Finding your first new Job in Canada

I'm surprised I haven't thought about a guide to help people find their first job in Canada!  I'm thinking about it these days because I am job hunting myself again now.

I think it is very hard to find a job before you get here.  Canadians really life to find people with Canadian experience, I'm not very sure about what that means and what you can do about it. I can only imagine they prefer you have experience working with Canadian and not making cultural gaffs.  From a broad perspective you want to find Jobs on LinkedIn, Indeed or Job Bank.  These are the primary sites that Canadian Employees use to post their vacancies.

The second thing you need to get sorted is your resume.  C.V.'s are not the term and the resume needs to be short, only two pages.  Remember that a recruiter is only going to spend a few seconds on it so you want the important information right up front and on top.  A good summary at the top under your name is a good place to start.  Getting too fancy with the formatting is not a good idea because you can make it hard for a recruiter to read the information.  Even for a bot to read it too, because lets face it, there are a lot of recruitment bots now these days that score resumes.

Hunting for a job myself reminds me how important Network is. That is obviously hard to deal with as a person new to Canada.  The good news is that Canadians are always willing to help.  Remember, no-one is going to give you a job out right, but if you ask them to be a reference, or to put your name forward, you will certainly get more opportunities.  I reach out to people on LinkedIn and try to connect with them, also go to networking events and ask people to connect with you on LinkedIn.  You might be able to find someone in a company you are applying for and then you can ask them to put your name forward.  The other day just finding the recruiter helped me get an interview.  The Government helps and there are many "Bridging" programs out there!  They have two advantages, they help you perfect your Resume and they give you Canadian experience!  For me I used the office in Markham from JobSkills.  Their address is 4961 Highway 7, Units 100-101, Markham, L3R 1N1.

Personally it took me a full three months to find my first job.  I also got lucky, I had a specific skill match in the field I was looking for.  A friend of mine took a bit longer, but did some volunteering at her local church to get that Canadian Experience.  I do hear of a lot of people doing ride sharing or food delivery.  These are ways to earn quick cash, but take away from the time you spend trying to find work.

Finally I want to share there are definitely seasons in the Job hunting market here in Canada.  Summer and January are very quiet periods.  Summer is when everyone is taking vacation, it takes a while to line up interviews with line managers and then the recruiter is on holiday, you will need to be extra patient in the summer months of July and August. Then on top of that people are quite slow the end of December and in January, this is the same around the world.  The end of the year is often a time for family and reflection.

All the best of luck to you!  I hope you find what you're looking for soon!

Canadian Banks - An Immigrants Perspective

One of the first decisions you have to make is which bank you will bank with. It's not an easy decision

since there is not much difference between the main banks here in Canada.  I guess the first thing you will learn is that the Canadian banking system is really backwards.  Other countries are far ahead of Canada when it comes to modern banking, we have still used cheques when completing certain transactions here.

This is the list of the big banks in Canada: RBC, Scotia Bank, BMO, CIBC and TD Bank.
They all offer newcomer packages. there are often specials, for example, get an iPad when you open an account with them etc.  I don't like them because they all come with too many terms and conditions. However, it is important to compare the newcomer packages and you can decide which bank is important for you.

When we arrived we ended up going with TD Bank, our main reason was that they had the best credit limit to offer us and the Bank fees were zero if you held a balance.  Actually, that is the top priority you have when coming to Canada, you need to improve your credit score.  You can do this in a multiple of ways, use the credit card, take out a small loan, but just getting a cell phone account helps too.

Here is a comparison of the banks at the time of writing.

Bank	Minimum Balance	Monthly Fee
RBC	No minimum balance to waive the fee	$0 for the first year and then $11.95
TD Bank	$4000	$16.95
Scotia	$3000	$11.95
BMO	$6000	$17.95
CIBC	$4000	$16.95

There are quite a few low cost banks, the problem is that most are reasonably new and all a lot smaller.  Also they require you to have a bit of a credit history before they will give you anything. The reason why you want to deal with them is you can have free banking without keeping a minimum deposit. Tangerine has been around the longest as far as I know, it is now owned by Scotia Bank.  Unfortunately you won't be able to open a bank account there for at least 3 months after arriving, but that is exactly what I did.  I closed my TD account after 3 months and opened a Tangerine one.  There are other disadvantages though, for example Tangerine can't handle foreign currency.  The mortgage rate is slightly better at TD compared to Tangerine, but it was easier to get my mortgage at Tangerine than TD.

Do your research and we can show the banks that we are discerning and will choose a good bank with reasonable fees.  Another cheaper "Bank" is Simplii (owned by CIBC), also EQ Bank, Neo Financial and Koho are credit card providers with debit card accounts as an option.  I am guessing they will also require you to have your SIN number for 3 months before you can get an account with them.

Where to live when you immigrate to Canada

Here is a nice resource to see what city you want to live in when you arrive in Canada depending on what is important to you.

