Can any one please tell me good or bad things about moose jaw? we are supposed to be going out there - have job offer, have done lots of research on house prices,not visited thoough, but want some insider knowledge please.
Have been told its boring nothing to do, just flat old prarie etc all negative and its really putting me off.
what are the nicer areas to live ? have two children 6 and 8 which are the good schools? any advice

thanks

Hi there
What would you like to know
We lived in Moose Jaw for a short while
if i can be of any help
Shelly

excellent would like to know everything!!

work wise i will be starting on $17 how does this compare with the average?

i live in a rural village in north wales now and wondered how large moose jaw and surrounding areas are ie how long to get from one bit to the other? need to know good schools should i pay private do not understand the education system

why did you move?
what is it like as a community?
is it all prarie and nothing?
where are the nearest lakes as i know i will miss being able to go to the beach?

job wise is there much opportunity?

i will no doubt bombard you with more specifics soon thanks for any help advice or other

It has nice muriels on the outside of some of the buildings!!!!!!
The downtown core looked nice when we called in on our way from Regina to Calgary.

got that much any helpful info ?

Excuse me for inhaling

Hi
Moose Jaw is a very nice place Contrary to what jokes fly around about it.
It is somewhat isolated but i think most of Canada is once out of town you have literally miles before you come to another

We didn't live there for very long, hubby was working as a truck driver and the whole Canada thing just wasn't for us,
we arrived in late August last year, the weather was very hot mid 30s, the kids we're enrolled into Catholic school and started our second week,
we chose the schools because the girls where familiar with the Catholic school curriculum, they found the schooling a little bit repetitive of what they had been doing a few years earlier in the UK, it went down ok most of the time with the youngest 12 years but the eldest at 15 found the schooling system boring, not much to keep her interested as most things including projects were all being repeated. she found social life for a teenager hard to cope with, although she was always invited along there was a strangeness about it all, no where to go, hanging around at friends houses, where as at home she had always had somewhere to go, sports clubs groups concerts things like that.
The town of Moose Jaw is ok, i found it strange to shop in the town on a Saturday and not come across many people, but their town shopping is very different to ours in the UK,
In Moose Jaw you won't get the shops you have at home, you won't get the choice you have in fashion, Furniture, electrical all the things you take for granted now, they have a couple of supermarkets, but once again choice is limited for the English taste, and works out quite expensive if you have kids that are fussy eaters,
people on the whole are friendly, not much different to people you would meet at home,
people go about their own business going to work, cutting the grass on a weekend having BBQs all that kind of thing, similar lifestyles to ours,
Job wise i have still a few friends there that i keep in contact with, that came from the UK, one has received residency but is finding difficulty in getting work, she said employers seem to favour the Canadians as some of her friends are also in the same position as her and are struggling.
All in all Moose Jaw is a good place to live, some people will tell you to try MLS for housing, which can sometimes be an unrealistic view as a lot of the properties on the lower side of the budget are uninhabitable, and it makes you believe that properties are extremely cheap which isn't the case. be careful not to burn all your bridges as migration is not the right choice for everyone but you could choose far worse places to live then Moose Jaw
Best of luck and best wishes
Shelly

thanks for that, how cold does it get in the winter?
have looked on mls for housing and will rent ours out and rent out there so if we need to come back we still have somewhere.
our children go to a church school at present so would like something similar had heard education may be behind to what ours are used to thats why thought maybe private might offer something more.can they go into an older class?
how feesible is it to live in regina and travel to work in moose jaw?
you mention fussy eaters as daft as it sounds what is the food differences etc? do they have organic!
where does everyone go on a sat then if not shopping!? you make it sound maybe a bit too small town for me - are there really no clubs ,activities for children , thats one of the things i want is for them to be able to slot in.
do you know of any nicer suburbs or areas surrounding moose jaw?
also do the schools have reports we can access to see how good they are performing how did you go about finding the school for them?

thanks

I can't give much advice about private school
Our girls went into equivalent to what they would have been in in the UK, we we're told moving them into an above class was an option but they would have to spend at least one year in there chosen class first to be assessed.
I never went into Regina, or Saskatoon hubby started work straight away and me not being able to drive i was a little bit isolated, and relying on public transport.

Yes they do have organic food but it is very expensive, and once you start living on the $ you may want to re-think food shopping, with me having two fussy kids food wise i found it really expensive trying different foods only to have to re buy because they didn't like the smell, colour or taste, some would say i should have made them eat whatever was in front of them but you know what kids are like and its not always that easy.

you would see a lot of people at Canadian superstore which similar to Tesco size wise, foods are very different in taste to what your probably used to, its about getting to know what you like, trial and error.

