Homebound

As you probably inferred from a recent post of mine, Montreal has been on my mind a lot lately. It's not so much that Helene and I are sick and tired of Shanghai; sure, some aspects are not as novel, and shall we say, not as cute anymore. Overall, though, I can't say I'm tired of living here, not by a long shot.

However, this notion that I could return, however temporarily, to Montreal has started to gain ground lately. Helene and I are feeling like we need to take a step back, take a breath of fresh Quebec air, and ponder and absorb what we've lived through in the last 3 years.

From a professional angle, the choice is much less clear. There are awesome opportunities for me both in Shanghai and in Montreal - in great part because of our success on the E3 demo - and I'm faced with the best kind of dilemma: the hardest one.

And so, I'm spending a lot of my time thinking and talking, as of late. I've already made my choice, mostly, but I now have to let it simmer a bit, and really ponder what sacrifices I'm making by taking this choice.

You see, as things stand right now, I'm heading to Montreal this October.

Is this the end of the Shanghai adventure? I highly doubt it. Simply put, I have deep ties of affection with Shanghai, and I suspect that stepping away from it for one year will simply make me yearn for the life here all the more. I also have excellent relationships here in the studio, and the only thing that keeps me sane in considering leaving the Ubisoft Shanghai studio is the fact that I can return at a later date, my head filled with new ideas from being exposed to Montreal's methods and challenges.

Lost in Translating

Picture this: two Western men are standing in a street in Shanghai. They stand in exactly the same spot, looking around.

One of them is looking at the street with new eyes, being newcomer in the city. The heat, the pollution, the noise, the smells assail him and prevent him from clearly perceiving details around him. All he perceives is a mess of new experiences, jockeying in a screaming manner for his full attention.

The second one has lived in the city for many years, and has long since adapted to the pace of the city. For him, all inconveniences experienced by his companion are mere background noise. He glances around at the Chinese signs, and can make most of them out: Florist. Noodle restaurant. Clothes shop. The voices of the people around him bring him small echos of mundane conversations, about the weather, about the World Cup, about life as it is everywhere on Earth.

Now here's the question that fascinates me: how can two people, standing in exactly the same geographical location, retain such dramatically different experiences of the world around them?

How possible is translation between these two experiences? And if it is so difficult with the exact same point of reference, how could it be possible to communicate Shanghai to somebody, say, who has never set foot in Asia?

I'm pondering these questions at this time, because I had exactly this kind of cognitive disconnection these last two weeks; you see, my younger brother Philippe came out and experienced Shanghai first-hand in my company.

It's been a strange trip, I think, for him. Because of a number of factors, including my work just not letting me up, bad June heat, and a lingering sickness on my part, I didn't take him around China nearly as much as I feel I should have. For instance, we had initially planned on visiting Beijing for 3 days, but the prospect of climbing a mountain in 45 C degree heat, be it to reach the Great Wall, daunted us both.

Overall, I took him through the 'classics', hoping something would connect him to China and make him fall in love with the life here, but the good old tricks just didn't seem to work. Oh, he did appreciate a few things, for sure; he had a great time receiving grade-A massages, as well as discovering some of the food, but I didn't see in his eyes the spark that I saw, say, in my friend Flint's eyes when he visited. In other words: if China was a person I introduced to him, he would have found her a pleasant girl to hang out with, but probably felt no need to befriend her.

The rest, as we say, was lost somewhere in translation.

Gifts Great and Small

Wednesday night, the E3 Core Team gathered at Ubisoft's favorite Shanghainese restaurant, 海上阿叔 ("Shanghai Uncle"), for one final cheer over our accomplishment. We had an awesome time, and much wine was drunk as we cheered on.

In the middle of the meal, Julian, our Marketing Game Manager, announced that the team had elected a "MVP" by unanimous agreement... and that this MVP was me. I was stunned, but not as much as when they took out a gift for me. You see, the team, to thank me for my work, bought me a frickin' 30GB iPod Video.

I was speechless. It would have been a very nice gift if Ubisoft had offered it to me, but this was a gift that my team bought for me. I can hardly believe it. Wow.

So this morning, I'm going to the cafeteria with my iPod playing some Jan Jelinek, when one 阿姨 ("ayi") calls me over. She had promised to give me some sticky rice with beef for breakfast this morning, and she was determined to keep her promise. So I waited idly as she microwaved some sticky rice for me, and went to my desk to eat it.

Eating sticky rice, while listening to my iPod. Enjoying two gifts at the same time, one great, and one small. That's a hell of a good way to start a morning.