If you click here you get the overall 2018 ranking.  The ranking is formulated based on measurements of the city, such as growth of the city, affordability, the economy, and then these factors are given various weightings.

Of course, all of us will give the measurements a different weighting, so they have provided some different rankings for specific circumstances, such as families, retiring, best weather, etc.  The families ranking has lots of Quebec cities in it because childcare is very cheap in Quebec.

The ranking we will all be interested in is the New Immigrants Ranking. Having Oakville listed as number 1 has the benefit of living in quite a nice area just outside of Toronto.  It is known as quite a wealthy area with some lovely facilities and you have reasonably easy access to Toronto for work and play. It might not be for all, but it certainly has a lot going for it.  Some would prefer to live in the centre of Toronto, but that comes with a hefty price tag.

Let me know in the comments below which place you chose to live.  We personally chose to live in North York which I enjoy because the commute is much easier.  It is impossible to commute through Toronto to a job on the other side of Toronto, you will spend two to three hours on the road each day if you try to do that.  If you try to take Public Transport it will take even longer!

Toronto has some strange weather

This month we've had it all, snow, sun, rain, freezing rain, hail, -10 degrees and 25 degrees.

Now we have wind.

Look at the consequences! This is at our local Macdonalds.

The Five best apps for a "fresh off the boat" Canadian Immigrant

I think apps are quite useful in our day to day lives so putting together a list of what I think will be useful from an Immigrants perspective will be valuable to any newcomer. These are things that are often only passed on by word of mouth after you arrive, knowledge that would have been so valuable from day one.  I hope you find my list useful, it is in no particular order.

Transit

1. The first priority is getting around, so the first recommendation I'm making is the Transit app.

This is a great app for understanding how to get from a to b and, the best part is, it even works offline. As a new arrival it is expensive to have data plans and free wifi is useless just when you need it the most!
Together with this app I recommend you download an area on Google maps so that it is available offline. Again, if you don't have data there is nothing more frustrating than walking out of the subway and trying to work out which way you need to go, never mind which way is North and which is South!
Once you have a route you take every day you can make use of other Public Transport apps such as Rocket Man or the actual TTC app, but for ease of use when figuring out how to use the TTC I found Transit easiest to use in the beginning.  It even has a Go function which will use your phone's GPS and tell you when to get off the bus and subway.

2. Flipp is a shopping app that benefits from the trend here in Canada of Price Matching.  Price Matching means you can go to one shop in Canada and show them the cheaper price of the product you want to buy at another shop and they will match it.  It makes it so much easier while shopping, you don't have to go to so many different stores to buy things at the lower price.  You can just get everything in one place and make use of Price Match.
Of course, you need to make sure that they participate in the Price Matching agreement, if you're shopping at a major retailer then they will be participating. 
When Flipp first came out retailers didn't accept Flipp as evidence of another retailers price, it was a major problem, but now that Flipp is more popular this is rarely the case.

3. If you want to buy second-hand stuff in Canada Kijiji is the app you will use every day.  You can get anything on it, from furniture to tech items to cars.
It seems far more "well used" than any of the usual
second-hand sites.  For example, eBay, I have not had reason to use it here in Canada yet.  There seems to be less choice on eBay, it's mainly resellers selling their wares, not people selling their unused goods.  Of course Amazon is also huge here, but I will leave that up to you to research.

4. I'm including Linked In on this list because is essential for finding a job in Canada.  There are so many recruiters here that just use Linked In to find candidates, so having a network in Canada with an updated profile is essential.  Of course, there is the usual problem of Canadian Experience, but if you have specific skills this will not be a problem.
It is also something you can start while you are still overseas, start fine tuning your profile so that you appear in more search results.
Here are 13 tips to improve your Linked In profile so that you appear in more search results.  Try to find other ways to make your profile interesting while keeping it professional.

5. Yelp is used quite widely here in Canada.  You have to take every review with a grain of salt, but it certainly helps you find those essential services that you have no idea is around the corner.  I found that Hairdressers were listed, Laundromats were listed and even parks are listed.  I love the emails I get from Yelp suggesting new and interesting things to try.  You'll soon be acting like a Toronto local, checking out all the hip locations in town and visiting all the interesting festivals.  It's a great way to start exploring.  You'll be able to test out all the shops, restaurants and other amenities in your immediate vicinity and figure out what are the best ones that are worth traveling some distance for!

A Movie Moment

These things only happen in movies, right? Again, I've been surprised by North American people, sometimes these things happen in real life.

When you have kids, things get lost. My daughter's school is teaching the kids to read through a plush toy called Rocket which got lost while it was in our care.  So, we did what we could to replace it.  First, there was shopping online, Rocket is popular, but everyone is out of stock. Then there was trying to look on eBay and other second-hand options.  There are very very few plush toy Rockets available.  Those that are available seem to know its a rare item and want to charge up to $80 for a well looked after Rocket.

