We haven’t celebrated Valentine’s Day yet and our EC Montreal students are already asking us about our March calendar of events! They are excited to plan every week of their language adventure at EC Montreal! We are very excited to roll out our March calendar as it is the start of spring and maple season in the province of Quebec!
Most of our complimentary activities will include a maple component to celebrate this very sweet taste of Montreal! Many people don’t know what a big business maple is for us here in Quebec. The province produces 90% of the world’s maple syrup! We have maple farms located very close to Montreal where the syrup is made. These farms also welcome visitors to learn about the process but also to give their guests a very traditional Quebecois experience! In French, these farms are called Cabane à Sucre. In English we call them Sugar Shacks and they are a lot of fun!
Throughout the month of March, we will be introducing our students to the taste of our maple syrup and at the end of the month, on March 28, they can join our day trip to a traditional maple farm where they will enjoy a tour of the farm, a lesson in extracting sap from the trees as well as the typical Sugar Shack meal which, of course, is smothered in syrup! The meal consists of eggs, ham, bacon, pig skin, beans, potatoes, pickled beets and meat pie. The students will be served pancakes, maple pie and a maple bread pudding for dessert. After lunch, students get another sweet treat – it is maple taffy. They pour the hot maple on a bed of snow and with a stick, you roll the maple around the stick. It turns into a maple lollipop! It is super sweet and really delicious!
The complimentary activities will begin with an International Women’s Day breakfast on March 4. We will serve our students pancakes and other treats and of course, with maple syrup! On this day, we encourage everyone to come to school dressed in purple, the official colour of the Women’s Day initiative. We promote strong women from the past and present and also encourage our staff to bring their daughters to school that day to promote women of the future! A day to honour all women! May we honour them, may we be them and may we raise them!
The following week, we will offer our students a maple tea and conversation activity. We will serve sweet maple team and maple biscuits and encourage our students to hang out after class, practicing their language skills and making friends!
The next week we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Montreal! Second to New York City, Montreal has the biggest St. Patrick’s Day parade in North America! It is a big deal! The Irish community makes up one of the largest cultural communities in Montreal! The Irish, along with the English, French and Scottish founded this city and that’s what you find on the map of Montreal! At EC Montreal, we celebrate being Irish for a day by serving green beer and hot dogs to our students! We decorate the student lounge with shamrocks and have a wonderful time!
On March 23, we will hold our annual maple syrup festival in the student lounge. Every table will be filled with different kinds of maple treats to enjoy. We will have pie, cookies, popcorn, cotton candy, maple sugar cones, cupcakes and even maple milk! We transform the student lounge into a traditional sugar shack with the metal sap buckets, piles of chopped wood and red and white checkered table cloths. We also place maple syrup fun facts and information on every table so our students learn more about the maple industry in Quebec. They will also learn about some maple nutritional facts!
The cultural outings will include a visit to Mount-Royal and to the Planetarium as well as a Karaoke and taco night! In addition to the sugar shack day trip, Iko tours will offer a trip to Quebec City, Ottawa and a 2-day trip to Toronto – Niagara Falls.
What a sweet month we look forward to at EC Montreal! Join our English lessons in Montreal this March!