KJT

Hi I have been searching the pages of this forum for a week now and can not help but to see a pattern of bad luck and bad news!

Has anyone who has moved to Canada from the UK within the past couple of years actually made a success of the move?

About to slit my wrists.....

KJT

yonk

Tiaribbon sounds a happy soul!

ClareBC

Hi, I was thinking about your question - the thing on this forum is that we all generalise. My positive experiences of living with my family in a suberb of one of the Vancouver cities is going to be extremely different to someone on their own in Calgary or Halifax etc.

You get a slightly different view (and definitely more upbeat) on the city specific yahoo discussion groups

The UKtoCalgary group was the first and started over 3½ years ago, and has its share of good and bad experiences (freely shared, which is essential!) and they are a very helpful crowd! The founder of the group often posts about jobs coming up etc
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/immigrationuktocalgary/

Brits2Vancouver (which I am a member of) is very active and currently the postings are about how bad some branches of HSBC are (so maybe that is what these forums are about - having a quick vent!) and asking about which are the best airlines to use etc. But I know someone who joined a couple days back saying 'hi we are here, can we meet up?' is seeing a few folk in a pub next week (so helps with networking and socialising, and will also break it to 'em gently that these are not quite like Brit pubs!!)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Brits2Vancouver/


Brits2Toronto started up over 2 years ago - way less whinging on this group - and lost of wonderful advice freely given. the most recent posts have been about the cold! And given the current temperature that is not suprising really
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brits2toronto/

But yes - I do love it here

Clare

Glaswegian

Yes ... we're very happy in Calgary ... it's a great city with good opportunities (if you can find them, I did) and it's great for kids ... it's also half as expensive as Vancouver and there isn't a long drawn out commute to get to downtown.

Jonny

I'm in Vancouver and love it so far. Managed to get myself a good job, just need to find a little place to live now. Maybe happy people don't post too many messages as they are off having fun and enjoying Canada.

Glaswegian

It's been suggested before ... apart from the occasional person who is obviously not very happy, what makes you think the rest of us aren't enjoying life in Canada?

Jonny

It was just a suggestion, I'm happy and still posting messages... Perhaps happy people don't need to post new threads called "I'm Happy and Everything's Lovely" as they have nothing to say, so it's mostly the unhappy ones or the ones with problems, that will post new threads...

Maybe we should start one....

iaink

God how I hate threads like this. For the record I'm another happy one, coming up to my 7th "Canaversary". As Jonny pointed out, we dont tend to start "I'm happy" threads, but rather try and pass on a bit of our experience to people either just here or considering the move over so they dont make the same mistakes we made, or find it harder than it has to be to make the adjustment. Sometimes though people just dont want to accept that "wisdom"

I think the nature of these forums is people come here when they have a problem to address, so it tends to be a lot moe negative than the expat population in general. In fact my suspicion is the vast majority of happy expats dont even bother to come back to sites like this once they have landed and got on with there life in Canada

Glaswegian

I wonder what the turnover on the forum is ... excluding Spongbob and his multiple personalities ... and the obvious diehards ... most people don't seem to stick around long.

iaink

"diehards"...

a coy euphemism for "sad addicts"

Tiaribbon

LOL!! I am.....and I love it here!!!!

SANDRAPAUL

Perhaps a major factor would be the chosen new lifestyle or maybe its even similar to the old one - ie. unless you have regular access to a PC, and by that I mean you are probably using it for a mixture of work and pleasure, and unless your timeframe allows it, I doubt many would even think of looking at the forum who are actually there (being Canada). Many only use a PC at work and I doubt looking at this would be 'PC' during ones first few months or years. I would guess that narrows down the users in Canada quite considerably. Just a thought for those on the UK side of the pond.

Iginla

Totally happy!

Was in the pub tonight and was saying that I would have a breakdown if I had to return to Europe.

Brilliant country.

Genuinely nice people.

Iginla

1. yep. You're right.

2. I enjoy sharing my experiences and listen to others.

Costing me nothing.

Glaswegian

Which makes it cheaper than a therapist ...