This is the story of my life so far: 68 years and counting.
Prequel: A Brief History of my Family in France
The story starts here
Previous episode: Part 99
In February 1994, as I explained already, I was sent by my employer, CR2A, to work for four months on CAATS, the Canadian Automated Air Traffic System, that Hughes Aircraft of Canada was developing in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.
Hughes Aircraft put me in a hotel in Richmond and gave me a rental car. And I started working for CAATS immediately after my arrival.
They made me work in the lower layers of the system, a set of software components we called later the DVM: Distributed Virtual Machine.
After three weeks, I had decided that the job was a good fit for me and I asked to be hired. I met people from Human Resources, and I asked for 100,000 Canadian Dollars per year. They told me that they were not authorized to hire me at this salary and that they would need to ask the head office of the company. I told them that they should do it because I would not come to work for CAATS for less than 100 K.
Two weeks later, I signed a contract for 98,500 Canadian Dollars per year, with a promise to increase to 100 K in less than a year.
I had decided to live near my place of work, and I found a house to rent in Richmond, that was big enough so that each of the children had their own bedroom.
For my children to be allowed to immigrate, they needed to have student authorizations. So, I went to three different schools in Richmond and asked them for a letter indicating that they would be glad to have the children as students in September 1994: elementary school for Gaëlle, junior secondary school (grades 8, 9 and 10) for Syrille and Betty and secondary school (grades 11 and 12) for Roseline. I had no problem getting the three letters.
I went back to France for ten days at the end of March and I told my children that we would move to Canada in July. I learned later that they did not believe me. At least, they did not believe that we would move permanently to Canada.
I went back to work for CAATS in April and May, and I came back to France at the beginning of June. We were ready to immigrate to Canada, but we still had no passports for Syrille and Gaëlle!
Continue to Part 101
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Summary
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7
Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14
Part 15 - Part 16 - Part 17 - Part 18 - Part 19 - Part 20 - Part 21
Part 22 - Part 23 - Part 24 - Part 25 - Part 26 - Part 27 - Part 28
Part 29 - Part 30 - Part 31 - Part 32 - Part 33 - Part 34 - Part 35
Part 36 - Part 37 - Part 38 - Part 39 - Part 40 - Part 41 - Part 42
Part 43 - Part 44 - Part 45 - Part 46 - Part 47 - Part 48 - Part 49
Part 50 - Part 51 - Part 52 - Part 53 - Part 54 - Part 55 - Part 56
Part 57 - Part 58 - Part 59 - Part 60 - Part 61 - Part 62 - Part 63
Part 64 - Part 65 - Part 66 - Part 67 - Part 68 - Part 69 - Part 70
Part 71 - Part 72 - Part 73 - Part 74 - Part 75 - Part 76 - Part 77
Part 78 - Part 79 - Part 80 - Part 81 - Part 82 - Part 83 - Part 84
Part 85 - Part 86 - Part 87 - Part 88 - Part 89 - Part 90 - Part 91
Part 92 - Part 93 - Part 94 - Part 95 - Part 96 - Part 97 - Part 98
Part 99