Prairie Pete

Hi Linz

We are still in Saskatchewan, Saskatoon just north (250 kms) of Regina. Good luck with your move, hope it works out for you. If you get stuck or need a answer to a question somebody on Ex Pats will I am sure be able to help/advise you. Where are you coming from? What line of work are you in? You are coming at the right time. When we 1st came it was -50 with the wind chill.....they would not let us off the plane at the airport as we (all the passengers) were not dressed accordingly. We had to wait for a bus to come to the plane to take us 50 yards across the airport runway. Normally you would walk. Happy memories!

simoncdl

Excellant, well written covering both sides. Thanks so much.

phat-dave

thanks for taking the time and adding your view mate, really appreciate a different point of view.

cheers

Lorna_D

Great post , thanks for taking the time to write it. You will see from the replies that people always knock Regina. They knock other towns or cities or provinces but Regina gets more than its fair share.

We've been in Sask 5 years next week and know we made a good decision.

Gremmie you just wait until Labour Day.

JGK

David Letterman seems to do this periodially on his alleged US chat show.

timjohnson2001

An update on living in Regina 1.5 years on.


I thought I would give you an update on my progress living in Regina. My idea is to give Brits thinking of moving to Regina or Saskatchewan an idea on what the city and the lifestyle are about. I will divide this report into some basic sections;

1. Winter is coming; Three simple steps to surviving Winter in Regina.
2. Regina living, a lifestyle.
3. The Canadian (people).
4. The British are coming (will travel for £££)
5. The good, the bad and the ugly.


If you haven’t read my original post, I must stress context is king; I am a late twenties male with no children. My experience here may far differ from your own. Despite this, I feel that I can offer some helpful insight to my fellow Brits and am only too happy to help if anyone that has any questions on what it is like living here. So please do feel free to shoot me a message.

Winter is coming.
For my first winter (2011-12). I was ‘lucky’ as apparently I had a mild one, the five months of Winter ranged Early November – early March and were mostly 0’c to -25’c with just two weeks of -30’c to -42’c. I live downtown and so walk everywhere, but in these two weeks I made a special effort to do as much walking around outside as possible, determined to get the full experience. Before winter begun my Canadian compatriots did not stop warning me about how terrible Winter would be. It was literally like Game of Thrones I was preparing myself for a nuclear style-winter with whitewalkers and everything. This year the winter has been worse, and a little more Games of Thrones esque. Its March 20th, officially SPRING and we just set the record for the most snow, ever! 1.92cm in total! Go Regina!

☺ Anyway, before we begin, I think it is important to stress that as British people we were a majority stakeholder in colonising this great country. So if our forfathers can smash up winter in mud houses while settling the land, we can.

Simple steps to totally bossing winter in British fashion;

1. Dress appropriately.
This sounds ridiculous, and I do not wish to patronise you; but please bear with me. The Canadian Cold is nothing to fear my friends. The air is cold, but dry, and with no rain! -5’c out here feels like a rainy crappy 6’c at home. The weather fluctuates quite a bit (just like home- you can ALWAYS, always talk to Saskatchewanians about the weather) if it is -25’c Leave the house in boots, hat, gloves, scarf and a proper coat and you are in the goal. Most days the sun is shining and the sky is clear, it looks beautiful and you step out thinking it is going to be 20’c. Once it gets to the -30’c’s it’s frigging cold. But there is one magic item that you must get. And we can buy them in England far far cheaper than in Canada- A Balaclava. The £2 balaclava I bought from SportsDirect of all places kept me warm when I walked around for an hour and a half ‘running errands’ in -42’c. Trust in this item! It turns the coldest day from a nose crumbling, It turns the coldest day from a nose crumbling, lip-chapping fear to an artic tunguska pleasure.

Between us I think the coldest days are pretty sweet. There is something quite fun about dressing up like a spaceman and trudging out into fresh snow to pick up Coffees and breakfast from Tim Hortons. You come back tearing off your outerwear like you have just been out exploring a new planet.

In Regina they are very good at getting the snowplows out and making the pavement and roads safe downtown after a big snow dump. There are no days off from work, though there have been many days where travel is not recommended... at all. Trying to drive on the highway in thick blowing snow is very confusing!! I was really excited for first snowfall… I must confess now it has snowed 30 or so times I am less into it, though I still hum “I am walking in the air” which my girlfriend thinks is 'creepy'.

My girlfriend and I were taking a constitutional walk a few days ago and trudging through the park, appropriately dressed (or ‘bundled’ as Canadians say). It’s a workout. I reached Speaker’s Corner and was sure I should be descending steps at this point. Just then I felt something under my boot. To my surprise it was THE HANDRAIL of the steps! That is when I realised that truly…. WINTER HAS COME.


