Re: Seeking the BE community's thoughts.
 

More on this ... I find the area around Fairview/ Granville to be very family orientated with some life long Cradles !

Re: Seeking the BE community's thoughts.
 

Mostly. But that statement was mostly intended as a joke, hence the smiley... But on the other hand, if the OP doesn't like the weather in Sask I don't see how he would like it in Calgary? My cousin told me a few days ago it was still snow and cold there!

Re: Seeking the BE community's thoughts.
 

I'm not really sure what constitutes a close friend. I have friends back in the UK who I've known for 30+ years - but I wouldn't say they were close. I just know a lot about them through sheer longevity. I have friends in Canada I've only known for a few years, but I'd rather go fishing with some of them than some of the UK "lifers". I think largely my experience has been that as time has passed I have become less relevant to the lives of friends in the UK and, therefore, contact with them has become less frequent as the years have passed by. I'm sure if I went back to the UK I would have more contact with some of them than I do now. But do I miss them over and above my Canadian friends? not particularly.

Re: Seeking the BE community's thoughts.
 

I suppose it's also important to consider that working on and developing friendships takes work. You can't just hang out once or twice and then be best friends. There's a lot of time that goes into building and developing friendships.

When I moved to the UK 5 years ago, I knew two people, one was my flatmate, and the other was someone I went to university with (let's call him Mike). I didn't really know Mike much in university, just "oh, he's in my program, I think he may be in my accounting class" kind of thing.

However, I started to meet people at work, and the ones I thought were cool I started inviting to hang out outside of work. I made an effort to be available when people were planning anything social so that I could meet more people, went to lunch with colleagues, and genuinely took an interest in them, in their families, in their lives. Eventually you start meeting friends through friends and you establish the network that way... but it takes a lot of work, particularly in the beginning.

Now that we have moved back to Canada, my husband is going through the same thing. He's not as social/outgoing as I am, but I'm also experiencing it as well. However I've managed to reconnect with some people I knew in university, again only casually when we were in university, but I'm better friends with them now than I was in university, and both my husband and I make an effort to attend social events as much as we can - and we are trying to work out when we can take our turn to host something as well. A bunch of my husband's colleagues also go play poker every Friday evening. My husband doesn't go every week, but he does try to go about once a month.

This got a bit long, but the TL;DR: version is that building friendships takes work, it takes time, and it takes a bit of commitment and push on both sides for it to happen.

Re: Seeking the BE community's thoughts.
 

I understand making friendship takes time and commitment, but I think its easier to make friends with people you share similar interest with. I have been open to trying new hobbies and stuff, but if you are not into something you cannot continuously pretend you are having fun just because you want to make friends. I work with loads of engineer who got married in their early to mid 20's, they live a weekly planned/scheduled lifestyle and the only thing they do for fun is go for a meal once a month after work on a Thursday. Funny enough the weather hasn't been a big issue for me, other than the stuffs that I have mentioned in the original post what I have really struggled to come to terms with in the last 3 months is, you walk outside and you can barely see anyone on the streets even in the areas considered to be the heart of the city center. I'm like where the heck is everyone, being a Londoner and having lived in Manchester for a few years before moving to Canada it has been a rather different experience and somewhat of a difficult adaptation period.

Re: Seeking the BE community's thoughts.
 

How old are you? I find people have an easier time adapting the younger they are, plus it helps if you lived abroad at a younger age. By the time you're 25 you're set in your ways, imo. Mainly because you learn all the stuff to do with looking after yourself in the immediate period after you leave home and learning it all over again becomes harder the older you are.

Re: Seeking the BE community's thoughts.
 

I think it is more shared experiences than shared interests (though they help too).

Moving countries is a hell of a big thing. It changes you in more ways than you could have imagined beforehand. People who are born and bred in one place will never understand. Look amongst other immigrants. We've been here a while now and have a reasonable circle of friends. Only one was born in Canada and, I suspect, he is only included because his wife wasn't.

Re: Seeking the BE community's thoughts.
 

I'm 29 - I reckon adapting to Saskatoon would be somewhat difficult for most people regardless of their age, unless if you move here with your family.

Re: Seeking the BE community's thoughts.
 

ive read this thread a couple o times and i recon the problem is that you dont have to be there and you have an out!
I noticed this occuring at the first job i had in Canada,the ones like myself who came over with next to nothing ,we just started life etc from scratch and got on with what Canada threw at us ,while the ones with a house /job (to return too)back in the UK ,,after a few setbacks went back to the UK without in my opinion giving it a fair go!.
But for someone from a big city with all that brings ,moving to a small city in the frozen prairies is never going to work out well and once you believe you dont want to be there its a lost cause as you will get more and more fed up .
jimmy.

Re: Seeking the BE community's thoughts.
 

Because the weather is milder in Calgary. They get the warm chinook winds blowing in from the west and those rarely get this far.

Re: Seeking the BE community's thoughts.
 

If you're young and have no family around you (kids, wife etc) and you're used to a faster more urban environment then being "stuck" out in a small town setup without an established friends network, I would imagine I would get pretty fed up. Do you like Canada in general? Would it be better if you moved to a more lively area? If you would be happier back in the UK then I don't think there's any shame in admitting it. There's absolutely no reason why everybody should "love" all things Canada! It isn't necessarily everyone's cup of tea. If the UK is still home for you - then it sounds like that's where you should be.

Good luck either way.

Re: Seeking the BE community's thoughts.
 

:rofl:LOL
Even Ontario is better than Calgary IMO... But I will say Calgary will definitely be more lively than Sask, which would definitely help the OPs situation...
:)

Re: Seeking the BE community's thoughts.
 

Yeah, rofl, but I'm curious how much time you've actually spent in Saskatchewan or Alberta, or for that matter BC or Manitoba? Even though I spent a week in Montreal once I hardly know it well enough to recommend or condemn it. Comparing Ontario to Calgary and Sask to Calgary is a little confusing - Calgary is a big sprawling city, but Ontario and Saskatchewan are much larger, being provinces. Lol.

Re: Seeking the BE community's thoughts.
 

Sorry let me be more specific... I think the Toronto area (Ontario) is better weather wise than Calgary based on what family living there [Calgary] have told me... And I know based on what i've seen on here Sask is definetly worse in winter than Ontario ! And no I haven't been to any other province besides Ontario ever... But i'll be visiting "La belle provence" this summer! :p

But as I said I agree that Calgary will be better than Sask in that yes it is a big sprawling, lively city ! And that may help curb OPs homesickness if he can stomach the weather... I for one couldn't. I'd actually rather stay in Ontario! :eek:

Re: Seeking the BE community's thoughts.
 

Well, I've lived in both Calgary and Toronto area and I would take the weather in Calgary over Southern Ontario any day. Even (especially) in winter. It's much dryer so you don't feel as cold and like Caretaker says, there are the chinook winds which can see it warm up considerably in the course of a few hours.