My wife decided to try the publisher, what better way to find out who might have then to ask the source.  it turned out she was actually emailing the Author, Tad Hills.  His response surprised us, we actually got an email back, directly from him.  He was immediately helpful and suggested that the manufacturer had a single Rocket left for us and that they would give it to us as a gift! Then they shipped it to us at their cost all the way from California, that is 3500kms away from us.  (The thing that made me chuckle was that it took almost two weeks to get here, the joys of the classic postal system.  If you buy something online from a US retailer the courier will get it to you within a week.  It was great because we appreciated the sense of how far it had to travel.)

No-one could believe how generous the writer, Tad Hills, was, I've never known a writer to actually respond let alone help with one of the plush toys.  If for some reason Tad Hills reads this, thank you. It was unexpected, that is always the nicest. You don't expect to be given something by a total stranger, I can't remember it happening before.

How long you need to wait before becoming Canadian

It is interesting to read that this reduction in the period you need to be in Canada is only being implemented now.  I remember that during our application process in 2015 I was already being told that I would only have to wait three years.  I also remember being told that I would be required to be in the country for something like half of the year as well.

According to this story on CTV News it is only being introduced as of 11 October 2017 and the 183 days in a year requirement is falling away. This is obviously great news for those with PR cards for three years or less!

If you want to see more of it on the government website you can go here, but personally, I find the Canadian Government websites quite hard to navigate.

One down, two to go.

We're All Electric Now

We took the plunge and went all electric, I almost can't believe that we have purchased a fully electric vehicle. To be more specific, we got a Nissan Leaf. Ask the journalists and even the car manufacturers about electric vehicles in Canada and they all say the demand isn't there because of the low temperatures in winter, it decreases your range, and because of the large distances needed to travel here. However, when I started the electric car search I couldn't find much stock! The e-Golf was about to be launched (deliveries still need to start) and they have already fulfilled the whole of their 2018 allocation in pre-orders. With the 2018 Nissan Leaf coming out I thought everyone would be holding off on buying the last of the 2017 stock, but I could only find 3 Nissan Leaf's available in whole of the GTA (one of those was in Oakville). I bought the car new, but with the dealer incentives and the $14,000 Ontario rebate on electric cars, it made the price quite attractive, around $25,000.

So why did we ignore the journalists and the car manufacturers and jump right in? Well, I was planning on buying a plug-in hybrid, you get the electric drive, but you have the normal engine to take you all the way to wherever you want. However, when looking at those options two things jumped out at me. Firstly the electric range is ridiculously low, maybe 30 km's, secondly the battery is shoved into the boot of the normal petrol version. So you end up with a petrol car with no boot space. With two kids that was not an option.

Truth be told, my wife was the braver one. She pointed out that we have not yet taken a long trip in Canada after living here for a year and a bit. She pointed out if we really needed to take a long trip that really required a petrol car we could rent one. If we do that once a year we would still be saving money. (At the moment I'm using some of the free charging points wherever I can, so nice to get "gas" for free!)

My main motivation is the low cost to power the vehicle. The low night time electricity rates here in Toronto are 6.5 cents per kWh which means to fully charge the car (it's an SL with a 30kWh battery) will cost $1.95 (this is according to my own logic, please point out in the comments if I've made a mistake in the calculation of multiplying the cost of a kWh with the size of the battery). On a full charge I can go at least 150 km's (more like 190km's), that means driving 600 kms will cost me less than $8. Compare that to a full tank of gas which always cost me at least $40 and I went maximum 400 km's with, then that is a massive saving each time I need to use the car.

What are my thoughts now that we are fully electric? I'm thoroughly enjoying it. There is no range anxiety, I don't charge every day because there is no need. I take advantage of the free charging provided in various locations (there is even one at my office if I can remember to put the cable back in the car). I haven't taken a long trip yet, but I figure I can at least go to a level 3 charger and have lunch and my car will be fully charged in under an hour. I can get to Niagara without charging and I can get to lake Simcoe by charging once. That's quite a few places I can explore in the meantime. Happy travels!

Now if you want to get your own Electric Car here are some websites to help you.

Firstly this is a list of the electric cars available in Canada, I was quite surprised to learn the Europe just has so much more of a selection of electric cars.  As you can see the selection in North America is quite small, at the time of writing this the Renault cars are not available here and VW was starting to launch the e-Golf for the first time as their first EV in Canada.  The VW e-Up is not available.

Secondly, you want to know how much of a rebate your electric vehicle is eligible for?  Well, have a look at this website giving the exact details of what car is eligible for what amount in the Ontario Electric Vehicle Incentive Program.  You don't need to worry about applying for the deduction yourself, the dealer deducts it in the quote and you don't have to pay it first.  Those problems all belong to the dealer, so the only money you need to find is the final amount minus rebate and dealer discounts.

PS: If you want to test drive a few different brand electric cars in one place check out Plug n Drive's Electric Vehicle Discovery Centre at 1126 Finch Ave West in Toronto.  You can see more about what vehicles are available on their website.

