Vancouver - Just Got Here

NewsMeQuick

So I just got here last night. I'll keep it short for now and edit after a few days.

Vancouver
It really is a nice city. That can't be understated. So far, everywhere I've seen is clean and green - and landscaped. They take good care of the city. I'm staying in Kitsilano this week - I'm judging from all the places I've passed through, not just here though. It's quite spacious too - just like from the aeroplane, you see what sparsely populated means. I just woke up, it's crazy AM here so I'll add more when I get out and about.

Immigration
It was so easy...it was done in about 4 minutes. I answered about 2 questions and was out. He confirmed it was a 2 year visa. I know there were Irish on Facebook mentioning getting a 1 year visa. Just confirm it at the desk so they don't mistake you for the usual 1 year applicant. Well on the declaration card on the flight, it asks if you've brought fruit or vegetables. If you've seen on TV, some other immigration departs. go nuts about that. I dumped my fruit in a bin on the way...they never checked though. I have to say, I've read that the Swiss were very unahppy at first when Shengen was introduced, they said they were treated like non-Europeans at airports and particularly with immigration. So far here, I feel like I've been treated more like a Canadian than a foreigner. Speaking English natively helps with that I'm sure.

Flight
I flew Dublin-London-Vancouver. Aer Lingus for the first part, it was as usual, very comfy and pleasant. British Airways for the big flight ... well, the cabin was a tiny bit shabby and the seat was well-worn. Not awful, but crap compared to Aer Lingus to be honest. It was my longest flight, I hated sitting still and my ears hurt like a motherf**. Free drinks and friendly staff and passengers. I'll try an Aer Lingus route for the first trip home though.

SIM Card / Number - Update
I have a major problem and no doubt others are going to find this. My Irish SIM wouldn't connect to any network to roam, even though 3 says agreements are in place. I bought a Petro Canada SIM and it gives me 2G - voice and text, but no more. Why? I had to talk to about 5 people to figure it out. It turns out many phones in Europe are GSM type phones and have little usability here. In Vancouver, Rogers and Fido will cover 2G with GSM phones. If you can't get any signal, roaming or data, you many have to buy a new phone. I will probably do this quickly because I need Google Maps. I got lost for an hour yesterday. Whoops...

Groceries
Yep that's the name I'm hearing. There is a fair few familiar brands if you like a few home comforts, Kelloggs, Pantene, Liberte dairy, Herbal Essences and so on. You see the big numbers $7, $5 and you wonder holy shizz what's going to happen at the checkout. I did most of this weeks food shop for $50, including toiletries e.g. toothpaste, soap and that's far cheaper than I budgeted. I noticed most items are labelled 3/7.00 or 2/5.00 so that's 3 for $7 or 2 for $5. On the bottom of each label is 1.99 each. I scouted out supermarkets before I came here, once I had my place booked. Use Google Maps and then search for places. So here I'm using Safeway and IGA. Both are within 10 mins walk.

Bank Account
So I chose Scotiabank. Flirty lady at counter. Holy shizz. She loves the Irish accent she tells me... *note to self: use to great benefit lol* Scotiabank seems to have removed the free banking from their immigrant accounts. Now, they give you $100 after four months of use to pay for the years fees. That's not bad either, but you do have to pay for the first few months - so there's different fees depending on the account, mine is about 9.99. http://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/0,,4355,00.html

Canadians
So I wandered through the supermarket this morning (woke up very early, still on Irish time) and EVERYONE is chatty...if you ask them how they are, they WILL tell you about their weekend and cooking and family lol. It's odd but interesting! Plus an employee stopped me and complimented me on my clothes. So that has never happened in Ireland. So they're forward too... French is everywhere, even out here. I can't believe how often I've sat on a bus or walked passed someone and heard it. It's not as particular as you might think. Of course it's not really French...( )

Local Travel
So, the scale of things can be shocking. The place looks so big to me. It takes me 5 minutes to get past a row of houses. If you're a pedestrian, the faster you conquer busses, the better. They are very efficient if you ask me. It really is very easy to get around. I have never seen so many busses in my life. They are electric, like the DART at home. So, go to a particular outlet like 7-Eleven and buy a pack of tickets, it's way cheaper. $21 for one zone (downtown and most of surrounding area to the south). If the scale of it alarms you at all (it did me, and I like cities), just pick a location and hop on a bus. I went to the local social services office and got my SIN number so I can work. Having successfully sat down and got off at the right stop, I decided to go to the tourist office downtown, collect maps and haven't looked back. If you drive, I don't have any info as I don't drive and wouldn't pick up the same details.

Liam90

Thanks for posting keep us updated on how your doing.

NewsMeQuick

Liam90 wrote: »

Thanks for posting keep us updated on how your doing.

You bet. If you've any questions, fire away.

Scruffy19

Yeah thats one huge difference from Ireland and Canada.

