Highly frustrated with the difficulty of school and paying tuition here.

Public and private training schools are out of reach to begin with and have their own unique hurdles.

Public school is cheaper, but you have to take a slew of high school level classes as pre-reqs (if you went to high school in BC or other area's of Canada you don't as you likely took them in high school... lol) which adds 1-2 years and a great deal of money, and then once those are complete and only when complete you can apply for the program and then there is a 2+ year wait list for it.

Private school includes the necessary classes into their program, but 17,000 for tuition for a 7 month certificate program is a bit steep.

Either way can't pay out of pocket, and can't get government loans, banks won't provide loans, so out of idea's, and figured the best way to an education is to leave and go to California...


But then I doubt BC would recognize it if done down there and wouldn't let me be a lab assistant even though the program there is longer by about 10 months.

Was a frustrating morning, but its a bit better now. We just have to make more and getting higher income on our current educational level is difficult to impossible.

La Jolla is super nice, well beyond what most normal folks can afford though...lol...


Downtown is one the nicest in the US in my view, right on the bay, easy to walk, good transit with the trolley, Seaport Village, Gas Lamp Quarter, and a decent mall.

It's change a lot from when I was a kid in the 80's, back then it was largely homeless, tattoo shops, sailors both naval and fishing, bars, x-rated theaters and so on.

They really worked hard during the 90's to clean it up and they succeeded beyond what anyone though they could do.

Although the massive tuna ships no longer port, at one point in time San Diego was one of the largest tuna ports in the world.

I always wanted to live downtown there, no need for a car, easy access to all the fun stuff, and excellent views.

Jsmith, there comes a time when one has to stop looking at what one can't do, & start looking at what one *can* do.

Have you ever had a sit down & worked out what your budget would be if you were to return to San Diego (include visa costs for your wife), income(obviously you'd lose BC disability) based on what you would earn doing the same type of jobs you do here, & expenses?

Have you looked at what is on offer via WorkBc for training/retraining?

Please don't take this the wrong way: you tend to come across as a "glass half-empty" kind of guy. You often start threads where people take the time to post tons of good ideas/advice, and you come back and shoot them all down ... .

Just for once, try not to reply telling me what you'd like to do if life were different. Have a think about what you can do with what's current, & real.

[apologies for thread-swerve people]

Only expense that would be higher in San Diego is medical, too many variables though to get a true accurate cost, would all depend on what benefits if any the employer provided and then go from there.

Everything else would be the same or lower (food is lower, gas and insurance is lower, housing about the same, electric a bit more, internet cheaper etc.)

Income would be about the same, I always made 11-12 hr there, I generally make 11-12/hr here as well but in the local currency of course.

We are not going back though, can't pay for the immigration costs or moving costs. It was just a frustrated thought.....


I have never been able to find a career with my current education/skill level, and the service job I get are just not a good fit, and end up with with constant moving job to job to get out of bad work environments.

I'd enjoy lab assistant, and its on my aptitude test as a top result, just can't figure out how to pay for it, the programs that are available all want you to be on EI or have been on EI in the previous 3 years, I have neither so they are of no use.

Student loans and private loans are a no go.

School offer monthly payment plans if you can provide 30% down and show you have the full amount available upfront, which we don't so not an option either.

School financial aid office says not much they can do.

No way to come up with the $$ for school when our income barely covers essentials.



I have spent more time with financial aid offices then I ever thought I would in the past few months, when your not eligible for government aid, it makes it near impossible.

The program I am looking at is not part-time and not cheap at any of the schools and not something we could muster up out of pocket, and don't have family who can help, so it's not an easy task to find funding for school, and there is not a whole lot of options without student loans being available.

Hi
It is always quite possible they have just drifted away from the board and settled into canadian life.
I personally have been absent from this board quite regularly for long periods, probably will be again in the future, it doesnt mean i have left canada
cheers
jerry

should have added but i cant edit my post .. i am in bc
jerry

We know.

(tiz a long way away from devon)

Then you'll need to find the Hot spring we stopped at along the Highway http://www.liardhotspringslodge.com/

hotel/RV camp site, with a large Hot spring to bath in, as long as you Ok with the occasional bear ?

Thanks. It actually felt quite good to get it down on...keyboard/screen

Hey! You left out MB, there are a handful of us lurking around here
I seem to remember there was a map of BE posters locations done not that long ago.

WOW that looks stunning. I thought you wrote 'as long as you are ok with the occasional beer' at first. That would have been better

I think I have that as a stop. The Road trippers site isn't very tablet/slow internet friendly.

Yes, thanks.

My experiences date from a long time ago, but probably some things haven't changed. My wife and I were married in Toronto in 1967, having emigrated (separately) from England 15 months or so before. We only lived there for another four months, then left for somewhere warmer. (My employer kindly arranged for me to transfer to one of its Caribbean offices, and we never looked back.) Canada was very kind to us, and we owe it a huge debt of gratitude: broke when we arrived, we left with at least a few bucks; the tax on salaries wasn't very high, in those days.

We didn't get to see the whole country - Ontario, mostly, with visits to Montreal, St John's (NB), Halifax and PEI - and my son and I flew up to Penticton, BC, on our way to Australia once. Nice people, as we remember, though rather reserved. Of the 20 guests at our wedding, only three or four were Canadians; the rest were expats, whom we found easier to get on with.

We're still in NS we no intention of leaving, and I know several others who used to be on these boards a lot but, now that they're here, rarely if ever post. So I think Jerry is probably right :-)