Canada 2010-2011?

Mimikyu

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Mimikyu

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noones24

Captain Morgan wrote: »

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yea i heard about finch alright! yea all set im heading over by myself on the 17th and in my head i have everything worked out but it never seems to run that smooth, propably my main concern is the area to live in, wikipedia says Scarborough gets a bad rep and that whatever happens in the sorrounding areas usually Scarborough gets the blame so that seems to be the reason for the bad press! are you heading over youself? yonge seems to be ok, the beaches look amazing

Mimikyu

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bonkers

hey all,

i depart for toronto on sep 3rd so thursday week..

looking to live in little italy area as ive been there before and its quite nice.. not condo style but proper own door housing..

its around college st if you are looking

flyingdagger

Living and working in Van so if you need any advice on life here feel free to let me know

Moondust

flyingdagger wrote: »

Living and working in Van so if you need any advice on life here feel free to let me know

Hey - thinking of going over in december - i and goin straight into the job & house hunting - any tips for getting furniture for apartments? do i need refereces? are they the same a youd get in Ireland?

Is it busness as usual in dec also?? or do some parts close down

flyingdagger

Hi Moondust,

For apartments in Van you'll def need landlord and work refs (i brought mine from ireland when i 1st arrived).Apartments can vary wildly here,i've seen some ****holes but managed to find a beautiful place downtown.

I put an ad up on Craigslist about 2 months before i moved looking for an apartment + managed to get somewhere that was fully furnished,down to towels,pots and pans! If you are renting somewhere that's unfurnished then craigslist or http://vancouver.livejournal.com are good to look for.

Craigslist is huge over here-people use it for everything.

2 things you need to be aware of for housing in Van:

1)Deposits on apartments:legally they can't ask for a deposit that's more than 50% of the rental price.So on a $1200 rental it should be a $600 deposit.

2) Do some research regarding bedbugs-the city has a huge problem with them and you do not want to pick the lil feckers up.They're rampant in hotels,hostels and apartment buildings.

http://bedbugregistry.com/location/bc/ will give you an idea of where to look.

Linked to this-the furniture you 'll see stuff left beside skips:It's there for a reason and that reason is usually bedbugs.

In the run up to December it's pretty much the same as Ireland.Most offices close in the run up to the 20th.

Hope this helps

Moondust

ha thanks . Think i might stick with a blow up bed for a bit so lol
Can commend a good hostel? I'm goin over with my fiend Dec 28th,so if you have any ideas on where to spend new years let me know:)

flyingdagger

It depends on what type of hostel you want to stay in and what budget you have.http://www.hostels.com/ca.bc.va.html

If you have a bit of cash:
The ones i'd recommend as they're relatively quiet,clean,do weekly rates and are in the centre of downtown

http://www.stclairvancouver.com/
http://www.ywcahotel.com/content/ROOMS___RATES/958/44/0

If you're keeping costs low:
http://www.samesun.com/ ( can be really,really loud and it's smack bang on Granville which is like grafton st on a sat night)

http://www.thecambie.com/v2/ (mates have stayed here and found it grand.Good place to drink as well)


You may be in for a shock-New years is nothing like back home. Canadians aren't as obsessed with getting drunk all the time so i was around town for NYE and was surprised at how tame it was. And drinking in public is illegal here, cops do not turn a blind eye or look upon it favourably!

mac123

noones24 wrote: »

hi im brian ill be over in toronto in 3 weeks or so and i was just wondering where is the best place to live in toronto and the worst, from reading other forums Scarborough has a bad rep, it propably depends on where i work i guess! i plan to live in a hostel for a week or so until i get something!

Anywhere in the Annex is good. Id recommend looking for somewhere between bloor and college, west of Spadina. Lots of cool residential streets there and its walking distance to almost everywhere downtown.

Black Swan

GrahamThomas wrote: »

(MODS: Would it be possible to get this thread "stickied"

Stickied in North America forum per your request.:cool:

mdu

bonkers wrote: »

hey all,

i depart for toronto on sep 3rd so thursday week..

looking to live in little italy area as ive been there before and its quite nice.. not condo style but proper own door housing..

its around college st if you are looking

i heard thats a nice place to live too so thats where im aiming for when i get to toronto on the 15th Sept

Have you had any luck with jobs yet? the workopolis.com website seems to have a good few jobs but i havent heard anything back from the few jobs ive applied for. yet.

kcb

i'm off to toronto at the end of september

if anyone else in toronto wants to meet up over there give me a buzz

irishguy34

Lads/Ladies,

Looking for info, would like to know a good place/area to live in vc have the under 35 visa and am going on my own.Place needs to be central.
where are all the main bars etc,,,
any info is appreciated.

Helix

im pete,

moved to toronto on monday. living in an apartment in scarborough (not scarborough as such, but more rouge valley). loving it so far

wouldnt mind a session with a few paddies tho

ledpage

im headin over to vancouver in late november with two mates and was hopin someone could tell me somethin about the music scene over there - many good gigs? best venues? and is their any kind of an electro scene or is it all just... r 'n' b... ugh?! also was lookin into places to live, ideally somewhere as central as possible but is accommodation really expensive over there? gastown looks pretty cool and i heard surrey was a good place to stay but is that too far out?

also a tip for anyone still organisin their insurance - we gots ours with ace insurance for e150 less than usit were chargin us though they did sting us e40 for having to read through aces policy, hmm. same deal with flights, shop around. shop around. shop around. shop around. shop arou...

and lastly, does it really rain 3 times as much as in ireland???

Moondust

Would that stop you from going??? lol
Im going with my friend in december some time. So are usit ok with you booking flights through some one else?? Let me know how you get on.

