Hawk13

Lots of people go through it even the couples that do it but like everyone has said - stick it out, it will take awhile to settle in.

And the worst feeling is when you go back and then start having regrets that you were too hasty in giving up on Canada - a vicious circle kinda thing but it happens.

MillieF

Can't but help agree with Oink and Jings....you saved the company money...keep stressing that in 'the right tone'. What is passed has passed. Don't stress it...if they wanted to send you thus far, they value you as an employee, seek to play that to your advantage. Don't feel some misplaced British team spirit....they won't thank you for it, or respect it. You are good...just in the wrong place!

Winters in Canada are shit...big shit..don't assume you can make any normal decision while it's horrible...very very best of luck

burks

Does your whole outlook on Canada boil down to the weather!??


You have 2 more years left, I would say stick it out, try to make the most of it and the career opportunity afforded to you. Give it another year, by which time it should be clear whether or not you are settled properly or not, and if not try and transfer somewhere else in Canada (if this is what is needed to maintain your career progression). You may find that it is just that community that doesn't fit for you.

But I wouldn't beat yourself up over the not going to visit the place first, because visiting somewhere for a short period of time is very different to actually living there.

You say you miss the British Media, culture etc. To be honest, the best substitute for that I found was here on BE. I would read the threads without contributing for a while just to get a taste of the banter. After a while I would contribute a little and it is fun. If you get a few beers in it's probably the closest thing you'll find to a British pub experience haha!

Is there much of a British Expat community that you could get involved with there??

mohtechnix

Thank you all for the posts, it means a lot as I am sure some of you have had similar experience in the past. For further clarification I was already an employer with the company in the UK for two years, I wasn't employed solely to come to Canada. It was a choice I made and I have no regrets whatsoever. If I moved to Calgary or Vancouver, then I will be moving to another sector of the company which means I will be leaving the guys who brought me to Canada (Work Permit, Relocation Assistance, etc). Family and friends consensus is to give it 18months and as someone mentioned earlier that will look good on the Cv if I had to go back home.

My experience thus far is that Canadians are generally super nice, but during my month travels in America I found out that it was actually easier to make good friends with Americans. It definitely changed my opinion of them

Lychee

There's fashion in Saskatoon?!

Just kidding. The prairies are certainly a unique part of the Canadian landscape, but for those who are seeking greenery, early springs, or extended autumns, it's probably the last destination in the country.

Likewise, if you're involved with fashion, a larger city - Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal - would likely be a better fit. Saskatoon may be Saskatchewan's arts community, but it's still a small potatoes art scene in Canada, and even more so when compared to what you may have been used to in the UK.

It's true that real friendships take can a lifetime to develop. You've spent your entire life in the UK. The people you were friends with in the UK shared a lifetime of similar experiences - the same school system, the same pop culture, the same media, the same shopping, the same values. You're still (from the sounds of it) experiencing culture shock in Saskatoon. You're superficially beginning to understand what makes the locals in Saskatoon tick, and chances are, what gets the locals excited is not the same as what makes you excited. The UK and Saskatoon are different worlds. You can't be in the UK headspace and expect to pick up quality Canadian friendships until you begin to observe Canadian life in Saskatoon from an anthropological perspective, and appreciate Saskatoon in its own context, rather than compare it to the UK.

People on BE have long said that you need a minimum of two years to properly adapt to a new location. The first year you're experiencing firsts - first time knowing when spring starts, what summer is like, your first winter, where to bank, where to buy groceries, what groceries to buy - silly superficial things that you take for granted, you need to relearn. Year two, these lifestyle changes are no longer a shock, you've experienced it, you know what to expect, and you can now anticipate it. Your 24 months in your new home is now the "new normal", and things are familiar and falling into place. It's become routine, and culture shock is no longer an issue. You either accept Saskatoon as it is, or admit that you can appreciate it for what it is in its own context, but it simply will never offer you the culture/climate you personally value.

burks

My experience is that Canadians are indeed super nice, but they also tend to have a very closed friendship group made up of people that they have known for years, even from elementary school! To me this is strange as I only speak to 2 maybe 3 people that I went to secondary school with!!

I am yet to make friends where I feel as close to them as I did to those back home. But again, those friendships were built over a long period of time. Unfortunately it always goes back to the time factor.

Oink

Be careful of the local women. They're a lot like Russian and Ukrainian women. They want to find a Western man with a decent job who can take them away from the place.

MillieF

You evidently did something wrong

JamesM

What is wrong with Russian and Ukranian women?

I'm curious to know if there is a Hooters in Saskatoon? That could be the issue here if we all stop acting so blindly and start reading between the lines.

Lychee

I find this is true in the suburbs around Vancouver (ie: Burnaby, Richmond, Langley, likely Chilliwack where I imagine you're living), but in the heart of Vancouver, a city of transients, where it seems like nobody is from Vancouver, friendships don't revolve around where you're from, but instead, friendships revolve around hobbies (photography, live music, beach volleyball, environmental activism, craft beer, marathon training, sea kayaking, snowboarding, etc.). Those who in Canada who are ambitious end up leaving their childhood social circles for other cities and countries. It explains why there are millions of Canadians living abroad in the USA, the UK, and elsewhere. It also may explain why cradles who grew up in the prairies, who don't fit the lifestyle, end up leaving to move to the bigger cities.

I imagine that in immigrant-rich Canadian cities, or transient cities (where people are moving from elsewhere in Canada) - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary - if you're going to be building new friendships, it will likely be with the other transients who have moved in from elsewhere.

Oink

If I recall there was only an okay hotel bar that was even remotely decent. Saskatoon was a right dump and that was in the middle of the summer. Surprisingly, the kebabs there were really spendy. They must think they're exotic or something.

burks

That is a rather random list of hobbies there! The craft beer hobby is something that bugs me a little. It must be the whole hipster movement, but I have yet to taste a craft beer that doesn't taste like every other craft beer. Anyways..

That may be the case, my experience has been in the GVRD and FVRD, not the city of Vancouver itself. Although I know of quite a lot of ambitious people who have not needed to leave their home towns in order to see their ambitions come to fruition.

I do find however that Canadians tend to bounce around from city to city a lot more than in the UK, or maybe we just don't notice it as much in the UK as moving from one city to the next usually means they are moving an hour down the road! Whereas here moving from one big city to the city is usually a much bigger distance.

Siouxie

Totally agree on the friendship thing too - I have been trying to explain this to people for years; you don't 'instantly' make deep friendships, they take time to develop and deepen.

I think the other problem could be that sub-consciously you know that this is a temporary move and thus don't feel the need to try and make it 'home' - and all these pre-planned visits back to the UK won't help either.

Give it 18 months and then perhaps approach the company to relocate within Canada.

Have you considered applying for PR (seriously) - perhaps then you wouldn't feel that you are in transit and you could choose where you wanted to live and which company you worked for. I think you are just feeling trapped right now, understandably.

ExKiwilass

From what I hear, those trying to make friends through meetup groups or interests in Vancouver still have a very hard time making those true friendships.

IMO with all the immigration and house prices there are very few people in greater vancouver who are still living where they grew up. All of my friends in Burnaby are *gasp* not even from BC, but all over Canada/the world.

http://www.bipt.ca/community/demographic-info

Over 50% of Burnaby's population is immigrant or refugee. I bet it's even higher for Richmond and the like.

ExKiwilass

To the OP: If you can stick it out you'll be in an even better position to go where you want in a few years. Good luck