Learning about myself

I have a lifetime of learning about myself. Growing up in the church it was always about self analysis and figuring out where you were tricking yourself into thinking you were right with God. There was always some way you could improve.

Having moved to Canada I find there is a lot of motivational stuff to get caught up in here. Seeing it from a distance I used to find it very annoying because it felt like cheese (nonsense people tell themselves to make themselves feel better), but I find now I'm getting caught up in it. I can't figure out if it's because of the life stage I'm in that cheese gets my emotions going. Anything to do with my little daughter tugs at my tear ducts, an opportunity to earn money makes me want to jump right in and do a little cheese makes me feel so much better. Perhaps it's not my luge stage, but the fact I'm now surrounded by motivational adverts, people, podcasts, the the Americas really are the nations of "I can" and that culture of self motivation is all encompassing. I'm investing in the stock exchange believing I can make millions, cycling to work believing I'm an athlete.

I'm trying very hard to prevent myself from making bad decisions as a result of these delusions.  It is fun to push yourself and discover you can achieve more, I'm finding its equally important to pace yourself and change slowly so you don't scare your family that you've gone crazy.

Hopefully I've managed to do that and I'm not going off the rails yet.

Geese eating cars

Just one of the things I've enjoyed about staying in Canada is that there are Geese all around all summer.  We arrived in spring last year and lived near a small lake at Unionville. Each geese parents had several goslings following them. The father on the lookout for any humans straying too close and the mother herding the little ones.

Some people do find it a little difficult because Geese can be a bit aggressive, but I've found you just give them a wide berth and it's lovely to see them everywhere in public.

So at the office I heard the story that there are two geese that have been coming every year to nest on the grounds of our office.  Apparently they've had little goslings every year right in the parking lot of our office block.  This year we got an email that said they were going to try deter the Geese from coming back.  They put out some decoy geese to discourage them from hanging around. There were jokes about the decoy geese flying about the office and hilarity about the suddenness of the email.

The geese left for the day, but then returned. We got another email. They had laid an egg near the cars and we needed to move them. It was quite amazing watching how fearless the geese can be!  Cars were trying to drive down the parking lot to find a spot to park in the morning and the male goose wouldn't let them pass.  The car literally had to back up and drive around him to carry on.  They eventually cordoned off the area so that everyone had to drive around the back.  This was much better for all involved, the geese were obviously getting quite stressed about the cars driving by and the cars clearly didn't want to drive over the geese.

I had taken my bicycle that day and the egg was very near the bicycle rack! I was a bit worried about being able to cycle home, but thought it was worth a shot to try get my bike out early before they were really on the rampage. That gave me the opportunity to film someone else's car being moved. The guy had to climb in on the passenger's side because if he tried the driver's side the geese would have "chased him off" like they "chased off"this car.

At the end of the video I had to laugh, the male goose is clearly very proud of how he managed to chase off that monster creature!
The end of the story unfortunately results in that the geese were relocated despite having a egg.  However it was done by professionals so I trust that everything worked out well for the geese.  However I noticed when I first arrived that there seemed to be geese everywhere, you see an open patch of grass and there are geese on it.  Even when there is no grass sometimes there are geese, quite a few times I've seen one hanging out in the Wallmart parking lot.

Changing your tyres yourself

Phew!  I just finished changing all four tyres in one go.  What a workout, I'm also quite dirty from the process.

So, for those who don't know, in Canada, you should change to winter tyres in the winter, it gives you better grip in freezing conditions (there is no difference on black ice, you need spikes to grip on that!).  Winter Tyres are softer so they operate better in the lower temperature ranges.  Someone said to me that the optimum temperature was 7 degrees celcius.  Then you need to change back to your summer tires (or all seasons) in spring. Having previously gone to the trouble of buying winter tyres and having someone fit them for me, I wanted to save the cash and put the all seasons back on myself.

My first problem was that I have a car with run flats and no spare tyre.  That means the car doesn't come equipped with a jack.  I sorted this out with a colleague by borrowing his jack and I was all ready! Well, I thought I was.  The other thing you need to change tyres is a crow bar!
I decided I wasn't going to let a little thing like a crow bar stop me from changing my tyres tonight! I started asking the neighbours.  The first neighbour was very kind, but was in the same boat as me (except he wasn't bothered about changing his tyres himself).
The second neighbour thought I was plain crazy and couldn't find his crowbar or even his spare tyre anywhere.  He gave me a number for a guy who would come to where the car was parked and change them for $100.
The third neighbour was again very kind and had a Jetta, so I knew where the spare was and that they would have a crowbar.  Thank you so much kind neighbour! (at least I had met this one before, maybe that made they a little more amenable)

Once that drama was complete I finally managed to change the first tyre and noticed a plastic cap in the centre of the steel part that the wheel fits on.  I tried fitting the wheel on and it went on no problem.  I put the bolts in and they went in no problem.  I let the car off the jack and it all looked good.  Then I thought let me google this, I remembered the salesman that sold me the winter tyres talking about plastic spacers and maybe this was them.
A quick google search later and I realised that I definitely had to take them off! The guy ended up driving the car with the spacers on all the way to the garage and he said the car was wobbly and shaky.  The mechanic reckoned that he could easily have died.

