October 6th, 2012 we got on the plane and moved to Canada.
As usual, it was pretty stressful. I did the packing on my own. Xavier had to drive the Mustang back to France. He took about 5 days to drive it back to Lyon. The time he drove through Spain, they had these terrible floods and mudslides. Xavier said there was a piece of the highway missing, as in the bridge simply wasn't there anymore. It took him forever to drive through Spain with all of the road diversions.
As I packed, I was afraid our stuff would get stolen again. This time, I tried to cleverly write the contents of the boxes in German. I figured the movers and the customs agents would be less likely to read German than French or English. Then, I tipped the movers pretty well. Miraculously, so far, all of our boxes arrived in Canada (at least the air freight portion.)
We got out ok. For the first time, neither Xavier nor I got flagged by the authorities regarding the car. All that has been so stressful!
Canada has so far been the friendliest country I've ever lived in. It's like the US, but with some more social, higher taxes, higher cost of living than anywhere I've ever lived, and freedom of economy. It feels like Canada is, what the US was in the 1950's. I believe the US has gone into social free fall since the Reagan years and is slowly trying to correct itself. It has also been in a bad economic state since we left in 2004.
Everyone smiles and says hi to you here. People introduced themselves to us right away. It's lovely, though kind of shocking. I'm not sure how to behave. Weird, huh? That is, I'm not sure what the rules of politeness are here. People seem kind of British. They wait patiently and don't yell at you or anything or tell you what to do. I never see any angry words or fist fighting in the street. I don't think, "am I going to get robbed today," when I'm outside or when I go to the bank. I don't worry about getting attacked when I go running in the green space near our house.
So, apparently, Canada is known for its friendliness.
Some things are easy, some things are not.
EASY: most utilities, SS#, DL
HARD: actually, relatively speaking, nothing has actually been hard. Sometimes there is a process and that can take a little time, but compared to Europe and Morocco, everything is simple here.
Things that annoy me: My husband is the one with the work permit. Since I'm not yet working, I'm attached to him and therefore have no more rights than a child.
Example:
1. Can't put any utilities in my name. I tried to cancel the cable, mind you, I'm the one who set it up, but they wouldn't let me. They said my husband has to call and cancel it.
2. Our Credit Card: called to get it unlocked and to get a new pin number sent to me - couldn't do anything because my husband is the primary person, we are NOT equal on the credit card. Therefore, my credit card remained locked.
3. Banks: totally messed up like Europe. My husband's name is on the account. Too difficult to change accounts. Checking accounts seem to be a problem. When renting, you have to post date 12 months of rental checks. Only Xavier's name is on the checking account. No for some reason they cannot add me to the account. We would have to close the account, then re-open a new one. Too complicated, so now Xavier has to sign checks for me when I need one. Really irritating.
Scams: Beware of moving companies.
We bought furniture from a woman doing an estate sale. Basically, we bought the entire contents of her house. I had no desire to move all that furniture myself, plus we have no car. I found a moving company on kijiji. They quoted me for $180.00 for 1 truck, 2 men and 4 hrs of work.
I didn't want anything professional, just throw the stuff in a truck and get it out of there. My husband has no car and the bus wasn't running in the middle of the day, so when he finally got to the woman's house the men asked him to sign something and pay a down payment of $300.00. Xavier complied. After the truck was loaded, the guys told him to sign another piece of paper and to pay them $1,200.00 up front in cash or they wouldn't deliver the goods. When I found this out, I called the manager and told him we agreed on a price and this is totally unacceptable. He told me my husband signed a contract. I said I was not going to pay a cent until I looked this contract over myself and then we would discuss this further, un beknownst to me my husband feeling trapped already paid them the money they had asked. I had no written proof of the verbal agreement. I was totally enraged by this. For that price, we would have rented a U-haul and done it ourselves.
I called the police and they kindly came over to the house to take my statement. They told me I have to get every detail written out and that there is absolutely nothing they can do. I said this is fraud. They agreed, but again, there is nothing they could do. The police were really apologetic since we're new to Canada and already we got scammed. If it were any other country, I would have been 10X as angry. At least in English, I'm aware of everything that happened.
Scams happen here as much as they do in the states. It's unfortunate, but that's the way it is. Other than that, getting settled seems to be quite effortless outside of trying to get a phone. Rogers, the main phone company likes the 2 yr contract plan, which is completely insane, especially since Rogers is a monopoly.
Data Download: now here is something totally outdated in canada. Unlimited WIFI - forget it. Doesn't exist. The phone company is living in the past. They actually charge you based on your datadownload. Who on Earth knows of their download?? Once you go over, they nickel and dime you and nail your wallet. Like those horrible cell phone charges when you go over your limit. Yes, that too ought to be passé, but it's not. Even the developing world has unlimited internet access. The phone company here still has a lot to learn. Until change happens (ie break up the phone companies, in other words, Rogers cannot have the power behind the other phone companies if you actually want to break it up), we're all chained to it.
Buying a car: Hmmm. Doesn't look like it's going to happen. Credit in the USA? Sorry folks, no credit checks in the US, even though it's a 1.5 hr drive to the border. Our options are as follows: Buy a very expensive 2-yr lease, buy a used car cash, try and get a loan on a car in the states and bring it over (way more complicated, but doable, I think.) So, the family and I are still busing and hoofing it and renting a car on the weekend to do our shopping. Gotta say, it's working out quite well.
By the way, brrrr, it's cold!!! -4 celcius today. We're not even in winter yet. Yikes!!!
