Re: Changed your mind yet?
 

Good point.

I feel way more informed about my new home-to-be and have been reassured on many occasions that the wild meanderings of my mind are not SO mad afterall. It's been a hugely up and down journey to get this far - and I thought Hubby might bail out of the whole idea a month or two ago - but he doesn't read the forum so it wasn't you lot putting him off !

In a way, perhaps the forum has taken some of the 'mystery' away from the move - I mean, I'll already expect poor service from my bank, I know I will never find a hairdresser, I know I will have a car accident within a matter of months and I know customer services is a made-up phrase. I know I will be electrocuted on an hourly basis by static in Calgary, the insides of my nose will disintegrate, and I can't do my gardening all year round (by a long stretch). What have I got left to find out ? :p :ohmy:
I haven't told my hubby and children any of the above - so I can watch in fascination as reality bites for them :D

It is a great forum - take a lot of it with a bucket of salt - but if you read it regularly, you can't claim you weren't warned !!!

and there are some genuinely very witty peeps on here - keep it up - you make me smile ! :thumbsup:

Re: Changed your mind yet?
 

I don't know how to say this without sounding probably very blunt & rather rude..... but i'm going to say it anyway.

How many people are 'clogging' up the queue very half heartedly for PR to then possibly or very probably not move out & let their PR "just expire"!

To be perfectly honest with you, it really (i'll be polite) - cheeses me off, especially when there are so many who want to be there tomorrow & have to wait!

A cheesed off Arris :curse:

Re: Changed your mind yet?
 

Well so far it seems the vast majority have not really been "talked out of it" by any scary stories they have read. Only 2 people so far admit to having second thoughts and they might both still end up going, who knows.

I personally have found the mix of information useful but nothing has so far made me think i'm doing the wrong thing.

Re: Changed your mind yet?
 

Nothing that I read on this forum will have any effect on my desire to live the rest of my life on Vancouver Island. I've had this eventual goal in the back of my mind ever since I was there as a teenager, and feel a deep sense of loss after all of our 6 week holidays there. I'm always in tears during the flight over from Comox to Vancouver.

I don't have any emotional ties to the UK, it's just been the place that I have lived since aged 18, although I am British born. I got to the age where I had to support myself and the UK was the only choice as far as I could see at the time, where I could legally work.

I was gutted not to be able to return to Canada but would not have returned there to work illegally because I didn't want to hamper my future chances of getting there legally.

In my case I've had a nomadic life anyway so moving is an easy choice. I am used to making new friendships, used to settling into a different lifestyle, and used to adapting and making do.

During the first 10 years of my career, my brother Pete tried to qualify each year, but was advised that he needed more qualifications, or more work experience, and I knew that I couldn't qualify under the point requirements back then.

When my OH and I got together 15 years ago I asked if he would consider moving out there but each time I broached the subject he said that he couldn't consider it as long as his parents were alive. I was not going to go without him and our kids, so shelved the goal until something changed to make it a realistic possibility.

Now my OH has changed tack and is prepared to leave the UK whilst his parents are still alive and healthy, so suddenly it is all possible.

My only concerns are how my family will adapt, the kids have only ever lived in this house, and my OH has only ever lived at home with his parents, and here. My OH, although a member on this forum, has only posted twice and doesn't spend any time reading anything on the forum, he only knows what I relate to him. He could change his mind but we'll deal with that if it happens, but it won't be because of someone else's experience.

Another persons experience in Canada is subjective and irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. Personality, character, upbringing, life experiences, expectations, attitude, adaptability, and an acceptance of responsibility for ones actions and choices, all play a part in the reality of a future in any individuals life, wherever they choose to live. Regret and bitterness are subjective emotions too and are chosen reactions that are not constructive. Better to look for the good that can come out of life experiences than to wallow in what worse could happen.

so....onward and forward...and a loooong wait!

Robin

Re: Changed your mind yet?
 

