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.