Everywhere you go people are so happy and full of life, "have a nice day" "no you have a excellent day". After awhile you kinda get sick of it lol but ne way welcome to van(rain)couver!

ciaran12

That's an encouraging post! Thanks for sharing

I'm off to Calgary now in the morning, so I'll have another first impressions thread for you guys soon enough!

NewsMeQuick

Best of luck tomorrow buddy! Exciting times!

For me, the hardest part was the first few hours away from family. I wanted to do this, but not to leave them behind. I'm better about it now but I know that any holidays that I get here I'll go back to them. Also, I can tell there are many more opportunities for growth and work here than the life I had back at home...best of luck and I'll look forward to seeing how you get on.

ciaran12 wrote: »

That's an encouraging post! Thanks for sharing

I'm off to Calgary now in the morning, so I'll have another first impressions thread for you guys soon enough!

ciaran67

Wait til you get a clear blue day, there will be 3 months of them soon.

Just back from weekend in LA - Redondo Beach. 2.10 flight... what a quality weekend.

All the best mate.

PLL

Great post, enjoy yourself OP!

GrumPy

Good stuff OP, you didn't mention much about your living situation. Are you in a hostel/ b&b?

Any luck looking for something permanent?
Also, any research in jobs, or are you treating it as a holiday for now?

NewsMeQuick

GrumPy wrote: »

Good stuff OP, you didn't mention much about your living situation. Are you in a hostel/ b&b?

Any luck looking for something permanent?
Also, any research in jobs, or are you treating it as a holiday for now?

Hi! I used AirBnB and found a place to stay for the week. It's quite nice and reasonably priced. I'm in Kitsilano. Apartment hunting...I seen a few nice ones around the corner on Craigslist last week...they're gone already. I'm gonna take a few busses today and try get familiarised with the system. I need to get a place pronto. If anyone is also looking or wants a roomie, give me a shout!

Jobs...I'm largely going to leave that till next week, I want to get an apartment sorted asap. Holiday? Not yet. I want to get a place and a job, then ... I will go MAD

How about you?

Shalamov

Try padmapper for apartment hunting. Found it was the best resource for us when we needed to get a place

el diablo

NewsMeQuick wrote: »

You bet. If you've any questions, fire away.

Here only two days and already Canadianised.

ciaran67

el diablo wrote: »

Here only two days and already Canadianised.

Unlike yourself... Canadianized

DJ Hafez

Just a note on the car-share schemes based in Vancouver.

You can sign up with your Irish license as long as you have a copy of your recent driver history. You can get this at your local tax office. When signing up - they'll ask you to email them this form and everything typically gets approved in a week.

I've signed up to both:

Car2Go - https://www.car2go.com/en/vancouver/

and

ZipCar - http://www.zipcar.ca/vancouver/

The one way rentals make is ideal for Car2Go and it comes in at around $15 an hour or 40 cent per minute. Once you go over the half hour it's worth it to keep it for the full hor if you need to do anything else. Look out on their twitter (https://twitter.com/car2goVancouver) and facebook pages for discount signup codes. I got one a couple of months ago which included $10 signup and 60 free minutes.

ZipCar is a bit cheaper per hour although you have to return the car to where you picked it up from. ZipCar has signup days at weekends dotted around the city and if you sign up at one of the stands, you can get a great discount.

On the note of Groceries, there are a number of shops selling Presidents Choice own brand items (No Frills, Your Independent Grocer, Real Canadian Superstore). You save a lot on these items and everything I've gotten there so far has been of really decent quality.

With the Mobile Networks - the Virgin Mobile sim cards tend to work with international phones to offer 3G rather than the 2G offered by the likes of Fido in the same phone. Most will let you check a sim of theirs in your phone before signing you on anyway so just ask.

el diablo

DJ Hafez wrote: »

With the Mobile Networks - the Virgin Mobile sim cards tend to work with international phones to offer 3G rather than the 2G offered by the likes of Fido in the same phone. Most will let you check a sim of theirs in your phone before signing you on anyway so just ask.

I brought my own phone to the Fido network and I've got an LTE connection (faster than 3G and 4G).

kronsington

el diablo wrote: »

I brought my own phone to the Fido network and I've got an LTE connection (faster than 3G and 4G).

Hey, did you have to get your phone unlocked to do that? I'm on bill pay here in ireland but want to bring my own phone to Canada in two weeks and get a Canadian sim while there

dutopia

Sounds amazing OP, best of luck out there. My best mate moved over there a few years ago and he's a resident now... can't see him coming home anytime soon.

el diablo

kronsington wrote: »

Hey, did you have to get your phone unlocked to do that? I'm on bill pay here in ireland but want to bring my own phone to Canada in two weeks and get a Canadian sim while there

Yes my phone was unlocked. I reckon it works out better to bring an unlocked phone and then you can sign up to a month by month plan (rather than being locked into a 2 or 3 year plan).

