Hello BMWX...welcome to Canada in advance... and thank you for your encouraging words. Well, I really need to update this thread and really add up some new stuff I 've learnt and found out about in a few days, as soon as I 've some time but sure I will do that. I meet so many great people each day and many of whom want to meet with me on a regular basis that I hardly have time these days to sit down and gather my thoughts and write. ;D
Ontario is a good place to start settling in and finding a job, but sure is also very popular among almost 70 to 80% of all other newcomers, so bear in mind that the competition is really "killing" and in order to succeed you really need to use all and every resources you got being it either personally or materially.
In all my honestly, I don't know much about London, Barrie, Timmins (lots of Gold Mining there), Windsor and/or Hamilton, Brampton or Oakville, but if you are planning to move to Toronto, let me know when you are here, don't look up for a home in advane, because it has no use as long as you are not here physically to go and view the places and neighbourhoods and there are really like HUNDREDS of details most newcomers do not know and are not aware of when looking for a home here, but trust me. I 've met 3x real estate agents who are REALLY TRULY trustworthy and take their job seriously. One of them is my most fave as he is not a "shark". He lives within his own means, drives an old Pontiac that he has paid off himself and lives in a small home himself and is not aiming for the big money out there in Real Estate market.
I mean really ... I was downstairs today waiting for a friend to go walk the dogs together and there was this Real Estate agent, female one, with two couples waiting for the keys etc and I WON'T EVEN THINK OF asking her or her alikes to help me find a "home". I so much wanted to talk to the two couples and help them out, but since they did look down on me and treated me like a "foreigner", I let them go and become a victim. Like I Care! 8)
I 've studied Psychology and can tell who is honest and who is not. This one, will be now praying to her GOD to get the deal done and so she can run to her dealer and pay off her EXPENSIVE Mercedes! believe me, all bought on a loan big time! no class, no style, but EGO big time. yeaks!
Anyway ...
Which parts of town are good to live in? ... anywhere but " Sheppard and Jane" ... Spadina/Bloor, Bathurst/Bloor, Yonge/Eglinton, Sheppard, North York/Yonge, College, Carlton, and Danforth are good to start with. Bloor East is also a good start, but I don't know what your budget is and what you like.
In my neighbourhood which is very centrally located, if you want to live in a one bedroom condo and in a rather old, but I emphasize compfy safe condo, you might end up paying like 1100 to 1250 and if you go for new condo's, sure 1400 to 1600 a month. A bit farther down the "downtown", either north or west or east, you pay less and you can find bigger homes. But believe me, in real world, you may find a good deal, skip the "cyber" world because that is really not my style now I 've found out how much else is out there you can find than on internet.
Whatever you do, whatever you look for, whatever your wish is, whatever your price range is, just be patient!!!!
Make sure and give yourself at least 3 weeks time at a hotel/suite so you 've all the time to just foucs on house hunt. YMCA sure can help you find a good deal and start rightly! When you land, I strongly advice you to visit the nearest YMCA center and register yourself. You 'd be amazed how much information they can give you.
I myself am right now starting to realize that I might be better off buying a home. If you can pay down 35% of the mortgage loan, you don't need to even have a job in here in order to qualify for a mortgage loan and buy a home. If you can do that, then do so.
As soon as I 've me a job that pays well, I start looking for the chance to buy and the real estate agent I told you about, will be my choice and help me find a suitable home.
If you want to live in Mississauga and/or Scarborough, you might be sure way cheaper when renting. But I won't choose any of both. Mississuage is better than Scarborough. I just the other day hear on TV telling that there have been like 11 shootings there!
so.. NO, please... downtown might be expensive, but Oh gosh it is so safe here and I am so happy I live in the Gaybourhood...so safe here!
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Now this is really disturbing news ... maybe good, maybe not...
But regarding the Irish debt crisis and ever expanding the debt crisis across Europe, they 've been telling in the media that 28.000 Irish nationals have been admitted a temporary work permit since January 2010 and there will be another 65.000 soon to be arriving in Canada as of January 2011!
And in total, there will be more than 128.000 Irish nationals who are now seeking for jobs abroad and Canada is the most favourite place for them to enter given the fact that at least 4.000.000 Canadians somehow related to Ireland. Nothing wrong with this, but one should keep in mind that also lots of Spanish, British and now even Italians and Greek are seeking for a better life and above all, JOBS, in Canada!
Last year, like all the previous years, there were 250.000 newcomers to Canada, but in 2011 there will be more than 350.000 newcomers most of whom moving to Toronto! ... 100.000 newcomers a year enter Toronto only! ... not all of them seek for a job as off course half of them are either women and children, but sure, the competition is "huge". I notice that myself too. Nothing wrong with it, but if one is really "lazy", he/she better stay away and give himself/herself some more time in prior to moving.
And I myself, if I now will hear any HIGH educated INDIAN, Pakistani, Hong Kong Chinese and/or Taiwanees telling me they want to move to Canada for a better job, especially to those from USA and/or US citizens with already a good job, I say: think twice! .. don't give up something you already have.
