A year after landing in Canada

If this is any indication of time fleeing, we should really cherish our current moments. Time is flying super fast!

I can still vividly recall the days I crossed the border and frantically looking for an apartment. The year was filled with excitement and a lot of homesickness. Winter was pretty brutal especially for immigrants like us. There wasn’t really much going on and it was a big hassle to just step outside. Summer is a different story. Festivals and events are popping up in corners and people are just everywhere. If it weren’t for the garbage strike, it would have been even better. Some events got cancelled because of it and the city is no longer clean now.

Social life: I have managed to make a few friends but rarely hang out with them. Of the two friends that I normally hang out with, one has to leave the country as her visa is expiring this summer. I happen to hang out a bit more with co-workers but they also say it’s tough in the city to make friends. Everyone is so busy with his/her own thing. Not long ago, I was also very busy with school work as well.

Job: I am still at the very job I landed first. This week, there was a massive lay off at work and a number of coworkers in my office got laid off. I am dejected and at the same time realized how the timing played a big part. I got here right before the global recession and was lucky enough to have landed a job within a month. While I was in NYC, I noticed how little response I got from Canadian companies as opposed to the ones from NYC. I was attributing to the fact that I didn’t have the local phone number and that they might not be interested in hiring people from far away. The sheer number of jobs available here is a lot fewer for sure. I wonder how it’s like in NYC now. Could it be that there was a delay in the recession hitting Canada? Or, maybe I wasn’t just aware of it until it is happening right at my work. At one point, I was thinking we are over the worst and recovering already.

Apartment: Three months ago, I received a notice that my rent is going to go up about 20% once the lease is expired. I have been looking for a place to move but the prices are comparable else where too. I heard renting is harder this time as people are trying to sell the houses and renting more.

Utilities: Bell’s mobile internet service can be intermittent. It won’t even admit that. Instead, the little browser will say .. please check the address again. I had it bookmarked in favorite and there was no room for mistyping. It happened one too many times that I have now accepted that the service was just temporarily down. I also know that I am paying double the price for what my friend is getting at Telus. But she’s a long-term customer there. I certainly have to renegotiate my contract though. Rogers, on the other hand, always charges me $5 more every month! There is always a balance carry over of $5 every month although I paid in full. I called them after three months of being overcharged. I was bounced between 4 different reps and finally got it settled. I saw it happening again, but haven’t got the time and energy to go through the claim process all over again.

Provinces: the different provinces act as if they were in different countries. Even the regular phone plans do not include other provinces. Unlike in the states where phone plans are usually nation-wide, Toronto has it’s own GTA plan. Nationwide would be a lot more expensive. Even Verizon service Canada plan covers the whole Canada for regular charge. This summer, I got a chance to visit Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec. It was really nice and was very impressed at Ottawa. I plan to share the experiences from the trip later.

So far, so good.

More nuances

When I was looking for an apartment, I noticed a few ‘Canadian’ terminologies – bachelor for studio apartment, hydro for utility, etc. By the way, they say ‘washroom’ for ‘restroom’. In the event of an emergency, the word ‘washroom’ didn’t quite jump out to me. Though I could figure out the term bachelor, I wasn’t sure what hydro really meant and why it even is called hydro to begin with. At first, I thought ‘hydro extra’ means we have to pay for water or (maybe heat) or so. Only when I got to this hydro plant near Niagra Fall, did I realize why they call ‘hydro’ for electricity. Duh!

They have ‘shoppers’ (not durane reade) all over the places. Today, I went to Canadian Tire again. I noticed that the prices keep going up and down like crazy.  Within the past three weeks, I have been there for about 8 times or more. And every time, I realize that some items have discount and the very next day, it would go back to regular prices. Case in point, a cute circular chair was $5 a couple of days ago. Now it’s $17. Hangers were $7 then and now it’s only $4. One can never be at peace as the prices can really go down or up drastically within a week! Maybe it only happens in summer? I don’t get it.

Apartment hunting

It was tough. Mostly because I was unfamiliar with the areas and I really didn’t have any real contact. I do have a few contacts that are friends of friends of friends … They were helpful but without knowing the areas or so, it was hard to decide.

Before coming here, I checked http://craigslist.org and http://www.kijiji.com. I also checked the local newspaper, http://www.thestar.com online. I used to be a fan of craigslist before in New York. I even sold my old car through that site successfully. My friends and I, myself, relied on it for apartments and were very happy with the site. On Canada section though, I came across a number of ‘fradulant’ posts. When it comes to money, I am very cautious and it just so happened that I heard on the news at the time that a landlord got ripped off by someone trying to lend an apartment and asking for a refund through western union bank. Later, it was a fraud and the landlord lost some money. Anyway, I replied to a few ads and two of them actually returned to me with lengthly explanation about the place and solicited much much more personal background. Since there was too much information in the reply to me, I thought it was fishy. Sure enough the subsequent email asked me to transfer the fund in advance through western union as the person was on a trip to Africa or so. Never mind. It’s ashamed that there were quite a few fishy ads floating around. I tried flagging them as ‘spam’ as I can clearly recognize the writing style and the deal pattern. Maybe because there were just so many immigrants here that people just wish to probe them. Too bad, the world has places for those too. Anyway, I made a list of apartments I was interested in. Since I don’t know how or what the area look like I didn’t wish to commit from NY.

Temporary furnished apartment, Toronto

Oh by the way, in case you are wondering areas that are not safe – james & finch, and the area from Allen Gardens to the Gardiner Expressway. I was trying to look for areas to watch out for and came across these in a tour guide book. Speaking of which, I miss Barnes and Noble.

When I got here, jeez… they were all booked. One that wasn’t occupied still was only available in Aug. In the mean time, I can’t possibly afford to stay in a hotel. We even got to Scarborough morningside area as one of the building managers we called said they had an immediate vacancy there. Our hopes were crushed as we got nearer to the address. We decided to cancel the appointment when we saw the broken windows and things falling out of the building. So, we were litterally driving around calling the numbers in front of buildings one after another. Finally, we came across something that would be available in a couple of days. In the mean time, the lady there suggested us to stay in a temporary furnished apartment.

 We stayed at one in downtown area for three days. The property manager of that temp place recommended us a few places to check out as well and we were encouraged to have some concrete places to see. This eliminated the need to roam around and call people again. He was professoinal and very nice. Though, I have to mention that the AC at the temp place broke. We were cooked in the heat for two days. We complained but no solution was offered. The lady who was in charge of this temp place comes to work around 11am and leaves at 5 -ish. We felt like we were always running of time to do anything as things closed earlier. Some banks close around 4 or 4:30pm. Management offices usually close at 5pm.

Eventually, we found something we really liked. But, I didn’t have any ‘Canadian’ credit history. They could check my US credit, thank god. Even then, they still need two months’ deposit. The building manager can’t take cash. We had to go to a bank to get a money order. But HSBC won’t create a money order unless you are a customer there. To become one, I needed to prove that I live in Canada. Oh wait, I can’t get an apartment without a bank draft. It was like a chicken and egg problem until HSBC decided to make an exception for me considering that I have an account with them in the States.

Finally, I managed to get an apartment. Phew, one down ….