I took the tyre off again and took the plastic spacer off, then changed the rest of the tyres and took the car for a spin.  All felt good.

If there are any updates tomorrow I'll let you all know, or maybe I won't because I won't be in any condition to post!

The worst of winter

We really had the worst of winter recently.

First there was freezing rain. It came down all day while I was at the office, so when it was time to go home my car looked like this:

Perfectly normal except there was a solid sheet if ice wrapped around the car, so much ice that I couldn't even open the drivers door! (In Canada they are mad enough to drive on the same side of the road as Americans, so yes, this is the drivers door).

I know the photo is pretty awful, but maybe you can get an idea of how thick it was.

All of that white is ice shavings that I created trying to get through to the glass of the windscreen. In the middle you can see I finally managed to get through and, if you look closely, the ice is about two or three centimetres thick! That isn't from the car standing there for a week, it was only there from nine to five! I was quite blown away to see such a thick layer of ice covering the wind screen wipers (you lift them up when you might get freezing rain because if they get stuck to the windscreen there is a good chance you'll break them trying to get them unstuck).

Of course, a few days after the rain we got heavy snow. Here's a short video of me driving in our office parking lot.

This is the second time I've driven in heavy snow and I realise it's better to drive in snow that no-one else had driven in than to follow in another persons tracks. For those of you that think this is obvious, it actually isn't. If you've never driven in snow all you know is that snow and ice is dangerous, you don't know that compacted snow turns into ice which is what makes snow dangerous. Before anyone has driven on it you actually get some good traction. You may laugh at me, but I thought winter tires were for diving in snow, so I didn't get them until someone mentioned to me that they operate best at 7 degrees Celsius. That was almost December already, hardly a winter tyre in stock any more.  I mistakenly believed that once the snow fell in Canada you never saw the ground again until spring.

I'm still not an expert in this snow driving so I haven't pushed it. I'm pretty sure that if I accelerated suddenly or turned sharply my wheels would lose thier grip even on fresh snow. The trip home was still fun for me, it felt like I needed a 4x4 / all wheel drive vehicle to navigate the roads. The little car I was in managed very well though. In fact I saw a big fat rear wheel drive Mustang going up a slight incline and every time he touched the gas the bum started sliding out. My theory was there was just too much power from even the slightest touch of the accelerator.

In closing I know this article makes it seem like winter in Canada is unbearable, however it has been a very mild winter. Only two heavy snowfalls so far, one freezing rain (apparently the worst one my colleagues have experienced) and a few freezing cold days that are below -10 degrees Celcius.  With those few difficulties you can actually have a lot of fun too.  There is Ice Skating, almost every where has a skating rink, here is just a list of the ones that the city of Toronto provides. If you don't have skates look out for the ones that have Skate Hire like Nathan Phillips.

Something my daughter and I love to do is toboggan.  We've only managed it twice so far because we didn't want to travel, but next winter I'm sure we will.

Then there is Skiing and Snow boarding.  I have heard of poeple going snow shoeing and then there is just staying indoors and enjoying a nice hot drink and watching the snow fall outside.

As per TorontoGuardian.com

The actual cost of buying a car in Ontario, Canada

I always tell people to not buy a car until they really really need one.  There are so many hidden costs with a car.  I miss the days when it was just me and my bicycle.

My first tip starts with: get the Canadian Drivers licence first. If you've had your licence for a year before you buy a car then your insurance is going to be so much cheaper, if it's been two years all the better!  Remember, Canadian insurance companies only care about your Canadian Drivers Licence, it mostly doesn't matter how long you've had another country's drivers licence for.  When I arrived I was quoted $4000 for the year.  In fact I am still in that category.  Here are the results of an online quote request done on https://www.lowestrates.ca

(You can write to me on the contact page if you're looking for an insurer willing to take your foreign driving experience into account, I am now paying about $150 a month.)

Ok, so, insurance is the most obvious extra cost of a car, the next is licensing.  At the time of writing this it is $120 a year in Toronto which you can see on the Ontario website here.

Next is parking, maybe you get a parking for free at home, sometimes you have to rent it, but going to town the Green P is going to charge you at least $3.50 for the privilege of leaving your car on their premises.  Maybe you park an hour in a month on the weekend trying to find free parking and taking a longer walk to get to where you want to go.

Of course, there is also petrol, let's say you have an economical car and you do around 8 litres per 100 kilometres and you do very little driving in a month, maybe 500km's.  If the average petrol price is lucky enough to remain around the $1 mark your cost for the month will be $40.