2. Go tanning.
Tanning?! Yes! Put your prejudices aside. I’m not talking getting Essex-orange here. Just a good blast of Vit D. I didn’t do this for the first few months of winter and began to feel quite out of sorts. I started to feel more tired, craving carbs constantly, sleeping more than necessary, growing a beard, my hair, my nails (not my nails thats gross) but I basically digressed into some kind of bear-like state, unconsciously priming myself for hibernation. Despite spending lots of time outside 99% of my body was covered. So I went tanning and came out feeling like a new man, with renewed energy and ready to seize the bull by the horns. I find I only need to do this while my body adjusts to the initial shock. And it is a bit of a bloody shock. Last year it went from 20’c to -20’c in exactly one week. I have that image saved on my phone somewhere. Canadians say they love ‘fall’ (autumn) they don’t have a bloody autumn, its just an extension of summer. A 20'c day is not autumn. It just goes from gorgeous 20’c days to immediately dropping off a cliff into the deep depths of winter.

3. Have a hot holiday.
You can get a 4* all inclusive direct from Regina in Mexico, Cuba, USA, Panama and the like relatively well priced in the winter - so take advantage of that and book your annual leave in Jan-Feb and get out of there for a bit! You can search trips direct from Regina with Red Tag Holidays simply enough. Makes a huge difference, almost everyone gets away for a week or two in the winter. It really does make sense as summer really does feel like one long holiday!

Regina Living – a lifestyle

Having been here a year and a half now I want to talk about the kind of lifestyle you could have living here. Firstly, like many people say the more involved you are the more fun you will have. I have signed up for a bunch of activities; dancing, MMA, community groups, going to as many events as I can and sitting on some boards. These are top-notch for making friends and meeting awesome people....oh yes a note on this.

‘The Coffee’
Because of the limits in previous jobs I have had, I am not sure if this is customary in the UK or not, but in Regina everyone loves going for a damn good coffee. If you meet someone at a networking event, gala, on a board, sports team whatever and you strike up a good conversation with them and exchange cards - you can bet that at some point you will get pinged an email-invite for coffee. This means go and hang-out in Atlantis/Agean/Second Cup or some coffee shop for a good half-hour and have a general chin-wag. It’s just like in Friends, but with cooler baristas, oh, and… actually no friends. It is just great though, for business, meeting people and settling in. When you meet people I really recommend you do this too! When I sent my first coffee invite I was absolutely terrified... I don’t have a proper reason to meet this person! Will he think I am hitting on him? Or that I am going to try and sell him something?! I was nervous but I needn’t have been. It is a very normal thing to do. Talk business and pleasure. Regina is run on an inter-connected web of networked, sweet people. Business, friendships, family and sports all mix together. Its like being on a campus uni, (except with half mature students that still get smashed in the union on Wednesday). The universal Regina coffee time is 10am and 3pm. In fact I think coffee pretty much runs this town. Everywhere you look from dawn til dusk people are shuffling in the snow with steaming coffee cups stuck to their face. The different variety of mobile coffee-carriers is astounding; the giant disposable’s Tim Hortons, a few sleek white startbucks, the enviromentally friendly ceramics, the big thermals and shiny steel badboys with company graphics on them and epic handles. It is a bit much. Tea is surprisingly just coming into fashion, I'm not a massive tea drinker but sometimes I'll drink it just for the pleasure it brings my colleagues - "you are gonna put milk in there?" "Yes... yes I am."


If I get homesick I go to the British Cafe. It is heading North out the city on Broad Street and you can buy British delicacies like Branston Pickle, twenty different types of gravy, Walkers, tea and stuff like that. (They sell non-UK Branston in the supermarket but it has anchovies in it). I’ll sit and read the paper and see how there are the same amount of Brits sharing rooms as in the Victorian times. How the economy is still doing badly and how 25% of our grads are not working in the field they desired 2 years out of University.

In Regina I go to conferences with titles like: “Dealing with the boom, how can we attract more people to Regina? “Dealing with the Saskatchewan labour shortage”. I went to the Premier Brad Wall’s gala where they had two recent immigrants from Ireland come and speak about how awesome their new life was here. A friend of mine here just took a work trip to Ireland to pick up 17 Irish chaps for jobs out here. This was very exciting for Regina! 17 charming Colin Farrells/Hugh Grants! I am looking forward to meeting them soon. Despite, the conversations leading up to their arrival I felt like we were talking about bringing in 17 endangered cats or something.

