My first messe

Yesterday I experienced my first Catholic mass. (I went on Saturday because most of us went on a trip to the Lac St-Jean area today.) I went to the local cathedral with a few other people from language school, including my former roommate Ryan. They had a little booklet with the liturgy printed in it, so that really helped me understand what they were saying. Even with that book, it was hard to follow, since it was in French. When the priest gave the homily (Protestant translation: sermon), I didn't understand a thing because there was no printed outline, and there was an echo. But I must say, I did appreciate the parts of the mass that I could understand. I recognized some things like the Apostles' Creed in French. A song that was part of the liturgy said something like, "Jesus is dead, Jesus is alive..." And the cathedral is beautiful. It's quite an old building with a lot of statues, carvings, and stained-glass windows. I'll probably go back sometime, maybe on a Sunday when they have a longer mass. (The Saturday mass was fairly short.)

In French, mass is spelled "messe," so it's kind of funny seeing the signs in front of Catholic churches saying when the "messes" are.

So today, Sunday, five busloads of us went for a trip about halfway around Lac St-Jean. We visited a zoo where the animals seem to live in a more natural habitat than most zoos, and we visited a historic village with a big waterfall. It was a good chance to see some nature and get to know some of the people at language school better, even though our conversations in French tend to be fairly shallow.

I still find it hard to understand people in French, especially if they speak French well, because they talk fast and use big words. Our teachers and my hosts have quite a bit of experience with non-French-speakers so they're good at dumbing it down, but even then it's difficult. But some people don't know how to dumb it down very well.