Then there is the problem of washing the car.  For a Basic car wash at your local petrol (gas) station it's going to cost $9 a wash and you should probably wash it once a month.  In winter you are going to need to wash it twice a month to get the salt off (and prevent it from rusting)

The other fun thing I found out was that my insurance was going to be another $500 a year if I didn't buy winter tires, so I spent another $600 dollars on buying winter tyres so that I can save that in the second year.

Estimated Monthly costs of a car: $52.50
Estimated Yearly costs of a car: $4,120 + ($52.50 x 12 month) = $4,750

As some nice alternatives there is public transport and then there is car sharing.  The only one I know about at the moment is Zip Car and usually they are only really available around Down Town.

Estimated yearly costs of taking public transport: $1,820.  That is a 61% saving per year (I assumed you would travel twice each work day).

Estimated yearly cost of Zip Car: $650. (I assumed you would take a single one hour trip each weekend, while the lowest hourly rental is advertised as $7ph I could only find cars that were $11.75 an hour).  While this is cheaper than public transport I am sure you will also take public transport on occasion.  Even if you combine a daily public transport commute with 1 Zip Car weekend trip each month you will come out around $2,600 for the year, some 45% cheaper still.

What's my conclusion?  Take the TTC for your commute if you are able to and add Zip Car for when you really would like to have the luxury of a car.

Driving in snow

This was quite an interesting first-time experience.  It basically snowed heavily just before heading home for work.  The snow ploughs were out and about, but they hadn't been able to start their job yet because the traffic was so heavy.

We all had to crawl along at 20 kilometres an hour, so it took quite a bit longer to head home than usual.



In the light of my previous post I am still thoroughly enjoying all this.  It was fascinating to realise that my car didn't just spin out of control like you sometimes see on Youtube (like this one).  I saw the exit of my office as a rather steep slope where you have to stop and I was worried the car would just slide backwards! I approached it tentatively but had no problem stopping near the top and getting going again.
I did have one moment when I got going again after a red traffic light and on a slight upward slope.  My front wheels started spinning and I didn't realise it, I found the car was angling slowly to the left and I couldn't figure out why, I just turned the wheel left until I could figure it out, but it started angling more to the left.  Then I heard the vehicle's engine was running a little quicker than the speed I was travelling so I lifted off the accelerator and it was all good again.  I realised you have to be careful accelerating in snow, of course, that applies to the braking as well.  No sudden deceleration either.

In my first year here it has snowed many more times, but I haven't driven in snow again, but then winter isn't over.  Every time it has snowed the ploughs have come quickly and cleared everything before I got onto the road again.  So far it's mostly snowed at night and then everything is cleared by morning.

Journal of a Canadian Immigrant

It's not my material and I don't know who wrote it, but I thought I would share it with you anyway.  It's just classic.  If it's yours let me know and I'll let everyone know.

12. Sept.

-We bought a new home in Canada. I am very excited. It's so beautiful here. Mountains are of indescribable splendour. I can not wait to see them covered with snow.

14. Oct.

-Canada. It's the most beautiful country on Earth. The leaves have received all those beautiful shades of yellow and orange. I drove through nature and saw some deer. They are so graceful. Deer are the most beautiful animals. I think we have arrived in paradise. I love Canada.

Nov. 11

Today is a public holiday, deer hunting season starts soon. I can not believe that someone can kill an animal so beautiful. I hope it will snow soon. It's so beautiful here.

2. Dec.

-Last night it snowed for the first time. I got up and saw that everywhere it was just white, just like in the most beautiful scenes. I went outside, I cleaned the front of the house and then we had a snowball fight (I won). The snowplough came past to clear the snow in the road out front and so I had to clear up the snow again. Great country. I love Canada.

12. Dec.

- Last night it snowed again. The snowplough came past again and cleaned up the snow it left in my yard again. It blocked the entrance to the driveway. It is splendid here.

19. Dec.

- Last night it snowed again. I could not go to work because I couldn't get the car out. It is very nice here, I am just tired of shoveling snow. Again the damn snowplough.

22.Dec.

This white snow has not stopped all night. I have corns on my hands from shovelling and my back hurts. This snowplough monkey lies just around the corner and waits for me to finish clearing my driveway only to bring back more snow. Damn.

25. Dec.

Merry Christmas. It snowed again.. this stupid snow. If I catch that snowplow driver I will kill him. Why don’t they throw more salt on the road.

27. Dec.

- Last night it snowed again. I did not go out of the house for three days just kept shoveling every time the snowplow passed by. I can not go anywhere, the car is stuck under a hill of snow and it is very cold. They said tonight will fall another 30 cm of snow… this stupid snow.

28. Dec.

-The weather report was wrong. We got 50 cm of snow, not 30 cm. If it continues like this it will not melt until summer. The snowplough driver got stuck and he came to ask me for a shovel. I told him I already broke six cleaning up that sh… that he threw in my front yard. I was about to hit him with the shovel.