I've worked in Canada twice on a work visa, and lived there for about 4 years altogether in Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

The post on your front page is so far from my experiences of the country as can be imagined.

"In the 3 homes (bought and sold) we paid $46,000 in fees"

If you buy and sell 3 houses in 5 years, expect to get hit by a lot of costs, this is true anywhere in the world.

"you cant find any 'no frills' like you can in Tescos"

On the West Coast the Real Canadian Superstore fits the bill.

"We had to get anti antibiotics for a chest infection and the doctor gave us one that cost $140. It had an ingredient we specifically asked not to be given and so told the pharmacist, they just took our money anyway and said 'sorry you will have to see your doctor' we went back and got a second one that cost $70."

So they walked out of a pharmacy with a drug that is wrong for them? WHY?

"We have also experienced a little racism"

You can't experience racism if you're white in a mostly white country. Xenophobia perhaps. We never experienced this, not once, not in the whole 4 years. Try living in some small town in the US with an English accent! An entirely different experience.

"All in all Canada is beautiful, but I would call it a third world country. It is way behind the times"

I find that comment staggering, really, quite staggering, and utterly removed from my experience of the Canada people.

Anyway, there's my $0.02

Re: Changed your mind yet?
 

I think you can. I very rarely deal with white people in the ordinary course of the day here. I am both statistically and practically exceptional in being white and so could easily be the subject of racism. A practical example would be that I couldn't play an active role in the union at a major client of our firm because the meetings are conducted in a language (Catonese) which I do not speak.

How so?

Re: Changed your mind yet?
 

That's pussy talk where I come from:rofl:

Re: Changed your mind yet?
 

I was thinking of my experience in Vancouver... there was so few people there were not white that I dealt with on a daily basis I really couldn't have been a subject of racism. Although I agree in your situation you are.

But really, I think the original post is talking about people discriminating against her for being English, which is not a race.

We've encountered a few negative reactions to our English-ness here, whereas the typical reaction in Vancouver was interest.

Re: Changed your mind yet?
 

I think we've got crossed threads here, this should have gone in the other "Angies story" thread, we don't want another debate on all that again.

Re: Changed your mind yet?
 

Hear! Hear! Mr Printer. Oh go on, I think they're enjoying themselves, bless 'em:blink:

Re: Changed your mind yet?
 

I think racism is key to society in Toronto, everyone hates the members of some other group. It's manageable because there are so many racisms rather than one focussed racism.

I was more interested in this though:

In what way do you think life in small town America with an English accent is different from the same in Canada?

Re: Changed your mind yet?
 

I never had any trouble in the US. Although I was warned by a hotel worker not to go down to a certain part of town after dark in case my accent got heard.

Town shall remain nameless. Twas in the Con - fed - er - acy, ya hear.

Re: Changed your mind yet?
 

Well, principally, I've lived in Vancouver and suburbs, and I've lived in a small town in Vancouver Island, and I can honestly say that most people don't comment on your accent, which is great. The ones that do are always positive, like I love your accent.

Now in the US my experience has been more that almost immediately upon hearing the foreign accent they will stop you and say "WHAT! I DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU". Or ask where you're from and then grunt at you. Maybe thats just part of how people are here.

In particular when opening a bank account and getting a driving license we were so rudely treated my wife was in tears.

It's hard not sound like I'm whining about Americans and I expect some kind of pat on the back for being British, but that's not it. Comparing the two countries I feel welcome and comfortable in Western Canada, whilst I feel uneasy and often unwelcome in the North East of the US.

Re: Changed your mind yet?
 

There's the key. People are more belligerent in Boston or Toronto than they are in Vancouver or San Francisco. Not that any of these are small towns.

Re: Changed your mind yet?
 

If only I had a buck for each time a hotel worker told me not to go where I was going; they're liability phobic. I doubt that it has anything to do with accent as, except for the plastic paddies in parts of Boston, Chicago and NYC, Americans don't dislike the English; people are forever putting me in a moral dilemma by sending me beer and toasting Thatcher or Blair.