My project has met my expectations. I came into this project originally preparing to gain some facts about the musical culture in Gaspe, Quebec, however, my first night in Canada being in Montreal opened up an extremely different perspective for me to ponder. At the home I was staying at in Montreal, I was accompanied by two close friends of my godfather whom I was staying within Gaspe. That night, they expressed heartfelt and heavy opinions about the main idea of my project. ‘How do you keep a culture alive?’ In response, one of them expressed a fear that her children would grow up and marry a non-Quebec native and have English-speaking children which would make her unable to really communicate with her grandchildren. A fear that I have never encountered and an idea I’ve never even thought about perhaps due to the simple fact that I am a native English-speaking American. But that wasn’t the only conversation that was brought up leading to a pretty well-known opinion expressed by many Canadians. The desire for Quebec to be its own country. This was an idea that I carried with me through my two weeks of being in Quebec. It would help me learn that to understand the music of Quebec I’d have to understand the people of Quebec as well. 

One thing I was not expecting at all was the bus ride. My time in Canada began in Montreal for one night and the next morning I took the Orleans Express bus to Gaspe. A fourteen-hour bus ride consisting of three transfers. Quebec Sainte-Foy in Quebec City, Rimouski, then finally a six-and-a-half-hour ride to Gaspe. The further I got towards Quebec City and into Gaspe, the more I started to feel a culture shock. I knew I was going into a foreign-speaking country but I always thought Canada was a pretty flexible country with both English and French. Something I would’ve changed and done differently going into this project would be really sitting down and learning some French before I left. A lot of French Canadians are in the process of trying to preserve their language by mainly speaking French only despite them knowing a bit of English. Most of them spoke better English than my French, but I began to understand the importance and power of language a lot better as I got further into Quebec. 

My time in Gaspe was the majority of my two weeks. It was very simple. By simple I mean there was only one of everything. One bakery, one high school, one church, and one grocery store although I was experiencing the process of a second one being just opened. But Gaspe wasn’t excessive and the people adapted to that. Although many people were deeply rooted in Quebecois traditions, the population of Gaspe was mainly older. Younger people are eager to leave and usually end up going to Montreal. But many come back when they’ve decided to settle down and start a family. But the community is so close
you almost feel as if you’re invading something. But everyone is incredibly hospitable. A notable trait that many people I’ve talked to in Quebec pointed out.