A new life in Canada

Canadian passport for new citizens

2012-01-11T10:00:00.000-04:30

This post is long overdue, I got my passport more than a month ago :) But is never late to share some of the information, specially if you are looking for it! To get the Canadian passport is way easier than to get the Venezuelan! xD

For a Canadian adult, this is what you will need:

Two identical passport photos taken in the last 12 months. Go to one of those places that specifically say they take passport pictures, as they know what they are doing. They will stamp some information behind the pictures, like the place and the date the photo was taken (necessary!).
This application form completed. Both the application form and one of the pictures, signed behind by your guarantor.
Proof of your canadian citinzenship. This is your citinzenship card they gave you the day of the ceremony!
Documents to support your identity. Driver's license, other passport, health card, any of them work.
The fees! $87. They can be paid by credit card or debit card at the office if you are going. Or fill out the credit card information on the form if you are sending your papers.

The application form explains really well everything you need to know about the papers. These are the questions that I've seen asked or I had to ask myself:

How long does it take? Officially it takes around 10 days if you go to the offices. More if you go to a certified "partner" like some Canada Post. Mine took less than that, around a week.
Do I have to pick it up? If you don't have special circunstances (like paying for the express service), they send it to you (signature required) and is included in the price.
Who can be your guarantor? The application form says among other things "hold a five-year Canadian passport that is valid or has been expired for less than one year on the day you submit your application". The guarantor doesn't have to have had the passport for 5 years! They may have it for a week or a day, it doesn't matter! But the passport has to be a 5 year validity passport!
In the section 4.C, the date of issue of the certificate of canadian citizenship. Is the date that the little card says, not the date you got the citinzenship!
How long do I have to wait in line if I go to the office? I was there around half an hour before the opening time and was out about an hour later!

Hopes this help a little! Enjoy getting your passport!

Black and White

2012-01-09T16:03:00.001-04:30

Canada, the country where immigrants love to become extremists! Obviously not everyone is like that, and I'm happy to say my friends are far from that, but there is something about extremists that screams so loud, is hard to ignore.

Extremists will say "no one", "everyone", "all" and other things like that. They will use caplocks to scream their point. They won't take other people experiences, "everyone" else is lying.

I can't say for sure why they do this, but my guess is that they have hit brick walls on their path and are mad about it. They think that if they had a hard time through something, of course everyone else will. They may have some wisdom in their words, but please, don't listen only to extremists, don't let them get you down, do your own research, talk with a lot more people, don't believe everything they say as they say it.

Some of the things people have told me in the past:

"Whatever level of english you think you have, is not enough here and you won't understand anyone. You'll have to take classes here". This was someone living here, I was still in Venezuela, the conversation was in spanish. It's a complete lie! Everyone has their own abilities.
"For everything in Canada you need a license, to change a lightbulb, to do nails, etc". Please read about your own area of work and investigate. Some need licenses, not absolutely everything. My area (computers) don't need it, don't exagerate people.
"You need a valid Venezuelan passport to enter Venezuela". Oh, it was even in caplocks and everything, I wonder why the experience of several other people didn't matter for her. I have several friends and family that travel to Venezuela more than once a year, with Canadian and North American passports and the "cédula" (Venezuelan ID) and not the Venezuelan passport. If you have it, nice, great, even better, but you don't need it if you have another valid passport and the Venezuelan ID.
"I don't get together with any venezuelans here, because they never help and they always try to do something bad to you". Any? Always? Never? What am I then? I don't want/need everyone to like me or venezuelans, but please don't come with ideas that everyone is the same. Oh, and however you behave, thats the type of people you will attract ;)
"All Canadians are cold". Simply not true, there is everything in life.
"Canada is too cold, you'll never get used to it". Everyone is different, Canada is big!

I hope I'm not black and white. I try to look at both sides of the coin, and I'm very careful before giving advises that are extreme. My venezuelan and non-venezuelan friends are ALL wonderful and I love them. Canada is a great country with its good things and its flaws. Read, ask, live!

Venezuelan passport in Toronto - Part I

2012-01-03T13:33:00.001-04:30

I don't know how other countries work to get their immigrants new passports in their new home. Here in Toronto, we had to be happy with renewals of the passport every year (a new picture and seal from the consulate). If you wanted a new passport, you had to go to Venezuela to get it!

They just implemented a new process in which we can get our new passports here! We have to register online to get an appointment and you have to check the web page every day to see when is granted and when it is. You can't go when you have time, you can't go before work hours. You'll get a day and you better stick with it even if you don't like it! And the time will be between 9:30 and 12:30! If you miss the date, you can't ask for another appointment for a few months, and then you try again; ask for the appointment and cross your fingers the new day is not as bad for you.

Yesterday I had my appointment. The first day of the process here in Toronto! I always try to be on top of things and do everything as soon as I can. But pioneers have a problem, pioneers always get everything and anything that can go wrong in a completly new thing.

My appointment was set, January 2nd! Really? In Canada? I called 2 times to the Consulate "are you really open on the 2nd?", "yes, we are". Turns out there was a problem with the system (second strike) and the system didn't take into account that it was a holiday here. Oh, and the first strike? When registering for the appointment, the system didn't take letters in the postal code of your current address... really? I choose Canada but can't use letters on the postal code? Use 0000, 1234, whatever, it works.

So I got there at 9:50am, since my appointment was a 10am (they called from the Consulate to let me know of the time). Happy that is a holiday so I don't have to miss work. Just be here maybe an hour and then I can go and enjoy my day! WRONG!! I left at 4pm!

We spent there hours and hours waiting. "The system conexion is down in Caracas (Venezuela), we can't do anything, they are working on it". We got that every hour aprox. At around 2pm, the consul told us that we could leave and they would make a new appointment for us, or we could keep waiting, because it could come back any minute now! (4 little kids and a baby waiting with their parents, poor little guys). So everyone but 2 of us leave. We decide to stay and gamble the afternoon, the system will be back today!

