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Posts Tagged ‘quebec’

  1. Umm… so much for “coming soon”

    September 1, 2007 by dafyd

    Three weeks ago I said I was going to write an update on my activities over the previous three weeks. That never happened. Oops.

    There are some good reasons (well, reasons, anyway): I’ve been very busy. I’ve just finished working twelve days straight at Enzyme (lots of overtime pay – yay!); I’m still trying to write two essays before returning to Durham; I’ve been working on various projects for the JCR; I’ve discovered Weeds, and have promptly watched all 26 episodes; and I’ve been teaching myself how my lovely gorgeous new MacBook works.

    But here is, at the very least, a brief update. First things first, thanks to everyone for your birthday wishes. Strangely, being 21 doesn’t feel much different to being 20. There’s nothing (I think) that I can do here that I couldn’t before (I can’t stand for the Canadian parliament anyway).

    This weekend is Labour Day weekend, so there’s no work on Monday – woo – so I’ve taken myself off to Quebec City to do some sightseeing (I’m blogging this using the hotel’s free Wi-Fi). It’s a bit of a strange city, to tell the truth: it’s the capital city of the province, but Montreal has all the financial/commercial clout, so all it has to do is the governing. Quebec City is the only fortified city in North America (think York, British people), and is, I believe, a World Heritage Site. It also has the oldest stone church on this side of the world. Like York, it’s full of tourists.

    On Thusday, the mayor of Quebec City, Andrée Boucher, died. She was, apparently, ridiculously popular. Her funeral was today, in the centre of Quebec City (from now on, I’m just going to type Québec – it’s shorter) – so there were huge (-er than normal) crowds, lots of important people, and a saturation of policemen. I got off the train this morning knowing nothing about this (I knew she’d died, but not about the funeral and crowds), and was a bit bemused by the fact that all the flags (and in Québec there are a lot of them) were at half-mast.

    I’ll upload photos of Québec as soon as I can. And, with any luck, it won’t be another three weeks before my next blog. And I may talk about some of those things I meant to talk about…

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  2. Catch-up

    August 7, 2007 by dafyd

    I can’t help but notice that I’ve not blogged about what I’ve been up to the past three or so weeks, so I hereby give you warning of a mega-bumper post (or several shorter posts) coming very soon, featuring some or all of the following:

    Potter night – with thousands of crazy Canadians, at least three of whom were Little Britain fans. Gah, I can’t escape him.

    Washington D.C., featuring guest appearances by Segways and iPhones.

    The Bourne Ultimatum – in the running for Dafyd’s Film of the Year. Definitely the best of the three-quels we’ve had this summer.

    The Simpsons Movie – 80 minutes of pure fun. Excellent.

    The FrancoFolies in Montreal – the third mega-huge festival the city’s had since I’ve been in Québec.

    And much, much more (well, not really). There may, possibly, be a special appearance by a cuddly little beaver I found hiding at the side of the road, if I can get my phone to work to retrieve the photos…

    A reminder, too: it’s my 21st birthday on Thursday. This Thursday. That is all.

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  3. Banque

    July 13, 2007 by dafyd

    Last Thursday, I was paid for my first couple of weeks work at Enzyme. But no social insurance number = no bank account = nowhere to bank a cheque. Sigh.

    On Friday I finally got a social insurance number (this involved a rather enjoyable couple of hours out of work, so that was fun). But… both of the banks in Sainte-Adèle close at 4pm on Fridays (and, in fact, every other day of the week but Thursdays). They’re not open at all on Saturdays and Sundays. Crazy.

    So today was the first chance I had to open a bank account. I stopped in at the Caisse Populaire (what we in the UK would call a Mutual, were there any left) and asked to open an account. The nice young lady on reception smiled, apologised, and said she had no appointments available before July 25th. Pfah. I want my money now.

