gryphea

We never dreamed of canada. It was a whimsical job application for OH following our once a year ski holiday. We realised we may not be abe to ski forever and we had always liked the idea of living somewhere we could ski. we also wanted adventure, but we did and do like the UK.

Calgary came on the radar as the ACE (Association of Consulting Engineers of Alberta) had been recruiting in UK

We also had to change something as my OH was rapidly heading towards ill health due to over work, over stress and over travelling. At weekends he was exhausted. The better pay here for his profession meant he could take a step back, yet earn more money . Things at his work are infinately better than in similar UK companies, the guys are the top are not 'stab your own granny to advance your career types', which is very refreshing. We now see him, which is fantastic and he coaches soccer etc for our children. He is much healthier. It has allowed him the time to be a real father. Yes, yes I know we could have downsized and him taken a much lower position in the UK, but why not have an adventure. I was bored in my job in UK and coming here gave me the impetus I needed to change position, I work 60% time here (as I did in UK). We both earn more which gives us more freedom to do the things we want.

Are we here for ever, well I doubt we are in Calgary for ever. I love it for the now, but I do envisage livng somewhere with less endless surburbia. We love the mountains and hike in summer, ski in winter. I miss the UK, its endless physical diversity, the coast, stately homes and easy friends. We now have easy friends here too and I get the stately homes from DVDs from the library!!!!

Kids love the sporting opportunities here.

John_B

Ironically I never felt as though I was in a rut back in London, whereas now I feel I am in a rut. If you ask me, the UK has far more opportunities than Canada.

ducktastic

^ + 1....What Funky said

Steve&Tanya

The dream of moving to Canada was for us, owning something other than a small terraced house, chance for hubby to advance in his field and hopefully him making enough money that I didn't have to work.
A big part of making the move was that we were always travelling somewhere, and more often than not to the US. We knew that was a no-go and Canada seemed like the next best thing. We were always planning our next get away on the plane journey home! We decided why not try to live somewhere else.

Reality has been - arriving in Calgary just as the boom hit, so not being able to afford our dream house; Despite hubby's UK experience, having to start as an apprentice and making about half of what he did in the UK; me having to work; our marrige nearly ending due to hubby being sent all over Western Canada to work and me basically being single for about a year and a half Hubby having to leave the field he has known for the majority of his working life to be a "cable guy" for not a lot of money just to be able to spend time at home so we could fix our marrige; buying a big "dream" house and selling it as it turned out to be not a dream but a nightmare
Not having had enough money to do anything really. I battle homesickness a lot, so any money we do save has been used for flights back to the UK. We have not been able to take advantage of where we live now
However things look like they are starting to turn around at last Hubby will be starting a new job, which will give us the sort of income we had expected when we first moved. I should be able to give up work come the new year and just temp/volunteer as originally planned and I may actually be able to get out to the Rockies and learn to snowboard this year

I have days where I think "WTF did we do?" and I have days where I think I am just going to jump on a plane "home" but more often than not I have days of "wow I really do live here"

mandymoochops

Didn't dream of living in Canada but certainly have a lifestyle that If I had dared to dream then i't be pretty close.

Wonderful loving Canadian husband (apart from the incident ), great stepson, awesome extended family here, job prospects for when my pr comes through, house I love on 10 acres, wonderful friends and a competely different attitude on life.

What do some people think living the dream is though - because life for all its good parts, has some real shitty bits, and moving anywhere won't get rid of them.

justie

Couldn't of said it better myself!

lmartin999

I generally feel like I'm in the middle of a pleasant, though undemanding, nap.

Tangram

I do notice a trend on these types of threads, that the gung-ho living the dream, ski-yogurt types are ones who aren't here yet whereas the "I'm living" ones tend to be ones who are here, doing similar things, earning a living etc that they were doing in the UK but perhaps, in some instances, in better/different surroundings.

el_richo

I noticed the same too, which is why i started the thread. It'd be interesting to see how they would reply in a year or two. Would they be an exception to the rule (based on replies to this thread), or would their dreams still be just that?

Aviator

Done well, don't ski or eat yogurt though. Earned a living, had and continue to have fun and still work when I want to. Done way more than would have done in the UK, live in the mountains with spectacular views. Don't get to fly as much as I would like anymore, but now its on my dime. Guess it pretty much lived up to what we had hoped, some ups and downs (in my line of work it was always good if there were an equal number of each).

Oink

Pleasant in the sense that the warm relaxed feeling was really that you've wet the bed and then it just becomes cold and smelly.

cheeky_monkey

it is now so long ago that i applied to come to Canada i have honestly forgotten what the dream was apart from improving my career progression and more opportunities do what ever the family wanted.

In reality my career progressed rapidly while waiting, to a point where i probably didnt need to leave the UK.

By the time i left both my wife and i were in senior positions and very happy with our work etc.

when we applied we had nothing to lose and everyting to gain..when we left it was more like we had a lot to lose and very little to gain..but i had to go because of the 'what if' scenario that would have constently raised its head.

I dont ever regret moving to Canada because of the above and i wont regret moving back to the UK when the times comes because i have been and done it.

Mountain Girl

Our primary mission when first moving to Canada was to spend lots of time in the mountains, skiing, hiking, biking and camping. Plus we also wanted a new challenge. Landing in Calgary in boom time we managed to land much better jobs than we originally anticipated and found the transition relatively easy.

Now that we are 4.4 years in, are we living the dream? Yes and no. Yes we do spend almost every weekend in the mountains doing something or another and we just love the winter and summer seasons for all their glory. We have done more than we could have ever imagined in our spare time and just love the fact that the mountains are so close.

On the job front not so much. We both have decent paying jobs and are financially secure, but yearn for a change. Hubby seems to have moved around the oil companies and recently secured a job with a global oil giant that I know he loves, but is in a high stress, “sweat shop” environment. He travels a lot and can be on a plane from Houston to Chicago in the same week, visiting clients. He is doing really well and is enjoying the challenge, but is starting to look exhausted. After he came home from a trip to Omaha last week, which took something like 3 separate flights to get back from, he declared that he now works more than he did in London. He also declared Sunday night that he didn’t come to Canada to work this hard. For him it’s a double edged sword though, as he did leave trading for a while and darkened the doors of corporate finance, but only for 3 months as he got bored.

Me, well I am plodding along, my job is unchallenging but the environment and people I work with are just great.

What’s our next move? ……….not sure. One thing I am certain of is that I am so glad we stepped up to the challenge; we have both learnt a lot about ourselves, and starting again in a completely different country has been the best experience ever.

So mostly yes we are living a dream we both shared, but what we forgot to factor into the mix was a career change for the both of us.

Oink

I hear this notion of personal challenge a lot on here. Why is moving to Canada is such a challenge? You just fill in a bit of paperwork and wait.

Alan2005

It's a bit like all those people that want to leave their comfort zones. Why do they want to do that? I like my comfort zone thank you very much.