Tiny aggravations

For the most part I have no problem navigating Montreal or doing things here. But once in awhile I do have issues with my new French speaking province.

The first main difficulty was when I finally received my computer at work. Let me start by griping about my French keyboard. I was so lost when I first received it. I spent my first week typing haltingly. I'd be typing along merrily but when it came to punctuation I'd be jerked to a stop. There's a lot more punctuation/accents in French, so there are extra keys (e.g. I have an "Alternate Character" button to the right of the space bar). These extra keys have displaced my normal punctuation keys. For example, the @ symbol can only be inserted via "Alt-char+2." My quotation punctuation is shift+2, question mark is shift+6, etc. And don't even get me on the # sign. That's one I still have to search for even after a month.

The new keyboard wouldn't have been so bad except that I had to learn now only where to find the new key placements, but I also had to learn how to type quickly with them. I'm not used to that Alt-char button. So I still have issues typing fast because I have to remove my whole right hand in order to reach down and hit it. I feel like I need to take some French keyboarding lessons. And now that I've gotten used to typing in French, it's a pain to go home and type on my English keyboard. I keep having to correct my grammar. I think I might just give up and change my keyboard settings to French.

Another computer issue I have is with the actual programs. I asked for the French operating system and French programs because I figured it would be good practice. Other than some confusion trying to figure out what certain links mean, I can navigate them with little to no confusion. The problem I have now is that all the keyboard short cuts that I know are no longer valid! E.g. I can no longer click ctrl+b to make something bold. Instead I have to hit ctrl+g, G standing for "gras." Do you think I can remember things like this? Nope.

I also have problems using Excel now because all my formulas have to be in French! I couldn't for the figure out why my "concatenate" formula wasn't working the one day (I had typed it out manually and the French error message didn't help at all). It wasn't until I went through the automatic formula creator did I realize that the "concatenate" formula didn't exist. Instead I had to use "concatener." Whoops.

Surfing the internet is also a veritable pain. Why? Because computers are too nosy and smart for their own good. Google detects that I'm using a French computer, so it returns French websites only. I have to rewrite my search to make it obvious that it's an English search, or I have to switch my google preferences to English. (The latter is a pain because it eventually resets to French again.) Other websites will also automatically log me into the French language portal. I'll then spend 5 minutes hunting out the American or English versions of the webpage.

Now, all of the irritations above pale in comparison to this final one. This is the cherry on the top of my grievances with Quebec. I'm no longer eligible for many contests. Every time I see an interesting contest online I see a message, "Residents of Quebec are ineligible for this contest." No more free stuff. No more free draws. Nothing. Quebec? I think I hate you.