    On to the Banque Nationale, then. The receptionist there smiled, apologised, and said it would be impossible to see me before 5 o’clock. This was at 4.45. Guess with whom I opened an account…

    Here, you have to pay for absolutely every service at the bank. It’s a bit strange – $1 to deposit a cheque, and so on. The bank does “packages”, where you get a certain number of transactions and whatnot for a set monthly fee. Coming from somewhere where any attempt by banks to charge you for your own money makes newspaper headlines, it takes some getting used to…

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  4. Hee hee

    June 27, 2007 by dafyd

    Looks like I left just in time…

    The weather: Montreal hot; Nottingham not

    That said, though, steep hills and hot weather do not a happy Dafyd make.

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  5. Bienvenue à Sainte-Adèle

    June 25, 2007 by dafyd

    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.

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  6. Montreal, here I come

    June 19, 2007 by dafyd

    Finally, nine weeks after applying, I have received my work permit from the Canadian High Commission. I am flying to Montreal tomorrow afternoon, and will start work there as soon as I can…

    Woo.

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  7. Québec Update, Part the Second

    May 19, 2007 by dafyd

    The Canadian High Commission updated its website today (or yesterday, but I’m pretty certain it was today). Previously, as I said on Thursday, there was no indication of how long one should wait for a work permit application, just a vague “most are dealt with in three weeks” kind of statistic.

    Now, as well as changing the yellow background to white and tidying up a little (just a little – it’s now slightly easier to find what you’re looking for), they’ve added this little gem: “the average processing time for a fully completed, standard application is approximately 4 to 6 weeks.” So, double what it was four weeks ago, when I submitted my application.

    Gits.

    In the meantime, I have a little bit of 1990s Canadian nostalgia to keep me going, from the legen-wait for it-dary How I Met Your Mother:

    You need the free Macromedia Flash Player to watch this video. Download it here.

    If you’re reading this in a feedreader, or in Facebook or the like, you’ll have to click through to the actual post. Make sure you do, though – it’ll make your day!

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  8. Year Abroad Update

    May 17, 2007 by dafyd

    As those of you who have been paying attention will have picked up, this year is my “year abroad”, the third year of my four year degree course that should be spent in the countries whose languages I am studying.

    I’ve done my time in Egypt (studying Arabic at the University of Alexandria), and for the last few months I’ve been trying to organise a placement/job in Québec, to improve my French. Just over a month ago, I was offered a job by Enzyme Testing Labs, proofreading computer games (that is, checking that the English used in the game is correct). I eagerly accepted the job and applied for my work permit, which is required to work in Canada.

    Five weeks on, I’m due to start in Montreal on Monday. I was set to fly today. But I don’t have a work permit yet. The Canadian High Commission in London (bonus points to anyone who can find what they’re looking for on that website) has had my application, along with C$150, since 20 April. They suggest that most permits are issued within about three weeks, but that you can ask for an update on its progress after ten days. This I have done, using the email form on their website twice, and faxing them (who uses fax anymore?). No response. They have no direct email address, no telephone number, and don’t accept visitors in person.

    So, I’m still sitting at home, frustrated, unable to travel to Canada to start this job until the High Commission sends me my work permit. When will that be? Who knows?

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  9. Job hunting

    December 2, 2005 by dafyd

    Well, kind of.

    Next year, all modern languages students have to spend the year “immersed in the languages and cultures” that they are studying. So, basically, we have to spend time in the Middle East and France.

    Except I don’t want to go to France.

    Oh no. I have to be difficult and decide I want to spend six months (or whatever – it’s a bit confused at the moment) in Québec.

    So I’ve just spent the afternoon folding. licking and sticking CVs and lettres de motivation to send to unsuspecting companies in Québec.

    And on that subject, if anyone reading this happens to know anyone based in Québec looking to take on a Durham languages student for six months (ish) early in 2006, let me know! Or even better, let them have a copy of my CV and lettre de motivation (both PDF format – and in French, surprisingly enough)…

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