4. January.

-I finally left the house. I went to buy food and on my way back I hit a deer. The car was damaged to the amount of $3,000. Those beasts should be killed. They are everywhere. Why didn’t the hunters kill them all last fall?

3. May

-I took the car to a mechanic. Its unbelievable how much rust the car has from the damn salt... lots of salt all winter long and still for nothing.

10. May

-I am moving to Florida. I can not imagine how any normal human being can live in Canada!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit good and proper

I'm really enjoying Canada. Most people here are warning me about the winter. Most tell me how long and cold it's going to be, but I knew that before I came, it might even have been the only thing I knew about Canada before coming here. Being a South African though, it gives me an appreciation for the seasons. Growing up in South Africa I didn't really notice the different seasons, it got colder for a week or two in July, but that was about it, I never even noticed a difference in the time the sun set, when I went to the UK it suddenly dawned on me that dawn actually did happen at different times during summer and winter! I looked it up, 5:30 pm in winter and 7pm in summer.

That all meant that the winter festivities didn't go over well in South Africa. Christmas is the middle of summer so we usually went away then, sure wet got presents, but that was just because we could get away with demanding them then. You couldn't drink hot chocolate nor wish for a white Christmas! 

We went to Allan Gardens this weekend (2nd December) and they were handing out apple cider and cookies, there were horse cart rides, Christmas carols and plenty activities for the kids. We met a few folk and even joined in the singing. My Christmas carolling is so bad I only know the first verse of jingle bells! We had a great time colouring things in, taking a ride on the cart with the amazing horses, our daughter really enjoyed the time and was quite upset to have to head home.

For anyone interested in the free activities they will be doing the same thing at Centennial Park Conservatory on Sunday the 11th of December 2016.  If you want to enjoy some Candlelit celebrations then you can go to Allan Gardens on the 11th and Centennial Gardens on the 17th of December 2016.

Here is a link to Centennial Gardens on google maps and here is to Allan Gardens on google maps.

Happy Christmas to you all and tell me about any other fun free activities you may be enjoying!

The silly things I did

It's quite funny moving to a new country. There are things you thought you knew, but they just work a bit differently here.

For example I've been hearing a lot about Tim Hortons so I decided I was going to try them out. I think I can buy a cup of coffee and drink it! Nothing complicated about that. So I pop into the shop and order a cappuccino. Swipe my card and I get my coffee and walk out. Thank you very much. Now I want to drink it, but I can't open the lid! I can see it's meant to be opened, it had the whole clip and everything, but I tug at it and it feels like the whole cup it's just going to spill coffee over everything if I pull any harder. So I slide back into the shop (thankfully it wasn't busy) and ask the attendant how do I open the lid. She unhelpfully replied that you just pull it. I felt like a bit of an idiot while she went to fetch another lid to demonstrate for me.

Here's the trick, you need to TEAR the lid. Never had I had a take away cuppa that you had to tear. Well, it was a good laugh and something I chuckle about when I retell.   Here is a Canadian comparison of Tim Hortons coffee cup lids with other take away lids, which is where this lid comparison chart comes from.

Actually that's why I'm combining these stories, I was chatting to some Canadians and pointed out to them no matter how prepared you are to live in a new country there are always going to be done things that flummox you. I pointed out thom to them even seemingly simple things are difficult to those who are not used to it. They enjoyed both these stories as I recounted them.

I've taken a bus before, you've taken a bus before. You prepare for your journey, but your ticket, get on at the right place and get off at the right place. So I did my research and bought 10 TTC tokens from the nearest subway station (it's a bit cheaper if you buy in bulk). I got on at the right place and saw my stop coming up and pressed the Request Stop button, paranoia took over that the bus was not going to stop there anyway). So I'm standing by the back door as the bus draws up to the stop. It stops and I wait in anticipation of the doors opening and nothing happens, I see the front doors open so I look at the driver and back at the back doors. Nothing happens. That's it, there must be some reason I'm not allowed to exit out the back. So I stroll up to the top of the bus and exit out the front doors. I have a look around, there is no reason why I couldn't have exited the bus from the back. The pavement is clear, no different from where the front doors were. Oh well, I thought, I'll try on my way back again.

I do my thing and on my way back again the same thing happens. This time though I'm much faster to exit embarrassedly out the front doors. Finally, the third time I took the bus things were a little busier. I wisely let someone else exit first and saw that you have to push the back doors open, the green light above the door turns on and then you are able to push them open for yourself.

So, yes, when you move here you are going to embarrass yourself, you're going to learn what assumptions you make without thinking. To me that is one of the joys of moving to another county. You learn things about yourself you never realized, like the fact that I think a bus driver will open the door for me like a chaffuer. I felt guilty about that and the feeling grew into a great appreciation for bus drivers, they treat us with such courtesy and patience, yet we don't often acknowledge them for their daily service.

So thank you bus drivers for being there for us every single day!

