Tror Orcboot's Cave
Monday, August 18, 2003
Monday, August 04, 2003
The Kouchibouguac Boogie
Back in 1996, I took an air photos course in University, Geology 492 it was called. Even though it was a 400-level course, it was really all about tracing and coloring. Every week we would pick an assignment, which consisted of an air photo and a geological question. You would have to trace the photo, and create a geological map from it, coloring all the different rock strata nice bright colors. Then you would go to the library and do some research into the question at hand, and write up an assessment of your findings, such as whether an alluvial fan was likely to contain placer gold or not.
Although tracing and coloring is fun enough, you have a lot of other things on your plate when you’re in fourth-year university. Such as classes that don’t involve any coloring, but lots of intensive research, textbooks to read and ten-page papers to write. So after a while I learned to pick the easier assignments. It was a bonus when one of these assignments pertained to New Brunswick, my new favorite province since my friend Ron had moved there that year to attend the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton.
The assignment at hand had to do with a national park I had never heard of before- Kouchibouguac National Park. I had to decide if the unique coastal features of the area, such as barrier beaches, flood deltas and ebb deltas, were an acceptable analogue to the Sussex Sandstone. But I was so taken with the name of the place that I spent the remainder of the class writing a little song about it. It goes like this:
The Kouchibouguac Boogie
The Kouchibouguac Boogie
I said the Kouchibouguac Boogie
I wanna do the Kouchibouguac
But I need my own kayak
And I need a bivouac
After writing such a great song, I decided to make it a dream and a goal to someday, before I died, visit Kouchibouguac National Park. Oh yeah, and I eventually handed in the assignment and got 8 out of 8. No bonus points for the song, though.
As fate would have it, less than a year later I found myself in New Brunswick, visiting my afore-mentioned friend Ron and his girlfriend Andrea who had just moved out to Fredericton so they could be closer together. See, just before Andrea moved I was visiting her, saying good-bye and all that, when she said that I would have to come out and visit her and Ron. I thought about this, saw no reason why I couldn’t, and said, “Sure!”
So there I was, in possibly the least likely province in all of Canada to go to during Reading Week (my first words out of the plane were, “New Brunswick! Who’d’a thunk it, out of all the provinces in Canada!”), and I had a great time. Fredericton is a nice little city, and New Brunswick has all these great place names that are so much fun to say out loud, even when no one is around. Nashwaaksis. Penobsquis. Then there’s my favorite- Mactaquac. And, of course, Kouchibouguac.
I asked Ron and Andrea if we could take a road trip to Kouchibouguac National Park and they were happy to oblige. But I learned something shocking and disturbing- I had been pronouncing Kouchibouguac all wrong! I’d been saying it like this – koo-chee-BOO-gack, when in actuality you have to say it in French, like this – koosh-i-boo-QUACK. Well, no offence to the francophones, but my way is clearly better. You can sing my song if you say it my way, cause then it has that alliteration going on- koocheeboogack boogie. It has a nice ring, a certain flair to it. Kooshibooquack boogie has no ring. It doesn’t make any sense at all. Unless you change the song to be about ducks or something. So I’m going to keep pronouncing it my way, thank you very much.
Since it was a cold day in February, there was lots of snow and no people, and no real view of anything, but it didn’t matter- I was in Kouchibouguac National Park, fulfilling my lifelong (well, year-long, at least) dream. We took some pictures, Ron and I doing flips into the snow, and then of course I had to perform my song. I sang it with gusto, doing the actual boogie while I was at it. Only, I don’t really know what a boogie is, so mainly I just hopped in the snow flailing my arms around while singing about needing a bivouac and such. It was fun, and there exists a picture of me doing it, if you’d like to see and learn how to do it yourself.
It’s easy, especially if you have a kayak.
Back in 1996, I took an air photos course in University, Geology 492 it was called. Even though it was a 400-level course, it was really all about tracing and coloring. Every week we would pick an assignment, which consisted of an air photo and a geological question. You would have to trace the photo, and create a geological map from it, coloring all the different rock strata nice bright colors. Then you would go to the library and do some research into the question at hand, and write up an assessment of your findings, such as whether an alluvial fan was likely to contain placer gold or not.
Although tracing and coloring is fun enough, you have a lot of other things on your plate when you’re in fourth-year university. Such as classes that don’t involve any coloring, but lots of intensive research, textbooks to read and ten-page papers to write. So after a while I learned to pick the easier assignments. It was a bonus when one of these assignments pertained to New Brunswick, my new favorite province since my friend Ron had moved there that year to attend the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton.
The assignment at hand had to do with a national park I had never heard of before- Kouchibouguac National Park. I had to decide if the unique coastal features of the area, such as barrier beaches, flood deltas and ebb deltas, were an acceptable analogue to the Sussex Sandstone. But I was so taken with the name of the place that I spent the remainder of the class writing a little song about it. It goes like this:
The Kouchibouguac Boogie
The Kouchibouguac Boogie
I said the Kouchibouguac Boogie
I wanna do the Kouchibouguac
But I need my own kayak
And I need a bivouac
After writing such a great song, I decided to make it a dream and a goal to someday, before I died, visit Kouchibouguac National Park. Oh yeah, and I eventually handed in the assignment and got 8 out of 8. No bonus points for the song, though.
As fate would have it, less than a year later I found myself in New Brunswick, visiting my afore-mentioned friend Ron and his girlfriend Andrea who had just moved out to Fredericton so they could be closer together. See, just before Andrea moved I was visiting her, saying good-bye and all that, when she said that I would have to come out and visit her and Ron. I thought about this, saw no reason why I couldn’t, and said, “Sure!”
So there I was, in possibly the least likely province in all of Canada to go to during Reading Week (my first words out of the plane were, “New Brunswick! Who’d’a thunk it, out of all the provinces in Canada!”), and I had a great time. Fredericton is a nice little city, and New Brunswick has all these great place names that are so much fun to say out loud, even when no one is around. Nashwaaksis. Penobsquis. Then there’s my favorite- Mactaquac. And, of course, Kouchibouguac.
I asked Ron and Andrea if we could take a road trip to Kouchibouguac National Park and they were happy to oblige. But I learned something shocking and disturbing- I had been pronouncing Kouchibouguac all wrong! I’d been saying it like this – koo-chee-BOO-gack, when in actuality you have to say it in French, like this – koosh-i-boo-QUACK. Well, no offence to the francophones, but my way is clearly better. You can sing my song if you say it my way, cause then it has that alliteration going on- koocheeboogack boogie. It has a nice ring, a certain flair to it. Kooshibooquack boogie has no ring. It doesn’t make any sense at all. Unless you change the song to be about ducks or something. So I’m going to keep pronouncing it my way, thank you very much.
Since it was a cold day in February, there was lots of snow and no people, and no real view of anything, but it didn’t matter- I was in Kouchibouguac National Park, fulfilling my lifelong (well, year-long, at least) dream. We took some pictures, Ron and I doing flips into the snow, and then of course I had to perform my song. I sang it with gusto, doing the actual boogie while I was at it. Only, I don’t really know what a boogie is, so mainly I just hopped in the snow flailing my arms around while singing about needing a bivouac and such. It was fun, and there exists a picture of me doing it, if you’d like to see and learn how to do it yourself.
It’s easy, especially if you have a kayak.
