Roots

We spent the March Break in "le Vieux Québec". For those of you that are not from Québec, "la Vielle Ville" is the old part of Québec City near the St. Lawrence River. It dates back to the the 17th and 18th century and has been largely restored. It is one of the first UNESCO hertitage sites in North America. It is the cradle of French America and most francophones have ancestors that come from there. This is where it all started.
As I walked along the snowy cobbled streets, that have a distinctly European flavour, I reflected upon what it must have been like to live there 300-350 years ago. You would have left a nice safe civilized country, sailed for at least a month across the stormy Atlantic, to end up in a place where nothing was the same. You had more freedom, but life was probably much harsher than back in France. Chances were that you would never see your family or homeland again. Yet people made a place for themselves and created a French culture in this strange land. They set out and explored a continent, going from Hudson's Bay to the far west all the way down to Louisiana and New Orleans.
This is where my roots are, and I can feel that even if I have spent most of my life elsewhere. It is a strange feeling, this feeling of being home. I was an airforce brat and as such lived all over the place but when I came to study in Québec, as I got off the bus, the feeling struck me, I was home. This place was home. It is a feeling that I have never had elsewhere. I know it sounds strange but that feeling has stayed with me all my life and though I have lived longer elsewhere than here, Québec is still my home, my roots.