Trois-Rivières is AWESOME

We cycled around 150km today into Trois-Rivières, and it was amazing. The route itself was quite cyclist friendly, and took us along what has now officially become the Saint Laurence river. Interesting fact: in french, they differentiate between rivers that flow to the ocean and rivers that flow to other fresh water bodies. The Sait Laurence is therefore not a rivière but a fleuve since it flows directly to the ocean. Claire taught us that a couple days ago.

The host we are with tonight is SUPER cool and super French, but I can somehow understand about 90% of what she is saying at any given moment which actually surprises me. I was in french immersion a while back, and while my written french is atrocious and my oral french isn`t much better, I can understand quite a bit when I`m spoken to or when I`m reading it. Luckily, Nancy was pretty good at deciphering my broken french too. Her english isn`t much better than mine

Nancy`s style is pure bohemian and so I love her. The house is super funky and full of all these unique, insanely creative pieces of art. It`s the type of house that has a freaking plant growing out of the kitchen counter! I get the impression that she hosts many Couch Surfers because the entirety of upstairs seems devoted to them. Right now there`s a Brazillian woman staying with her who is looking for places to stay in Toronto (...any takers? Couch Surfing is a great way to host interesting people from various cultures!) Unfortunately she doesn`t speak a lick of english so it may be tough to organize something with her. She`s coming on Thursday with her son and needs our help!

Anyhoo, the only thing that sucks is that it`s super hot upstairs in this house. I`m using our hosts computer to type this (which is why it`s probably full of typos and weird apostrophes) and I`m literally dripping sweat on the ground. Who knew that typing could yield such physical exertion?

Trois-Rivières is a place I`d like to visit again soon and actually look around. It`s only an hour and a half outside of Montreal, so should be feasible. It`s got lots of really cool old architecture and a bustling downtown core. The people seem really friendly (except for the drunk guy we passed who was swatting at invisible flies and muttering obscenities). I tipped my helmet to him, but he was too busy being drunk to care.  I`m sure he would have tipped his muddy baseball cap back at me had he known.

Go Canada go - by the way - bring in the bronze! Oh silly Canada in the summer Olympics. When will you ever learn that gold is the first place medal?  Regardless, I`ll always be proud as hell of you, Canada.