Regina is a boomtown, there is no doubt about it, you hear it consistently everywhere; we are a ‘growing province’ Brad Wall (the Premier in Saskatchewan – kind of like the Prime Minister for SK) refers to Sask as a ‘Have Province’. There are jobs and opportunity here, there is a well known ‘people shortage’ especially in specialised trades. You can earn wages up in the 100k’s if you are an industrial engineer/plumber/electrician/project manager. This crazy economy has a trickle-down, I think most places are hiring, what I hear from almost everyone is that “We are looking for good people”. With new people here they want stuff to do. In Regina new restaurants are popping up and new lifestyle magazines are arriving. In my first post there were two main papers. The Leader Post (broadsheet) and The Prairie Dog (News, Arts and Society freebie). Now there are those two plus; The Metro, The Verb, The QC, City Slicker and more. Regina had its own ‘Fashion Week’ which was awesome, on the new pedestrianised centre plaza. The social calendar is getting fuller and fuller of balls, gala’s, music festivals, sporting occasions and events. It is an exciting place to be. Because almost everything is a quick walk or car journey away, I find I go to probably 10x the events than I go to in London. It is a big difference walking home from a festival, concert or ball than having to drop £40 in a taxi from town!

I’m very lucky to have had two great friends come and visit me out here from home. Both have absolutely loved it. They loved coming to a young business people luncheon, then relaxing with beers on a patio for the afternoon downtown on Wednesday, while people dropped in and out of their offices to join us for a quick one. They loved that everyone was totally up for a huge night out on a Tuesday. They loved coming here for a week, but still getting their head around the place, and make decent connections with the people that live here. In London I live in the West and some of my good friends live in the East. Its like an hour 20mins to get there depending on trains. I honestly see these guys a few times a year. In Regina if you have mates, you will literally SEE them about. If you work downtown, and have an active social life, you will be bumping into people you know regularly!


The Canadian

The Canadians are a terrific bunch. I have to say they have completely won me over as a people. Canadians are very friendly usually quite well travelled and a curious sort. The Canadian usually is fond of sports and encourages all to get involved be it at a recreational level (mixed beer leagues) or at a higher level. They love watching sport which is often a family affair. Their groups are often mixed, not so much 'boys nights' and 'girls nights' like at home. They like beer, drinking and socialising. There is no snobbery here, even the very rich are down to earth, open and friendly. The Canadian is into work early and usually out early. Most work 8am – 4am. With the maximum commute 20mins, I guess it makes sense? There no class system. One of the things that is so interesting living here is that people literally do not give a flying monkeys about your background. Most don’t understand our regional/class dialects and accents and just lump us (and fairly often the Irish – haha unlucky) as ‘Brits’. Luckily for all involved, they like Brits.

What I missed at first is the ‘banter’. British wit is something pretty special, I am lucky that I have met some Canadians that love to banter back and forth. Don’t expect that all Canadians will a) understand you (words like water, gala, ball I find myself repeating) b) get that you are joking and c) like your jokes... especially if they are a tad on the edgy side. Brits have a pretty dark sense of humour!!


The British are coming (will travel for £££)
Something else I have noticed here is hearing a ton more British accents out and about. I have met three British lads here, all my age that have come in promise of good jobs and careers. They are all killing it. Walking around downtown I have tuned into more and more Brits flying in for meetings and business shenanigans. Saskatchewan’s exports, Diamonds, Potash, Food and Oil are all in high demand globally. In my local coffee shop there is a now a lovely British barista. Malcom is a chef from Southampton that co-owns Beer Bros. a great pub here. His wife is a journalist. Niall is a great Irish guy that owns O’Hanlons, the popular Irish bar. I’ve met British mortgage brokers, a Scottish legend that is smashing up his career at Deloitte, and in the middle of nowhere, actually in a field just before a pow wow I met a British journalist, that works for the local rag and also farms here. The agriculture market is booming and exciting, British farmers (I have been told) are tech savvy and those that are making the jump and reaping the rewards. So we are arriving… in force… just proves that Brits will travel for cash, where there are profits to be made, we get involved ☺

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.

OK still pretty similar to before, but lets break Regina into its GOOD, BAD and downright UGLY.

THE GOOD
Cheap houses compared to UK
Quite Cheap to live
Good lifestyle
Amazing summer
Good job opportunities and career progression
The Roughriders (Local football team, think American football. Each day like an England home match in a quarter final in London)
The amazing community atmosphere
Great hobbies to try (great salsa community, fight community, soccer community and so on)
Great events
The people

