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17.02.2008
Festival du Voyageur
Investigation of the culture of the people who are supposed to eat frogs (according to Germans and Czechs) and not to take showers (according to Brazilians)This week there is a festival of French culture being held in the French part of Winnipeg – at St. Boniface. My friends and I went to check it out today.
We arrived there around four o'clock, paid 12 bucks and went in. The first think you notice is that all the signs are in French. Fortunately for us, there were also English translations and one can still hear people speaking in language one can understand.
What did we see there? To begin with there are lots of ice sculptures. It's a pity that not all of them are finished yet, but on the other hand we could see people working on them. Then we fixed our cultural deficit by visiting museum and workshops about aboriginals (native Canadian inhabitants) and voyageurs who are early pioneers who explored the Canadian territorium. They were hunters or explorers travelling mostly in kanoes. After that my friend and I took the advantage of being adults and went to a snow bar. We saw people drinking from glasses made of ice, so we decided to try this out as well. We ordered some red stuff and went to the outside bar made out of snow and ice. They also have an ice fireplace there. The drink tasted like a cold "svarak" (hot wine with some other stuff in it), but it's a pretty interesting to drink it out of icy glass. The advantage of it is that it's also impossible to break it (yeah, this is the real "nerozbitna sklenicka" we thought at first. However, our friend from Slovakia soon proved this thesis to be wrong). Finally, there was a huge tent where concerts take place. Lots of different kinds of music should be played there, but we didn't stay long.
In order for you to have a complete picture of the festival, couple of other things have to be mentioned. First of all, there is a wooden fortress in which the workshops and the museum are situated. It looks exactly as the one from the movies based on the novels by Karl May. You almost expect to see Lex Barker behind the next corner. Secondly, you can find there an ice maze and a "hill", both primarily designated for children. Thirdly, there are lots of fires where you can warm up a bit. However, we didn't need it at all, because today was a really unusual warm weather – -1 degree and freezing rain in the moorning. Finally, there is a huge tent with souvenirs and of course a bunch of kiosks serving fast food.
It's also funny that no matter where you go you always meet there someone who you know. (Vow, it's almost a rhyme) We've met there some of our classmates and also other international students.
Comments
(Silvie - Mail - WWW)
I didn't know that there was a French part in Winnipeg. Do you know whether they have also French schools there ?
(Ted - Mail - WWW)
Oh yes, lots. You can even study in French at Miles Mac (the school I'm going to) as well. They call such a program "French immersion"
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