My Tan or lack thereof

So when I woke up this morning...aka afternoon, I was pumped because it was sunny outside for the first time in a few days. Of course its was windy but its always windy here. So I was pumped because some friends and I had decided to go to the prison for a tour and we were going to walk there. So I got up, put on a skirt and was totally ready to walk there and work on my tan at the same time...and then I went outside and realized that if I were to actually walk wearing a skirt I would be goosebump city and freeze to death. So with a sigh I changed into my capris. So we left for the prison, which is a good 20 minute walk away, and within about 5 minutes I was so so warm because apparently the sun was so warm that the wind didnt even really matter! Trust me, when you are as white as I am, you would be sad that you missed a skirt or short wearing opportunity.

One of my friends ditched us to do here homework instead, so just myself and one of my roomates ended up going- but she doesnt speak a lot of french so I was a bit worried. But anyways, we got there and happily enough a few others from the program came too and so we did a tour with 5 of us. Our guide was an inmate of the new prison, not the old one though so it wasnt fully authentic. Apparently Trois Rivieres is the drug portal of North America ( excellent) and he was a drug trafficker and was caught and was put in jain for only a week, but apparently it was enough and now he is walking the straight and narrow. So the tour was pretty cool, we learned about all the capital punishment and such. There are 4 bathrooms and one shower in the entire prison, but they were for the guards and the head guy who lived in the prison with his family. Instead all the cells had buckets and there would be as many as 25 people in one cell no beds only a bench. The women all had separate cells, which were 3 feet by 6 feet, so basically their bed took up the whole thing. Some women were even their with their kids in the same cell. And since the women were separated they couldnt really fight, but they would instead throw the contents of their buckets on the other women through the bars. Oh and clothes were washed once a week, you got a shower once a week, and the beds pillows and blankets were never washed. Until the 70s the women were housed there, but in a different section called the 'chicken cage'. They took us down to the dungeon too and showed us solitary confinement. It was a little room, walls all made of stone, which was not high enough for even me to stand up in, they stripped the prisoners, chained them to the wall, and then walked away, pitchblack. Those were still used right up until they closed the prison in 1986. There were about 5 or so of these in the basement and it was freezing. I cant imagine what it would be like in the winter. The prison was used until the 80s and there is a lot of engravings on the walls still from the former prisoners. In the death penalty area there was a drawing on the wall that said that 'waiting for death is worse than death itself'. It was pretty powerful. So it was a good tour, really interesting. There is this house across the street from the prison and friends of the inmates used to climb to the roof and through drugs across over the walls of the yard for the inmates. So it was the most surveyed house in all of trois rivieres. Now our guide lives there! During the tour our guide told us all about the drug world in trois rivieres, and when we got here we got a big speal all about it too. Its a little frightening, but he told us that its bad in the middle of downtown but not where we are all living so thats good. He would know I suppose! Anyways, all in all it was good.

Now I thought that when I lived in degelis I had good rent. I had a 2 bedroom fully furnished apartment which cost me 300 a month. Trois rivieres enjoys the lowest rent in all of north america. The jail guide has a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom place with a basement for 400 bucks a month.

So I dont know if Ive mentionned this before, but getting your meals at the cafeteria is a bit of a gong show. We have these tickets that we use for every meal, and one snack. They say the day of the week and the number of the week on them, plus the week and such and so forth, so its really hard to screw it up. Unfortunately many many people have not been able to figure it out. I dont blame the beginners, but seriously. At any given moment, when you are paying for your food, there is always that one person in front of you who has not figured out the tickets! Some people have to pay extra because we only have an alotted amount, and some people spent way to little and are practically forced to go and fill up their trays, and many people use them in the wrong order, which is fine, but they get looks from the cashiers. Its pretty funny sometimes. Its a good amount of food, but seems to be way too confusing manner to get it.

Well, I should go. Hopefully Ill get some pics up soon but I cant post them so I have to send them to dave so he can post them for me.

Lata