Career webinar

This is just a quick one for anyone interested in some information about growing your career prospects in Canada.

Sometimes it can be a bit difficult communicating with someone who has different cultural references than you.  I remember when I first arrived here I even had trouble getting some change. I asked for change for a fifty dollar note and the guy asked me what I wanted. I said I wanted change, what he meant was what format of the change I wanted, did I want coins or notes.

Anyway, so here is the link to the webinar.

http://knowledge.wes.org/GTB-Canada-registration-communication-skills-career-success-Canada.html

Buying a car too early

There really is such a thing as buying your car too early in Canada.  You can't get off the plane and climb into a brand new car and drive away (well, you can, but you'll be driving illegally). As usual, the dealer selling you the car won't bother to give you all the details.  They just want to do the sale.

So, what makes it too early and illegal?  The fact that you can't legally drive without car insurance and you can't get car insurance here without a Canadian Drivers license!

Probably the best source of information on getting ready to drive in Canada is on the CIC website here. The article is called Driving in Canada.

The Financial Services Commission states it a little more explicitly.

My story goes like this for those who are interested:
I moved into an area where the distances between shops and home was just a little bit too far to carry a two-year-old daughter and some groceries.  The bus links were also somewhat far away.  So we decided that we should get a car.  As a tip for those wanting to rent initially, use Enterprise, I found them to be much more reasonable than all the other car rental places here.  Renting a car for an extended period of time though is really expensive.  So we bought the day before I went to get my G1 license.  Then I heard that it was illegal to drive without insurance (You can still drive any other car on your international license, just not your own un-insured one).
There I was calling every insurer I could find, even dealing with a few unscrupulous ones that wanted me to sign, but couldn't insure me until I had my G2.  So I booked my G2 test ASAP, travelled a bit to get to a place that had a test open the next week and got my G2.  Now I could be insured, but since I only had a G2 license, not a Full G license, you can imagine the insurance was a bit hefty.  Getting my full G was the next top priority*.  Unfortunately it was not possible to find any testing center that had an opening within any kind of driving distance, so I got an insurance that was not a contract and waited about another 3 weeks.  Getting the full G still did not bring down the insurance that much.  Thank goodness I had a great insurance agent and with some major help and many documents I managed to get my insurance down to about $1500 a year, and I could legally drive!  In all my time driving on the roads in Canada I have yet to be stopped by the cops, but it is much more comforting driving legally.

So, I hear you asking, what are the work arounds?
There are only two I can think of.  The first is hardly worth mentioning because I don't know of an insurer back home that would insure a car bought in another country, but you could try.  So this owrk around only works if you ship your car over to Canada.  Then you can carry on under your old insurer while you get your Canadian Licence.
Then of course you can also get someone who has a Canadian Licence to buy your car for you and then they can insure the car in their name.  I imagine you may want someone you really trust.

If neither of those options work for you.  Well then, don't lose hope!  Just get your Canadian License really quickly!  I managed to get my full G in just one month.

*To be able to do the Full G Driving Test you need to provide the Drive Test center with a letter from your Road Authority showing you have two or more years experience.

Move to Canada

Phew, immigration is tough when you have a family.  Back in the day I left all my junk at my parents house and hopped off to another country, it was easy!  Now I have too much junk to store at my parents place and besides, they don't want it any more.

The amount you need to spend to ship your things overseas is ridiculously expensive!

Anyway, so, I'm no longer in SA.  I have to change the Title, but I'm still on the go.  Now I'm a new immigrant in Canada and I'll be sharing my lessons learnt the hard way with you so that you don't have to do the same thing.

The journey to applying for immigration I haven't documented because it was time consuming enough just to get all the paperwork together, but please feel free to ask me on the contact link above or the comments below.  I breathed a sigh of relief when it was over.

If you go to CIC website here you will be able to see that there have been approximately one thousand South Africans that immigrate to Canada each year.  I have even found a few of them already.  Of course it doesn't come anywhere near the numbers you get from other countries, about forty thousand each from the Philippines and India in 2014.

Phew, immigratio
n is tough when you have a family.  Back in the day I left all my junk at my parents house and hopped off to another country, it was easy!  Now I have too much junk to store at my parents place and besides, they don't want it any more.

The amount you need to spend to ship your things overseas is ridiculously expensive!

Anyway, so, I'm no longer in SA.  I have to change the Title, but I'm still on the go.  Now I'm a new immigrant in Canada and I'll be sharing my lessons learnt the hard way with you so that you don't have to do the same thing.

The journey to applying for immigration I haven't documented because it was time consuming enough just to get all the paperwork together, but please feel free to ask me on the contact link above or the comments below.  I breathed a sigh of relief when it was over.

If you go to CIC website here you will be able to see that there have been approximately one thousand South Africans that immigrate to Canada each year.  I have even found a few of them already.  Of course it doesn't come anywhere near the numbers you get from other countries, about forty thousand each from the Philippines and India in 2014.