Previous: July
After we returned from the vocation (1 August) I had a headache for a few days (it was probably a sun stroke), so I relaxed.
St.-Joseph-de-Beauce
After a while, Sara and I went to her hometown St.-Joseph-de-Beauce. We stayed a couple of days in the house of Sara’s mother (her mother was in the US at that time, she is a truck driver).
I made acquaintance with some more Sara’s relatives, in particular with her cousin Marie-Eve. Together we played music, went swimming, and also made wooden tablets for the student garden. It was an enjoyable and mind-refreshing experience.
Festival of the New France
That was another summer festival in Québec -- Les fêtes de la Nouvelle France (6 - 10 Aug.). I went to the Old Québec and visited a few sites of the celebration.
There I listened to traditional songs, saw costumes, and even met an Indian tribe.
Buying a computer
At the end of August I finally bought a computer for myself. Before that I've never had my own PC: I used them in libraries, at work, and shared one with my sister. Now I have one entirely my own.
Its specifications:
I deleted all games (I can't stand them). On the other hand, I installed a Russian version of MS Office which I brought from Russia.
This PC I bought at Futureshop at Place Laurier, which is not far from my house. The cost including the tax and two year's guarantee was 1400 CAD.
I got the Internet access using AOL.ca. The access is unlimited and the first 3 months are free. The Internet connection is much better that I had in Russia, there are practically no disconnections. However, there are a lot of pop-ups. I think they are only in this system (AOL) because I didn't see such pop-ups before. In order to use AOL I had to connect using their software, which I detest because of all its American-style advertising. While I'm online it cannot be switched off, but it can be minimized.
What I like about this computer is that it's fast enough to download music files (mp3). I can also burn my own CDs! I've been visiting Russian music sites to download music which I like: songs of Andrei Mironov and other songs from Soviet cinema, Russian and Soviet popular songs of the "retro style".
Job hunting
I’ve started to look for a job more actively. This year I have enough to live on, but I don’t want to spend all that was saved with so much effort, and I need to work in order to practice my skills.
I’ve been looking for office jobs (administrative assistant, office clerk, etc.). I've been also looking up the jobs for translators, but all I see is for English – French translation, sometimes vice versa. There seems to be some demand for Spanish too, but hardly for other languages. Unfortunately, my French is not yet good enough for many office jobs, let alone translation.
I’ve visited two employment centres in my neighbourhood. One is the local employment centre (CLE) of Emploi Québec at Sainte-Foy. This is a state agency, similar to Arbetsförmedlingen in Sweden. Job seekers can search employment on the site, use PCs for writing resumes and applications, apply for jobs by email and fax, and consult catalogues listing local companies. There are also trainings on job-seeking techniques. I decided to visit this office from time to time to keep abreast of the local labour market news, trainings, and to be able to apply by fax.
The major drawback of the Emploi Québec site is that its key word search (e.g. skills) is not fully functional. One has to choose a job title first, but there are dozens of similar job titles (commis de bureau, adjoint administratif, administrateur, etc.).
I still find this site useful, because it seemingly has the largest number of jobs in the area, and many entry-level jobs. I think that only on this site one can see a listing of jobs in Sainte-Foy, where I live (about 70 jobs every day).
Another service which I have been using extensively is Service de placement de l’Université Laval. They have an excellent resource centre at Laval University, which I haven't yet started to utilise fully. This service is for students and graduates, I've have also signed me up because I have finished a course of French there.
I also filled in my data on two other useful sites (Job boom and Workopolis) and activated job alert functions.
Next: September
Start Page > Québec > August 2003