Greetings!
We fell a little bit behind on our blogging but are back again with a vengeance. Ready? GO!
Wanna learn how to make a paper crane? Geordie’s gang on tour shows you how: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAISJkMOEvg
26/09/11 – St-Augustin
Our last week in the Lower North Shore was a successful one. St-Augustin was good to us and we were excited to have the lovely Tamara join us for both shows. Afterward we received our first fan mail from an enthusiastic young girl named Jessy. It was very sweet and we were happy to read it. Then we taught Tamara and her daughter how to make cranes in the restaurant using french fry red checkered paper. We kept one to put in our set to remember the lovely town of St- Augustin.
27/09/11 – Tabatière
Tabatière was a beautiful town and we wished we could have stayed longer. The kids were so sweet and one little girl taught us how to make an origami fox. The school welcomed us with open arms and could not stop chatting about how awesome the cranes were. After our two shows we flew up to Blanc Sablon for our last stop of the Lower North Shore. We rented a van and drove up to Labrador to stay in a lovely cabin where a beautiful pink sunset was taking place and we enjoyed the 1 ½ hour time difference of extra sleep between Labrador and Quebec. Cassandre doesn’t want to brag or anything, but she bought home-made wool slippers with the shape of Labrador on them because she’s cool like that.
28-29/09/11 – Newfoundland and St-Paul’s River
Let’s talk about Wednesday, shall we? This day was by far the craziest day of our tour. We had the day off and made the decision to take a ferry up to Newfoundland. We would only be able to be there for about an hour as the ferry only returned once that day, but we thought that a beautiful ferry ride to the Big Rock would be worth it so we went ahead. Big mistake, Geordie crew, big mistake. The weather was perfect and so we woke up early, looking forward to some whale seeking and checking out the ocean view. We got on the ferry no problem, arrived to Newfoundland, took some cute pictures, picked up some rocks, enjoyed the view, and got back on the ferry to return to Labrador. The ride back was a bit wavy but as we approached the dock we sighed in relief that our trip was successful. This is when things began to go wrong. The boat hung around the strip for about 35 minutes before the captain decided it was not safe enough to dock with engine problems and too many waves, so he wanted to take the 1 ½ hour ride BACK to Newfoundland and would return at 6 a.m. the next day. Let’s just say the waves had become quite bad at that point and we had a very nervous ride back to Newfoundland. It was a mad dash for a motel nearby as everyone on the ship was stranded, but the Geordie crew was able to snab the last two bedroom cabin. Did I mention we didn’t have our bags with us? We bunked up with another stranded Quebecor, a wonderful woman named Mélanie, and the five of us crammed ourselves into a two person set-up and went to seek out some food at the only restaurant in town. Jen is a vegetarian and was so excited to order a vegetable stir-fry. Unfortunately they were out of vegetables (seriously. They had NO vegetables left at all) so Jen ate garlic bread. Cassandre is allergic to sesame seeds and they only had bread with sesame seeds so she ordered fries. James ordered halibut but they were out of that too so he ordered a lesser fabulous fish, and Koy doesn’t want to brag or anything, but the restaurant had everything he wanted and more. After a squishy uncomfortable sleep, we arose at 5 a.m. and prayed the ferry would arrive in time for us to do our two shows in Blanc Sablon. It all worked out and we arrived grumpy, tired, and dirty (but safely), changed our clothes, and made the drive up to St-Paul’s River for two shows. We thought we would be performing at one school and set ourselves up only to discover we were at the wrong school as we weren’t supposed to be there until the afternoon. We ended up changing the schedule and performed a crazy version of A Thousand Paper Cranes, we did a mad strike of the set, drove to the other school and re-set in record time, and performed the Elementary show for a group of wonderful kids. It was an intense two days and we were exhausted but you know what? The kids and teens we performed for were so amazing and loved the show. Even though we had had a very stressful two days and were nervous we wouldn’t make it on time, it all worked out and the students got the great shows they deserved. That’s one of the best parts about our job. No matter how we are feeling or what the weather is like – the students are incredible at each and every place we go and will never fail to feed us energy and help us appreciate how amazing our job really is. We left feeling tired but happy and enjoyed the beautiful drive back to Labrador.
30/09/11 – 1/10/11 – Blanc Sablon and Québec
We performed both versions of the shows in Blanc Sablon and the school was terrific. They were a huge hit and we absolutely adored the staff and students. We also had the lovely surprise of seeing Mélanie again, the woman stranded with us in Newfoundland, come visit our two shows. She is from around Trois-Rivières and we hope to see her again when we tour around her area in the New Year. After packing up our set we drove to the airport and said our farewell to the Lower North Shore. To those that are from there – thank you so much for your love and hospitality. We had an amazing time. To those who have never been – we strongly recommend you take the trip out. There’s nothing like it.
We almost couldn’t catch our flight due to bad weather but we were able to make it back to Sept-Iles where we were reunited with our trusty Geordie van and Sir Binke Bigly and Goldie Hawn, our two mascot cranes that we left behind. We drove to Baie Comeau for the night and couldn’t believe how only three weeks had passed and yet we had seen so much. After a night’s sleep we made the eight hour drive back to Montreal and arrived safe and sound. What a ride it had been. The gang then did laundry, ate, slept, and reflected on how amazingly unique this job really is. Thank you, Geordie!
3-7/11/11 – Montréal
The next two weeks of the tour took place in the Montreal area – our home base. Our first show back in Montreal was off to a rough start – the stage was too small for our set and there was a power outage, but then after some adjustments we performed to more than 300 high school students who were fantastic. They were so attentive and reacted to different parts of the play very strongly. We had a lot of fun with them. The next show we did was for about 200 younger students who were our most quiet audience to date. They paid attention to every single detail and asked phenomenal questions afterward. We met an origami pro and he planned on teaching his classmates how to make more cranes. We finished our first Montreal week by returning to Royal West Academy which is where we did our first high school preview. It was cool to see how much the show has grown since the first few performances and it was equally nice to perform for such a smart group of teenagers.
10-14/10/11 – Montréal
The week after Thanksgiving was a little bit more hectic. We performed five shows for the Collège Ste. Anne high school and each one was just as spectacular as the last. They loved watching the show and each age group had something different they focused on. We were there for two days and very much appreciated the welcomed enthusiasm by the staff and students. Thursday was a bit of a crazy day as we performed in both the Southshore and the Laurentians. The schools made it worth it though as always and the kids were so friendly and excited. We finished off our Montreal week in Westmount with a lovely show at Priory and spent the weekend getting ready to voyage back East to the Maritimes. We can’t wait!
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