed was settled, Michaud led the way to Crescent Crystal Beach. The nice drive gave the students their first opportunity to find out about the essence of Nova Scotia—another of Michaud's assignment—as they caught sight of sail boats on the dazzling blue sea, small harbours with lobster traps piled on their wharfs, well-trimmed lawns with rhododendrons and irises in full bloom and the famed lupins everywhere along the road. They finally got a full view of the beach with its white sand, its turquoise water turning dark blue far away, its lovely lighthouse and, unfortunately, a crazy seadoo driver in full swing.

Michaud had warned the students the water was icy, but two were brave enough to plunge in right away. Another tackled the challenge more carefully, taking one step forward, two steps backward, and then bracing herself to swim for five minutes.

It was nice to lie on the sand under the hot sun softened by the light wind and chat with one another. Michaud, surrounded by the 14 women eager to listen to him in order to improve their English and discover what was the essence of Nova Scotia, seemed to be enjoying life as well.

When it was time to leave, since all good things must come to an end, all the students agreed that a beach party was one of the best ways to boost enthusiasm at the beginning of an immersion session.