My experience in Canada

So I have noted on this blog that a couple years ago I went and spent some time studying in France. Ultimately that is where my journey to Canada started. The story in a nutshell is that I went to study French during what was known as the intersemester period. Whilst I was there I met a bunch of people who would be staying for six months to a year. When I left I was very envious and felt like I had missed out on a really good opportunity. They were about to start what to me seemed like a real adventure and I had finished university and was going home to look for a job.

When I got home I bounced from job to job for a while essentially taking a year off. I worked a whole bunch of temporary jobs interspersed with a number of holidays, trips etc. Once the year was over I got a solid job repairing computers. However, I was never happy there. Oddly I enjoyed the work but I always felt like I had been corralled into that position and had to some extent lost my freedom. Dramatic I know but that is kind of what I was feeling.

Anyways with that in mind I decided that what I wanted to do was go and live and work abroad for a year. During my year off I had been on a trip to Canada with some friends and had really enjoyed it. I figured that it would suit me there, no big spider, snakes or general nasty horrible bugs. It has snow and I love to ski and it has warm summers, whats not to like? As I have mentioned before, there is something of an arrangement between Canada and the UK which allows for exactly this kind of thing, i.e. living and working there for 12 months. I applied got my visa and working permit and at the start of October 2012 I moved to Toronto.

Why Toronto well it is a long story but essentially I have some very good family friends that live just outside the city. Not only were they very helpful in planning my move but they were also kind enough to let me stay with them whilst I found my feet.  I also had an old school friend living in Toronto. He was extremely helpful, he had gone through the same process as I was and was able to offer advice and explain the application process for me. I guess to some extent I thought that I have a base of sorts there I may as well go there. In hindsight this was a mistake for me, I wanted to go skiing mainly and that is something that the Toronto area does not have in abundance.

However, I did go to Toronto and one of the other advantages to this choice for me was that my previous employer had some contacts in that area and was able to put in a good word for me. I was not fussed about working the same position again in Canada rather I fancied something new. That said having been there a while and found getting work difficult and I did end up working a similar job in Canada to the UK, via this contact. This was my second mistake. I had been told and I agreed that staying in the city or at least the Toronto area was the best idea. However, the job that I landed was way outside of Toronto and without a car it was very isolated. As I said before I don't dislike working on computers but I did have a feeling of having come a long way to do the exact same thing. I also felt that the circumstances under which I had been employed very much held me to this position so moving back was not really an option for me.

I have never really had much trouble making friends. I am not the most outgoing person but neither am I a loner and have always been able to meet new people over a pint or two. I figured that this would be no different, it did start kind of slow but once I had a pint with a few people from work it would all be gravy. Sadly this did not happen. Very quickly we went out as a group of work mates in fact we even went out for New Years Eve and I thought that we had a great time. However, once back at work it was very much like it had never happened, a one off if you like. I do understand that some people do not like to mix work and pleasure but I never really felt very comfortable here. There were a number of times that things were organised, parties, days out etc where I was just left out. This didn't happen all the time but that almost made it worst because I felt like I was simply being forgotten rather than openly disliked. This sort of thing is ultimately why I came home early.

Having booked a flight home naturally I met some really good people. As it turned out the majority of the people I was working with were decent people it is just difficult to get into a tightly knit social group sometimes. That said for the most part I never really made friends with them.

Having made some friends Canada improve dramatically and was the place that I remembered from previous holidays. I always knew that it was a good country filled with wonderful people, however, it was very difficult to remember that under the circumstances. In total contrast to the first few months my last few months went by filled with nights at the pub, hanging with friends, hockey games, good conversation and just exceptional people. I realise that this post focuses largely on the bad things that I experienced and ultimately what I am trying to say with that is that the grass is not always greener. However, for anyone who does want to go to Canada or anywhere for an extended period my advice is stay the course. Do I regret coming home? No, I think that really it was the right decision for me but I would very much have liked to spend more time with the people that became my friends. I would also say that this kind of trip really is not for the faint at heart. You will spend some time by yourself and making friends can be very tough, however, as with a lot of things you get out what you put in.

I hope that the abridged version of my trip is helpful to anyone looking to do this kind of thing.