God, please spare me more rejection.

I had a fascinating conversation with my family last night comparing poutine to green chile cheese fries. It made me miss Hooter Browns.

I spent Saturday night in the grand city of Quebec and did some moderate exploring through the older parts of the town. So, you might know this, but Quebec is the only walled city in Northern America. And I can tell you now that they didn't need the damn wall. It's so steep, no one would have wanted to conquer it. (History tells me otherwise, but ehn, shmistory!) I walked up an estimated 500 steps yesterday. And once that was over, I traversed a few hundred meters of park, covered in 2 feet deep snow, to get to a main road. Needless to say, this girl is OUT OF SHAPE. It didn't help things that my guide, my cousin Lucie, works as a personal trainer. Kinda embarrassing.

But, you know, it was worth it.


We took a ferry boat to get to Quebec City, since Lucie lives in an amazing apartment across the St. Lawrence River in Levie. That's floating chunks of ice.


And this is snow. This doesn't melt til March. Did I mention the high is 14 degrees today? And the sun's out? The building is Quebec's Parliament. Criminal law in Quebec is the same as the rest of Canada, but they make their own civil law.


The most famous building in the city, the one on all the postcards. Le Château Frontenac, it's actually a hotel operated by Fairmont. I don't even want to know how much rooms are.


And all the quint shops for tourists (once again, says the tourist). Quebec City gets about 2 million of them a year, mostly from France and mostly in the summer. I WONDER WHY. They have shirts that say J'<3 QUEBEC and I need one.


And this is the view from Lucie's apartment. Love.

I've been spending most of my time in Ste-Croix, struggling through French TV and eating some of the best food ever. Lucie's mother is the most amazing cook ever. Tomorrow, I'm going to Quebec's art museum and this weekend, I'm going to a projection of Romeo and Juliet from the MET at a movie theater. What a grand week.

And to top it off, I went ahead and made plans to be back in Michigan by January 25th. Why?


Mr. Ben Folds, that's why.

Between that, Hot Water Music, and the Slackers annual holiday show in NYC, let's see how many amazing shows I can get in in the next few months on the road.