I did have a good job in the Netherlands for sure, but I am not really high educated, I am honest in that. For me, sky is the limit here.
In the Netherlands, I was an immigrant myself, I started with scratch and I really fought for my life to get me to somewhere "high and dry" and Netherlands is really not the most fun and best place for people like me who are honest, friendly, want to make friends and who are ambitious and/or just work hard.
You 've to forget your own culture, set aside all that you are brought up with and forget your own cultural values, one should integrate according to the law and become " Dutch". One should start eating Dutch food, if you can call it cuisine, you don't know anything better in life. Then the language, you should learn to speak the language and if not fluentely and without an accent, forget getting a job, unless you are some MBA person and the employer wants you badly and is an internationally operating company, or else, forget it. You might not even find a job as street cleaner!
But I did manage ... I blend in, I did fight and I did endeavour prejudices and prejudgements and a whole lot more misery. I started low and climbed up the ladder slowly. There, if you are a foreigner and you do your job well, they will keep you low and at your spot forever and forget 'growth" and a better position in the company, been there done that, many tears has flown because I 've first handedly seen how some silly idiot got the job I 've applied for after really proving myself and working hard towards that and just because of being " foreigner" .... never got a chance.
In the Netherlands, the employer is by law forced to extend the contract three times ONLY! 2x 6 months contracts followed by a 1x year contract and/or 2x one year contrats and 1x half year and then, they easily get rid of you, coming with an excuse to lay you off. Easily done!
No wonder why my resume is from here to Tokyo!!!! ??? ... Really worked hard and each time, disappointment followed! Canada is a piece of cake for me, as long as I can get somewhere and prove myself, I know I can make it. Because here, at least people take you seriously and is all about competition.
In the Netherlands ,there is no need for competition, because no matter whatever you do, the government will look after you. So, why bother? :
right?
Nobody is really Rich and/or really poor. 80% of the population is living on the same foot. Rich people live in a few small towns like a ghetto and that is it.
They don't know what Haute Couture is, Santa Claus, Thanksgiving, Halloween, all that jazz is non existant and if so, on a much smaller scale and they have this saying " Do gewoon, dan doe je al gek genoeg" meaning: Do as you do, you act already like a crazy!
.. so, no wonder there is not Black Friday or Cyber Monday and/or long queues for a new iPhone 4 and/or what so ever that is new.
Here, it is different ...
If you do possess the "X" factor, you can make it, if not so, then you really won't or will end up wondering why you ever made that choice or give up things you already had.
I am really working my A** off to get me to any point from which I can take off and go from there, but with really low expectations. I don't mind living in Nunavut like I told my friend today, as long as I can be here. Because here I am one of the many and can have peace on my mind and find the satisfaction I never could find in the Netherlands as an immigrant myself.
I really mean this, I have made more friends, I really mean reall friends friends, in 3 months time than in 18 years of living in the Netherlands.
They come to you and make friends with you purely out of curiousity, get to know and find all out about you and then leave again. ... like my only Dutch friend once told me: There are two things you can't trust in here, (Holland), 1. Weather (always rainy, cloudy, suddenly changing), 2. friendships (look like Weather)
The only people I knew there who I 'd some lunch or dinner at times with, were either from Indonesia and/or immigrants themselves, but the Dutch??? no ... not even one, there were many I met, but none who could stay befriend. Suddenly, I didn't hear from them and they were gone with the wind!
If I 've to go back, I have to and I will, but you bet I won't choose to age there. Then I rather go to England and/or Italy to live. But no ... I will stay here and try my best to root in and find my "new" home.
It is important to embrace this nation and this land as your new home, make it your new country and like I told a friend today, I feel like a Canadian because I feel like who I am really and 've found myself once again and after all these years, so if I can find my own "personality" back and be who I am and act as who I am, then I am "home" right?
No more pretence and/or hiding your real nature for me. No. ...
Come to Canada if you are sure you can find your new destiny and a good job and if you really trust yourself, but don't come here because you want the government and/or others to look after you or because you think they are standing there, waiting for you with open arms...then you are wrong.
They don't care who you are ... and I mean that .... as long as you can't show them you mean it and can achieve your goal and/or you are flexibel.
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Honestly ,Honestly ...
I wish that more of you, I mean really more of you dear gents and ladies, from South Asia, Far East, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Ireland, Russia, Poland, Philippines etc, could come to the Netherlands and other European countries and help with me to change the attitude there so we could have a better Europe to live in.
But since it is just a "dream" and a dream one shall never achieve, ... I stay here! ...thank you.
God Bless Canada and all Canadians and its government, being good or bad, after your money or not, recognizing your skills or not, needing you or not, at least here I am who I am. Even if I have to go back to that "sleepy hollow" :-X :-\, at least I 've lived for a while and can still know for myself that I was " Alive" and that I am still who I am.
Good luck to all of you ...