A world to discover/ Un monde à découvrir

Chapter 7

The end of the week had been rough on Kelsey's body. She had bruises all over her elbows, from her numerous falls, and her knees were all scratched. She found out playing with kids was more painful than what she expected.

Fortunately, it was over, since it was now the weekend. The activity planned for the day, for Saturday, was the centre des sciences. She did some researches, and it turned out it was situated on Montreal's docks. It was a kind of interactive museum, with a expo on the human evolution, one that is about science, with experiences that you can do yourself (it was the one Kelsey was the more excited about) and one about electricity converter. She knew there was many others, but Kelsey could not remember them.

She woke up at 8 a.m, and really found that early on a Saturday morning, but she did not have the choice, because their meeting time was at 9, at a subway station. From there, Camille had explained to them that they would continue a little bit on the subway, for a few station, than would have to walk to the Centre des sciences by feet. She promised it was not far from where they would get off from the subway.

Another thing she learned during this week: in Québec, well, in french, subway did not mean an underground train, it was a sandwich restaurant. It took a few seconds for Ketchup to understand they did not talk about the same thing when Kelsey asked her about the name of the subway's red line.

"You know what?"

"What?" replies Kelsey. She was grumpy from the lack of sleep, and was starting to feel hungry.

"Whoa! Calm down! I think I would better feed you soon, otherwise you will kill me soon with your bad mood. Anyway, I had an idea that I wanted to talk to you about." says Nicholas, as they were wandering around in the Centre des sciences expositions.

"What idea?" asks Kelsey.

"Well, I noticed the improvement of my french since we arrived, and it has been only a week! I thought we could talk french together, too."

"Like, right now?"

"Oui, genre maintenant." he replies, eyebrows raised.

"Okay." agrees Kelsey.

After they ate, because Kelsey really needed to, they continued their visit. They passed by the kid zone, and went straight for Kelsey's first choice: the science exposition that had interactives experiences.

"Badre-toi pas avec ça pis aweye!"

"What?"

Kelsey, surprised by what she heard, looked around to see who had talk. She was really confused, and stopped walking. Nicholas, finally noticing she was not listening to him anymore, turned around and looked weirdly at her.

"Es-tu correct? Pourquoi t'as arrêté?"

"You did not hear?"

"Hey, I thought we agreed on french!"

"Did you hear or not?"

"Hear what?" he asks.

But before he could answer, it started again.

"Kôssé ça?"

Kelsey and Nicholas looked at each other, wandering what language it was. Italian, or germain, maybe, but it was certainly not french, or, at least, not the french they learned and talked.

"Arrête de fourrer ton nez partout et essaye pas de m'enfirouaper!"

Looking around them, neither Nicholas nor Kelsey could see someone else. They were near a giant dish, and they noticed another exact one at the other end of the room. A family was near it, and were looking as if they were arguing. Kelsey, even though she found herself a little bit strange for doing it, approached the dish and said:

"Bonjour. Est-ce que vous m'entendez?"

The heads of all the members of the family turned towards the dish. One of the little boy ran to it.

"Alllooo!" he yells excitedly.

"Hey! Tu me vois? Je suis de l'autre côté de la pièce." she says, moving her hand for him to see her.

"Ouais! C'est vraiment cool, ça en a presque pas de bon sens."

"Quoi? Tu peux m'expliquer ce que ça veut dire?" she quickly asks.

But he turned away and asked his mom to go to the other dish so they could talk.

Le dimanche matin, Camille les attendait de pied ferme et les apostropha dès qu'ils arrivèrent à leur lieu de rencontre.

"Okay, tout le monde, on se rassemble, rapido!" cria Camille.

"Des fois, j'ai vraiment l'impression qu'elle parle une langue que je connais pas." chuchota Nicholas.

"Ouais, bah... Dis-toi qu'il te reste encore quelques semaines pour appendre à parler la même langue qu'elle. Au fait, je voulais te dire, c'est une bonne idée de parler français. Maintenant, moi,  j'essaye même de penser en français."

Mais Camille les interrompu, semblant être un peu pressée par le temps:

"Aujourd'hui, on va au festival de la gibelotte."

L'affirmation a été suivie d'un silence. Tous se posaient la même question: qu'est-ce que de la gibelotte? Heureusement, Camille avait fait ses devoirs et put leur répondre précisément.

"De la gibelotte, c'est un repas qui traditionnellement se composait de cochon, de patates et de sauvagine, qui est une espèce de canard. Après, la recette s'est modifiée un peu. La gibelotte est devenue une sorte de soupe aux légumes. On peut la mettre sur de la barbotte, une fois bouillie dans de l'eau salée. Le festival permet aux familles ayant des recettes de faire un espèce de concours, en faisant goûter leur gibelotte à tout le monde. Ensuite, on vote et celle qui est la plus appréciée gagne. Là-bas, c'est un grand honneur d'être désigné comme la personne qui détient la recette de la meilleure gibelotte en ville. Des questions?" elle demande après ce long exposé qu'elle avait fait sans reprendre son souffle.

"Oui, une."

"Quoi?" demanda Camille à Jane, qui était celle à avoir pris la parole.

"Pourquoi il faut qu'on y aille, exactement?"

"Non mais t'as du front tout le tour de la tête pour poser une question comme ça! Parce que les nombreux festivals estivaux sont l'une des caractéristiques du Québec. J'en ai donc choisi un, et voila!"

Jane ne parue pas entièrement convaincue mais n'émit pas d'autres objections à y aller. Kelsey pour sa part, se promit de goûter à toutes les gibelottes qu'elle pouvait, ne serait-ce que pour pouvoir dire à ses frères qu'elle l'avait fait.

"Allons-y sinon on va chier des briques en essayant d'arriver à temps!

Nicholas et Kelsey se regardèrent, essayant de retenir leur rire pour ne pas offusquer Camille, mais imaginèrent quand même tous deux l'expression qu'elle venait d'utiliser.