NewsMeQuick

DJ Hafez wrote: »

...

With the Mobile Networks - the Virgin Mobile sim cards tend to work with international phones to offer 3G rather than the 2G offered by the likes of Fido in the same phone. Most will let you check a sim of theirs in your phone before signing you on anyway so just ask.

One of the single biggest headaches for me has been dealing with the phone incompatibility. It was a Virgin Mobile guy who said to me he thinks my phone is GSM only and that's why it won't work in Canada. If there is even the slightest chance that I could get it working on Virgin or any other network, then I will indeed try. I'll report back on what happens there.

NewsMeQuick

el diablo wrote: »

I brought my own phone to the Fido network and I've got an LTE connection (faster than 3G and 4G).

Another person! How?! Did your phones find a roaming network when you landed? Mine didn't find any at all, it refused auto or manually. That's why I wonder if I do have a phone problem. Mine is unlocked also.

el diablo

NewsMeQuick wrote: »

Another person! How?! Did your phones find a roaming network when you landed? Mine didn't find any at all, it refused auto or manually. That's why I wonder if I do have a phone problem. Mine is unlocked also.

Maybe my post above is not too clear. I didn't bring my Irish phone to the Fido network. I bought an unlocked phone online and put a Fido LTE SIM card in it.

I had the same problem with my Irish phone (a Samsung on the 3 network) when I came over here first. I couldn't get it to work here.

ciaran12

I've just signed up to Fido on a month-to-month using my Irish phone (HTC One V). Had to change the APN settings to get data working, but since then everything's working well

I didn't have data roaming when I got here, but that was because I hadn't enabled it on my meteor account. It picked up the Rogers network as soon as I landed, and looked like it would be able to use the data connection if I enabled it with meteor.

Scruffy19

NewsMeQuick wrote: »

Another person! How?! Did your phones find a roaming network when you landed? Mine didn't find any at all, it refused auto or manually. That's why I wonder if I do have a phone problem. Mine is unlocked also.

What type of phone have you got?

My S3 is unlocked but could only pick up a few networks while roaming. Once i put a telus sim in it worked ok! Just had a problem data but changed the setting and got it working! Dont believe what they tell u in the shop. There only sales reps and havnt a clue on tbe technical aspect of a phone!

I use a launcher on my phone and they told me a canadian sim wouldnt work cause im using custom ram.... i walked out laughing!

NewsMeQuick

Ciaran with the HTC One V, I just compared your phone with mine and I see now that your's does work with Canadian frequencies (HSDPA 850 / 900 / 2100). You lucky thing. I feel so ripped off with my phone now.

http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=5497&idPhone2=4575

Scruffy, I have the Sony Xperia M. You can see it in the link above. Custom ROM? Good man!

UPDATE: Telus SIM: Fail, Rogers SIM: Fail. *sigh*

EI-DOR

I flew into Calgary yesterday then up to Edmonton. Calgary's Immigration is strict so make sure yous have the Insurance at hand. I wasn't asked for proof of funds. Just the POE and Insurance!

Waiting on 3 Mobile to send me my unlock code for my 4S so I can sort a number out!

GrumPy

You find somewhere to live yet OP or you on the streets? :pac:

circadian

Just an FYI for new arrivals looking for mobile numbers check out Wind. They tend to have the most European style pricing.

Also when looking for somewhere to live, being a few skytrain stops from commercial for a few bob less per month is usually worth it.

el diablo

circadian wrote: »

Just an FYI for new arrivals looking for mobile numbers check out Wind. They tend to have the most European style pricing.

Also when looking for somewhere to live, being a few skytrain stops from commercial for a few bob less per month is usually worth it.

If you're going to be working away from the major towns/cities then it's probably best to avoid Wind. Reception wouldn't be great in isolated areas.

circadian

Agreed, although I was speaking in reference to Vancouver.

ustari

Thinking of living in Kitsilano when we get over in July.

How have you found the area so far?

How long into downtown using public transport?
Is it worth getting the SkyTrain in or is the bus as quick considering you would have to change?
Grocery shopping, would being relatively close to Safeway or the like suffice for the vast majority of shopping?

One thing that has suprised me is how few apartments are available furnished.

Thanks in advance.

AmyPL

ustari wrote: »

One thing that has suprised me is how few apartments are available furnished.

Thanks in advance.

I knew this about Vancouver (well anywhere outside Ireland really)- out of curiosity I've been browsing the "Free Stuff" section of Craigslist to see how easily/cheaply one could kit out a place. It was the potential cost that has been worrying me the most, as I'm used to always renting fully-furnished in Dublin.

I get the impression that with the amount of pleather couches, ancient armchairs, rickety bedframes, and used mattresses people are giving away you could easily furnish an apartment to typical Irish rental standards at very little cost a lot of the stuff people are trying to get rid of is of a higher standard than some of the crap in the house I'm currently renting in Ireland. So that's something to take into consideration!