So, I’ve been in Canada for five days now. I’m living in a small town called Sainte-Adèle, about an hour away from Montreal. It’s fair to say, I think, that there’s not a lot happening in Sainte-Adèle. It’s in the Laurentides region of Quebec, which is rather well known for skiing in the winter, but in the summer, there’s not much there.
I’m working, as some of you may know, for Enzyme Testing Labs, a computer games QA company. I’m supposed to be testing the linguistic accuracy of games. Which means, basically, that I play computer games until I find a spelling/grammar/syntax/translation/stupid mistake, at which point I fill out a bug report, then keep going. I’ve signed quite a hefty NDA, so there’s really not a lot I can say about Enzyme, but I don’t think it’s giving too much away to say that I’m the only UK English speaker there, so I get to do all the English testing. (There is an American chappy, but he doesn’t count.)
I landed at Montreal Trudeau airport at about 7.30pm local time (half-past midnight BST) on Wednesday, but didn’t actually leave the airport until 11.30 (4.30am BST) – this was because we were waiting for a German chappy who was also starting at Enzyme, and he had some immigration/work permit related problems. Anyhoo, the next day we weren’t expected in work (thank goodness), so we spent the day discovering quite how little there was to do in Sainte-Adèle. Friday was first day of work, which we spent filling out forms and getting some training in how the company works.
Yesterday (Sunday) was Saint-Jean Baptiste day, which is Québec’s national holiday. So there was a concert and firework display in the evening, which was nice, and today (Monday) is a day off, which is also nice. What’s better is that next Sunday is Canada Day (or CanaDay), so next Monday is also a day off. Paid days off, that is.
I’ve got a couple of photos of the town to upload, which I shall do shortly.
Like the statue. Nice easy way too ease you into work, this four day week… Does everyone else speak french at Enzyme? (or is this in the NDA?)
Carola
Yeah, four day weeks = good. Steep hills and hot weather = bad.
Most people at Enzyme speak French (most of the functionality testers – that is, those who play the games to check they actually work – are locals, so speak Quebecois). That said, though, the lingua franca, ironically, seems to be English. But meetings and conversations tend to shift between the two – as is the case generally in Quebec, I think. French normally, shifting into English when necessary.