THE BAD
The winter is a bit tricky
Houses are going up in price quick!
Food is so bloody expensive sometimes I want to punch myself in the head
Second hand cars are expensive, especially compared to what we pay in the UK
Expensive to leave, no Ryanair or Easyjet for cheeky trips away
The toilet stalls STILL have gaps like an inch thick each side. It is ridiculous and probably against our human rights somehow. Like you will literally be washing your hands staring into the eyes of someone going for a poo behind you. Hearing everything and seeing everything is completely traumatising for absolutely everyone involved. I honestly feel like I might as well just kick the door down get on one knee and hand them the loo roll. I haven't done that yet, but have written several very strongly worded letters to facilities managers- so far no results. So my apologies to all those that travel though... but fear not. I'm on it.
15 days holiday. Yes. That is again against our human rights. Luckily summer is basically a long holiday, and you can be granted unpaid leave etc. but STILL! FIFTEEN BLOODY DAYS! That would be illegal in the UK!
Men’s shopping- best do that at home, unless you want to drop a grand on some threads you can definitely get at Primani for under a £100

THE UGLY
You will see a very shocking racially distinct underclass. The First Nation/ Aboriginal community, (Native Canadians) it seems almost stands out as a ‘separate race’. It is shocking. Like I would say they account for 90% of the people you see stumbling around the streets. Totally battered at midday. Screaming incoherently. Once I had a man stumble towards me bleeding heavily from the mouth and head, his teeth were busted and freshly broken. He was shouting incoherently, pointing at me and then took a swing for me. Problem was he was 8ft away and in the middle of a busy road. The lack of me physically being there to punch caused him to fall in the road. Then, like a zombie from the walking dead he dragged his way towards me. I called an ambulance, tried to put him in the recovery position, but he still had some fight in him… wtf. Crack heads, prostitues, gang members. It is terrible. Very serious drug and alcohol problems. As the year has gone on, I have been lucky to have got to know more people from a First Nations and Metis (Pron. May-tee) background. I have learnt more about their culture and have got to go to an amazing pow wow, which is a celebration of First Nations culture with great food (bannack) and traditional dancing. The First Nations culture is wonderful and really interesting, I really hope that as Saskatchewan grows and prospers it’ll trickle down and the First Nations people that stumble around the downtown like battered zombies will sort their shit out.

Howefamily

I like the info on this thread, its nice to hear how someone else is setlling in and I feel that I have a bit more info on somewhere else in this fab country.
Pics are awesome too.

I know you are finding it hard to find clothes you like but have you checked out places like Banana Republic outlet?
We have it here and its really discounted and I think its due to being end of line, last seasons stock but because the clothes dont really seem to me to be changing drastically, its fine (or maybe I just dont care a whole lot for fashion as such). Its great for work too....

Oh and I hear you about province bashing, we get that a lot in NS threads too. Glad to see life is good...

jamesmc

I wish people from the Loblaws thread on the trucking forum side o things would all read this ,as it is one o the best write ups on Regina i have read on this Forum.

lol yeah the province bashing does tend to whack Manitoba also.
jimmy.

Hawk13

Great write-up

Chapponick

Thanks for this article found it really interesting, I am moving to Regina in October of this year, havebeen there quite a lot before and I think its a great city especially if your english as everyone is so interested in your background etc.

Good to know about the cafe that sells all the english food.

Ps you forgot to mention the amazing steaks you get there and the 'wing nights' haha looking forward to the both of them again!

flat to the mat

Good write up . The Cafe also sells Melton Pork Pies which are divine , and Colemans English mustard

mandymoochops

I too think this is a great write up

caretaker

Good post! I'm glad you're making some native friends. In front of City Hall fly the flags of Canada, Saskatchewan, Regina, the First Nations/Treaty Four, and the Metis flag and maybe one or two others. There's a bronze of Chief Piapot too, describing him as a great statesman, but when I was in school we were taught that he was a bad rebel who pitched his teepee on the tracks to try and stop the railroad, and a valiant Mounty gave him 1 hour to vacate then pulled the structure down, triumphing over the Indians. Straightening out bits of history like this, (and the rehabilitation of Louis Riel's image) helps rebuild trust between communities. I've recently moved from downtown back to the middle of North Central and I'm glad I did. One thing to remember about Regina is how new it is. 200 years ago all there was here was short grass and buffalo. [Edit] I see you mentioned that in the OP. There's a book by an Englishman who was in the NWMP during the Riel Rebellion I'd like to recommend; it's called Trooper in the Great Northwest by John George Donkin. He was one of Riel's guards at the barracks here and travelled extensively during his postings here. He noted that at the time Riel was hung there were only 2 buildings on Dewdney Avenue.

crazydaving

Great writing, and very amusing to read. I share your concerns about the toilet cubicles; this is the first time I have seen someone write about a this. I am 6'2" and let me tell you - the smaller stalls - particularly the ones in Edmonton - were a major surprise for me...!

mohtechnix

This is the best piece I have stumble across on this forum. Some posters just come on here to instill negative thoughts into people's (thinking of moving to SK) mind. I mean, you don't have to post for posting sake if you don't have anything meaningful to say. If you are bored, engage in something fun, jump on the BBC Iplayer or take a walk mate.