Pizzle79

Would that stop you from going??? lol
Im going with my friend in december some time. So are usit ok with you booking flights through some one else?? Let me know how you get on.



Yea , they recommend you book with them , but you are free to book your flights and insurance with anyone you want. I booked
my flights with Air Transat and my insurance with FYI and saved the bones of 800 euros.

Helix

ledpage wrote: »

and lastly, does it really rain 3 times as much as in ireland???

only rained once since ive been here, compared to 5 times in ireland for the same period, therefore i can statistically state that it rains 5 times LESS in canada

PrettyInPunk

Im going to Newfoundland.....anyone know anything about it?!!

newbie7

Hi Ledpage - if your into your electro music, vancouver does cater for quite a bit, pending what your into.... house, techno, breakbeats, trance, psy trance, drum and bass, dubstep, to be honest quite a bit. just a matter finding and knowing people in that seen. same for venues & clubs, with the licensing laws places close round 2ish, but theres the odd after hour club that goes to 6 or whenever they decide to kick u out. always theres the few crazy music festivals that go on through the summer.

If your looking for decent reasonable priced accommodation, east van is ur best bet. mainly 5 - 20 minute bus/train ride to downtown, plus plenty of bars and restaurants around. either commercial drive or main st area are the popular areas. surrey is cheap as, but is miles out - 45 mins on the train alone if u live near the station, plus its a pretty high gang crime and fights out there, supposely named car theft capital of North America.

And Yes, it does rain more then ireland. when it does it tends to just spill down all day. while back home its more drizzly & dull with isolated showers. However when its rains in van, it means its snowing on the mountains, which are only half an hour drive away

JONJO THE MISER

PrettyInPunk wrote: »

Im going to Newfoundland.....anyone know anything about it?!!

Great Choice i went there for 4 months on my work canada visa, you going to St John's? You will love it there espically George Street which is Just a street full of pubs, i worked in a big box store there and the wages are very low $7 per hour about $280 per week and my rent was $90 per week so thats the only downside about NL, its has a very bad econonmy but the people are so Friendly and you will make lots of Friends, oh be warned the streets are very very steep coming up from the downtown core. If you need anymore advice or tips P.M me.

JæKæ

irishguy34 wrote: »

Lads/Ladies,

Looking for info, would like to know a good place/area to live in vc have the under 35 visa and am going on my own.Place needs to be central.
where are all the main bars etc,,,
any info is appreciated.

Best places to live are Commercial, Main St and Kits.
Best pubs are The Fringe in Kits
Falconettis and Charlatan on Commercial Drive

vinylbomb

JæKæ wrote: »

Best places to live are Commercial, Main St and Kits.

Currently living in Kits, gonna move down to Main St soon. I recommend either to be honest
The Beagle is a good boozer in the Kits area.
Been to a few clubs, one to avoid is the Modern, went to Jokers of the Scene there a few weeks back, deplorable crowd full of preening tossers.

emigr8te

heading over in mid oct to vancouver. friend of mine is coming out a few wks after and another is on a waiting list so could well be coming too! we're gonna try get somewhere to live in Kits. if anyone's gonna be looking accom around oct and is interested in a houseshare with 2 (poss 3) girls lemme know!

Psychobiker

I have never, ever read the words 'Toronto', 'Vancouver', 'Jobs' and 'Lads' so many times in my life.

Heading over end of November with enough $ to keep me afloat for a year.
By then hopefully all the transient/student/international people will have gone home and at least the employment situation will be a reality.

As for people not doing the whole 'young living' thing in Canada, has anyone actually found work in their field?
I, for one, will only work outside of Electronics in an emergency.

I'm leaving for a change of scenery and people...not to be pushed into the lower-paid industries and surrounded by Irish.
Many Polish I know here outqualify the Irish by 25-30% and yet are pouring coffees.
Rest assured I'll be on the first plane out of the Northern Hemisphere if it's like that everywhere.

That said...I'm not going to Vancouver and Toronto

Táck

emigr8te wrote: »

heading over in mid oct to vancouver. friend of mine is coming out a few wks after and another is on a waiting list so could well be coming too! we're gonna try get somewhere to live in Kits. if anyone's gonna be looking accom around oct and is interested in a houseshare with 2 (poss 3) girls lemme know!

myself and my girlfriend are. we will be up in 3 weeks id say...pm me if your interested...

Grainne101

Does anyone know if it is possible to book your visa through USIT but book your flights/insurance elsewhere or are you tied to doing the whole process through USIT once you get visa with them? Usit's website is pretty vague on this and don't really want to email them directly asking......

SeekUp

Shelly_gui wrote: »

Also you cant get a job unless you have accommodation, and you cant get acommodation unless you have a job! Pretty much sucks. So thats why they require you to pay a few months rent up front, maybe even a full year (i'm not sure what kind of leases they have) Also the apartments are meant to be quite old, with no furniture - Has anyone any ideas on how to get to get cheap furniture? or even get it off people who are leaving to go back home! Just trying to be prepared.

My boyfriend and I did a sublet for the first few months here in Toronto; that way we had a solid address while looking for work, and we weren't tied to the place for a long period of time, which gave us a chance to get to know the city and where we wanted to live (although the sublet was in a great location, at Spadina and Bloor).

Signing a year lease is pretty common, as is having first month's rent and a security deposit upfront. While we didn't have to pay a full year, a few places we looked (including our current place) asked for a year's worth of post-dated checks. Makes sense for the landlord, as they don't have to chase the tenants for the money each month.

Cheap furniture -- craigslist. The only thing thing in our apartment that was new was one of the couches.