Dashie

You're aware that without that post secondary education, you would likely have to spend time on crap money, regardless of where you are? Even with it, it could take time, especially somewhere with a different system, similar to the issues people have when they come here with a British education. You might have to curb your gadget collection.

Gozit

LOL Or I could make money off of it ! They are expensive in Malta, an iPhone 5S costs nearly $1300 of Canadian money. I could buy it here, and sell it there for more money, whilst they still think they're getting a deal!

And yes I know, that's my gripe with post secondary. Although I think in the field I would go in (I.T.) everything's pretty universal, so I don't think conversion would be an issue, nor do they have issues with "Maltese experience" like they do here with "Canadian experience" ... (at least I don't think ! Hopefully not)

And my other gripe is, you come out of post secondary, apply for jobs in your field and you either get a sh!t wage or they won't accept as you don't have experience. Well how the **** am I supposed to get experience if I am just graduated and no one will hire me because I don't have experience, or want to give me little more than minimum wage for it (which I won't accept; the only reason I would go into post-secondary is the money, and for the effort one puts in at post secondary, I think significantly more than min. wage is deserved)

Ah the mysteries of life ...

Siouxie

Welcome to the expat world - that is what it is like for many new immigrants, regardless of however much experience they have overseas!

Gozit

Yup... The unfortunate thing is even if I stayed in Canada after post secondary i'd be on a bad wage until I had enough "experience" to either ask for a raise or apply elsewhere. So I might as well move where I want to be and be on a bad wage there and "work my way up" there...

Dashie

I believe that's the way it is in a lot of fields. And not just in Canada. You could also do an internship to gain experience. Or look at the lesser paid jobs as a way to gain the experience that gets you a better salary. Experience, whichever way you get it, is at least as important as the qualification. It's the way it is unfortunately, not much mystery there. They want you to prove you're worth paying more.

burks

It isn't that hard to get a degree these days, everyone and their dog are getting them. You have to start somewhere. It does bug me how people expect everything to be given to them because they have got a diploma/degree.

You're example of electronics prices are surely a great example of how it won't be so much cheaper/relative in Malta no? For certain products you will have to pay twice the price, whilst earning half the salary.

Out of curiosity, how much time have you actually spent in Malta?

BristolUK

Heating costs might be a tad less in Malta.

burks

Air Conditioning will be higher though no? ... and sun cream!

BristolUK

I dunno...would you use AC more in Malta than Canada? I've not been but I never experienced the sort of humidity here anywhere else.

I've been in a few Greek apartments where I'd have killed for AC overnight - although a good fan would have done. But Canada is the only place where humidity has put me off going out.

Steve_

Yes I can hear the birds tweeting.

@BirdInCalgary Wow that was a ballbuster #wintersucks

@AnotherBirdInCalgary Stuff this, I'm moving to Kelowna.

burks

Albertans love Kelowna huh? .. When I lived there it seemed that the lake was just full of floating Albertans haha

Gozit

Yup, unfortunately that's how it is...
But fortunately for me, the IT field is very competitive and such so I should be able to secure decent salary anywhere after a few years (and I believe knowing a few languages might help too for working abroad)

Tis true, I was poking round the York University (Toronto) site the other day and for the degree I want to get into you only need a mid-70s% GPA! Last semester I had an 83% GPA. So i'm doing the right amount of work apparently

I've spent a grand total of about 4 months down there, only been three times but I loved it... Planning to go back next summer (2015)

Oh and my solution to certain things being super expensive there (iPhones/laptops and such) is i'll get visitors to bring them from Canada or order them from the UK, as the post office (Maltapost) offers a UK import service for €5 a month in which you have a UK address to send things to from Online shipping stores such as apple.co.uk or amazon.co.uk , which forwards to your residence in Malta
Kind of but also not really. Electricity is super expensive as we have no natural resources.
Err yes if you bother spending the coin to do it... Most Maltese don't and it drives me up the wall, can't sleep without it. I'm sometimes tempted to slip my grandfather €100 and tell him to leave me alone when I switch it on at night.
Yes... You need AC in Malta, more than here... It does get humid in August/September, very very humid. I love the heat so I don't mind, and the only time I will complain about not having AC is in the night (like I said above) but usually with some haggling I can convince my hosts to let me switch it on all night

dbd33

This morning we awoke to find the countryside freshly coated with virgin snow. Yesterday there had been patches of brown and flooding in some places, today it is again pristine white, Christmas must be coming.

bats

Oh dear. Somewhat depressing. It has rained here for the past 12 hours the snow is going but there are still patches, big patches. The sump pump is singing its song of spring.

I'Ve just been reading that so far this year Algonquin Park has has 10metres of snow.

Partially discharged

Considering that the average is 2.21 m per year, I have my doubts on that figure.

The snowiest place in southern Ontario is Wiarton http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiarton...hy_and_climate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonqu...l_Park#Climate