Then, with the help of Centre Multiethnique de Québec, I rented a room not far from the city centre.
It's a small furnished room (3 x 4 m) in a two-storey building. The building is divided into rooms for lodging (9 on each floor) with shared facilities (kitchen, toilet and shower). In my room I have a divan-bed, a desk and a chair, a sink, and a buil-in closet. There are no facilities for washing clothes (there are self-service laundries in the city that charge 5 for washing and drying). The rent is 285 CAD/month.
The lodgers in other rooms that I know are francophones living on well-fare. I don't talk with them much, because I spend most of the time in the city.
My new address: 612 Christophe Colomb Ouest, ch. 16, Québec, QC, G1N 2K4, Canada. Tel: +1 418 527 1792.
Advantages of the location: near to the city centre (20 min.) and various services (MRCI, library, swimming pool, supermarket). Disadvantage: no trees.
The historical centre is very beautiful, but in my area is boring: boxlike 2-storey houses and the multitude of wires hanging over the streets (the latter is probably a local feature, though I have to admit, that there’s something romantic about these wires, and they don’t jar the eyes so much as concrete lampposts in Russia). Going north, you’ll see wide motorways, concrete buildings but very few trees; there the city is made more for car drivers rather than pedestrians and bikers (North-American style).
The streets are not very clean, though cleaner than Moscow’s.
The city area where I live (St-Sauveur) is considered the poorest. Here the people are generally not so well dressed and the Salvation Army cafe is full with customers. The shops located here sell mostly second-hand goods.
Now that I have the library card, I can also use computers for word processing in the library.
Well, the library is fantastic! That's what I've liked here most of all so far. I didn't see anything of this kind even in Sweden.
I'm using the central city library, Biblioteque Gabrielle-Roy, situated at 15 minutes' walk from my dwelling. The library has 3 storeys with book shelves, all open to the public, and additional facilities:
The books are mostly in French and English, but there's also a section with a few thousands books in foreign languages. There are just about ten books in Russian, and most of them are tamizdat published in Paris in the 1960-70s (to mark my new membership, I added one of my Russian books to this collection).
The atmosphere is very cosy owing to carpets on all floors, good lighting, and a murmuring fountain in the centre. The library is open 7 days a week, most days until 9 p.m. At 8.45 they start to play a sad Vivaldi's tune, to make the readers aware of the need to vacate this temple of knowledge - until the next day.
At the suggestion of SOIIT (Service d'orientation et d'Integration des immigrants au travail de Québec) I went to Ecole Louis Jolliet and took a test there. Their course starts on April 22.
Then I got a phone call from MRCI that they would probably have an advanced course starting on 3 April. I signed up for this one as well and informed Ecole Louis Jolliet.
As for clothes and especially shoes, the selection is limited. I couldn't find a good winter boots. The shoes are all too heavy and usually made of artificial materials.
A few more prices (CAD)
A sales tax of 15% is added to almost all prices (except food, and maybe some other goods).
On 27 March I visited Laval University, and then went to explore the shopping centres nearby: Place St-Foy, Place de la Cité, Place Laurier. All of them were too expensive (shoes up to 500 CAD!). The only affordable shops I saw (at Place Laurier) were "Zellers" and "Dollarama" (the latter sells simple stuff, mainly from China). "Zellers" is good for clothes (I bought jeans there), and it also has inexpensive electronics, household items, etc., but shoes there are too stiff and heavy. The walk to this shopping centre and back home took me about 2.5 hours (I mainly went to visit the university).
On 31 March I walked to the shopping centre at Fleur de Lys, to the north of my home. For non-food, Zellers was again the most affordable, though there are a few other interesting shops there as well, e.g. FutureShop (electronics). As for food, I found a relatively inexpensive Maxi ("Le panier le moins cher") which is like a big warehouse almost empty of personnel. This shopping centre, with its enormous parking lots, is convenient for drivers. The walk there and back home took me about 1.5 hours.
Besides me, there were seven other participants: from France, Romania, Peru, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Benin, Tunis. They have lived here a few months to a few years.
The first day was devoted to the labour market of the Quebec City region.
Quebec’s economic model can be placed between those of Sweden and the USA. The labour market here is relatively decentralised, dynamic and "mixed up". The most important sectors are biotechnology, timber processing, mechanical engineering, construction / property development, tourism, and health care. In this region, the employers are mainly small and medium enterprises.
Some professions in Quebec are regulated (including translators). There are 45 professional corporations, which ensure professional competence.
Labour market statistics (Quebec City region)
It can be seen that the percentage employed in agriculture is very small due to mechanisation and foreign trade (that's why there's so much inedible food here :(.
Large employers: Stadacona (paper-making), Hydro-Quebec (electricity).
During the next session we were identifying our Holland codes. It was determined that my code is CIE (conventional, investigative, enterprising). I knew that I’m conventional (i.e. following the procedures), but I was pleasantly surprised that I’m enterprising too (well, that explains why I often feel the need for a change of scenery!).
On the last day of the group work we were asked to go over a long list of professions and see what appeals to us and whether our likings match our personality codes. I didn’t see many professions that I felt like going into, most of them were purely technical and/or manual.
I’m attracted to social sciences, but that will take a long time to study, so it will be later. After studying a course of French, which will take a couple of months, I would like to go to work, because I’d like to acquire work experience in Quebec and learn about this society by working. I would like to work now, because recently in Russia I couldn’t find a good job. Last, but not least, I need money: living here is much more expensive than in Russia.
Now it doesn’t matter very much what job title I will have and in which sector I’ll work. What’s important is for me is to work side by side with French-speaking people, use my existing skills as much as possible, and gain new ones.
On 1 April, I’m going to have a personal consultation with the job counsellor.
P.S. See also my comments (negative) about SOIIT here.
Here I compare Quebec with Sweden. In Russia life is much different from both of these countries.
On balance, my impressions of Quebec are quite positive. What I like most:
On the negative side:
Next: April 2003
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