Schools we're quite easy, they have one Catholic high school, and a hand full of elementary, i phoned the Catholic school board in Moose Jaw when we arrived and they put me in touch with St Agnes for our youngest and Vanier for our eldest, both Fantastic schools they did their up most to make the girls welcome and helped them to fit in, the only problem was the girls were doing very well in the classes in the UK and didn't find what they we're taught challenging enough.
I think the eldest found things in MJ boring because she had her long established friends in the UK, they did so much together every weekend, cinema, out for pizza, sleepovers, Concerts, going to the football, and when she got to Canada, she felt it was all sport or nothing. and for a girl going on 16, maybe it just wasn't to her taste. She did enjoy learning to drive which is something she was able to take up at 15, but apart from that she did struggle.
If your kids are younger they will probably fit right in, i think ours where at the wrong age to start moving to the other side of the world.
One of my friends still lives in MJ and she loves it, so it really is each to their own, i'm sure you wouldn't be disappointed with it, it does have quite a lot to offer, and its not as small as you would think.
Shelly

I like Moose Jaw. It has a super nice pool with a waterslide and its only about $3.50 for an adult to swim there. Its nice and bright and has a big hot tub and an area for little kids with shallow water.

I also like the Spa but its not suitable for children. Its a nice place for adults to go and relax. The waters are about the same as those at Bath - at least the minerals in the water are.

The thing is - and you might not like this but you have to get used to it - Regina and Moose Jaw are not very fussy about "fashionable" clothes. We have clothes but they probably aren't what the high fashion people are wearing in London and Toronto and Milan and Paris. But - you have to realize you are in Moose Jaw and nobody give a s***.

We have an expats group going here in Regina. There are people like us who have been here 30+ years and there are some that only came last year. I can't remember them all, but they are all a real laugh! There are several Geordie couples who are a real riot!! We had a pot luck supper in March and we had a discussion about how nobody really cares a hoot what anyone wears here. So really, if you are living in Moose Jaw and there isn't the choice of clothing that there is in London - don't worry about it becuase everyone is in the same boat.

When I was in England last year I did notice that everyone, including ladies of my age, which is around the 60 mark - all wore clothes that in Regina and Moose Jaw would look like teenagers clothes. If I wore the clothes that 60 year old ladies wore around Maidstone - people would turn and look and think I had my granddaughter's clothes on.

All I am saying, it does not matter - because everyone is the same and what you think is not fashionable looks normal to us!!

At the pot luck one Geordie lady was telling a story about how she went home last year and her best friend made fun of her because she had her glasses on a chain around her neck so she could take them off and not lose them. Her friend asked her how old she was and said she looked like an old lady with her glasses on a chain. So, not wanting to appear too grannyish, she got rid of the glasses chain. Then when she got back here she lost the glasses!! Her husband said "see - if you had your damn glasses on that chain, you wouldn't have lost them!!"

I find that people accept people for what they are and not for whether they are wearing the latest fashions.

About the weather. It's no doubt that it's cold in Saskatchewan in the winter, but Moose Jaw is in a valley and quite often it's not quite so cold there as it is in Regina. But its still cold!!

This is one of the many things I like about living in Canada, you are quite right, no one gives a stuff what you wear, for me, I never really had the urge to pay a fortune for what the 'fashions shops' thought I should be buying!!!!

I have to say I have even got out of the habit of wearing heels, although I think that has more to do with having children than where we live.

Linda P

I do agree that no one gives a stuff what you wear (unless you are a teenager and wearing the latest fashion is just as competitive as back home for them). I wish that should you wish to maintain a reasonable standard of dress, you should be able to do so! There is absolutely no choice outside of major urban centres and the quality of clothes here is dreadful. There is no law requiring manufacturers to pre-shrink fabric before it hits the cutting room, so everything sold in Canada shrinks or is mis-shapen after one wash. I am so sick of seeing scruffy T shirts, nasty looking jeans and cheap looking nylon clothes I would never usually wear...call me old fashioned but I think a well dressed lady of a certain age (yes even in Maidstone Liz!) looks so much classier than one kitted out from head to toe in the Marks Work Wearhouse latest.

Hey, have you been in Marks Work Wearhouse..... I didn't think they were that bad. True it's not the most trendiest of places, but at least they make clothes for actual women, ones that have legs not sticks, tops that allow
for boobs and cover your mid-rift!

I have to say the only problem I have had with clothes is from places like the Superstore, also the sizes vary so much you have to try everything on.

I also find it a change that you can tumble dry thing here without it coming out ready for a Barbie doll!!!


Linda P