At 4pm they tell us that they are not even picking up the phone in Venezuela anymore. They seemed to have left, without fixing the system, and without informing the Consulate. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I'm pretty sure this is impossible to believe to any Canadian! One guy was missing work and his employer couldn't believe this actually happened, I hope he gets to keep his job!. Another one, his canadian wife wouldn't believe him. I get it, I really do, this is something straight out of the impossible, but really, if we were going to lie about where we spent the whole day, would we choose something as unbelievable and stupid as this?

Welcome to the third world people, we can be waiting for 6 whole hours to get a picture and fingerprint taken, and still go home empty handed to have to come back another day!

Becoming Canadian :)

2011-11-28T13:28:00.001-04:30

Last week I became Canadian! I am now officially Venezuelan-Canadian, just a few days from my 4 year Canadian Anniversary yesterday ^-^

I received in the mail a pink letter that said my ceremony was November 22nd at 12:50pm. Arrived at that time to the Ceremony Center and sat with the other 77 people waiting to be Canadian :)

For the next hour or so, we all had to show our IDs and the landing record (keep it!), plus return out Permanent Resident Card (they keep it :( so no souvenir). They give you the folder with Oath to the Queen and the National Anthem, plus a cultural pass gift and a maple leaf pin :D

Then the judge comes in, gives a speech (very pretty) and we do the oath to the Queen. Next you go and shake hands with the judge (one by one), they give you a letter from the Prime Minister, a letter from the Citizenship Minister, the Citizenship card and a Canadian flag! You sign a book that says you took the Oath and go back to your seat to sing Oh Canada!

After the ceremony, you are free to take as many pictures as you want and just celebrate! You are free to bring friends and family of course. My ceremony took less than 2 hours total and we made up a group of 38 countries! Which the judge say was a pretty impressive number :D

4 books in 4 weeks (TTC war stories and a new job)

2011-10-26T10:51:00.003-04:30

Four weeks and 3 days ago, on October 3rd, I started a new job. I left Ganz a few days before that and prepared to come work at my old love, Downtown Toronto. I changed responsabilities, from a Database Developer to a Production Database Administrator. I also changed areas, from the gaming industry to the marketing industry (So far, Education, Municipalities, Communications, Software, Gaming, Marketing :))

Now I don't take the car to go to work, I take the TTC. I can take the subway and the streetcar, or the subway and fast walk aprox. 15 minutes. I get to read and read!! I'm on my 4th week and my 4th book (plus booklet ^^). This is my third Assimov book, plus I read the Wealthy Barber and studied the Citizenship booklet. I'm excited planning my book budget for the coming weeks hahahaha

The TTC has reminded me that you can plan nothing if you are taking it. The times that worked one day may be completely off the next one. You may be sitting one second and standing crushed against people the next one. I have taken 1 hour (the whole ride) some days, and 1 hour and 40 minutes other days! Passenger activated alarms being the main reason most of the times.

One day it took me half an hour from Finch to Eglinton! To hear that we were experiencing signal problems and had to leave the train there and wait for the next one. Needless to say, had to wait around 4 trains (15 minutes) just to be able to get in again. No electricity for the streetcar to work (this one was interesting). Trains crawling to the station for no apparent reason, and/or my record so far, 5 passenger alarms in one trip.

On the bright side, I get to read a lot :D

Citizenship Test!

2011-10-24T16:01:00.002-04:30

On friday I had my citizenship test! The letter said that I had to be there at 1pm. At that time they started giving instructions about what was going to be happening in the next couple of hours, and they started calling person by person to the interview.

The interview is very simple, only basic question to see your level of english (where do you leave, where do you work/study, what do you do at work, etc). Only people between 18 and 55 years old need to take the test. Younger than that get the citizenship thanks to the parent that applied for them, and older just need to show their ID and go home.

After aprox. 2 hours, is time for the test. They give you an answer sheet with 25 answer rows, and a booklet with 20 questions; you can't and shouldn't try to answer questions 21 to 25, there are no question with those numbers! The test takes aprox. 10 minutes, but they give you 30 minutes.

After 1 to 3 months you should recive a letter indicating the day of the ceremony (if you have 15 or more correct answers), or the day and time of your appointment with the judge (if you have less than 15 questions incorrect). The test is simple selection (1 answer per question) and you have 4 options per question.

I thought it was pretty easy if you study ;) Now we wait for the next letter!

Canadian Citizenship Test

2011-10-12T14:30:00.001-04:30

Well, have been keeping this one kinda under wraps, but in week and a half I'll be taking my citizenship test!

The test will be composed of 20 questions of multiple selection. I already finished reading the practice guide the goverment sends you when you apply. Now is time to practice a lot for that test!

These are some of the practice tests I've been taking:
http://www.v-soul.com/onlinetest/ (Be careful with some of the answers, I'm almost positive I have seen 2 different answers to what did the goverment do to make immigration to the West easier)
http://www.apnatoronto.com/canadian-citizenship-test-practice/
http://www.canadacitizenshiptest.net/ (Sample test)
http://www.citizenquiz.com/
Enjoy practicing!

Register to vote in your country from your new home

2011-10-04T12:49:00.001-04:30

One of the things immigrants often forget, is to register to vote in our country, from our new home.

The REP is the registry for the venezuelan voters. When we reside in another country, we can only vote in the presidential elections (as far as I know), but we have to register in the embassy/consulate that corresponds.

To register in Toronto, is necessary to go to the Venezuelan Consulate in Bloor st. You will need the form thats on the web page, 2 photocopies of the passport, 2 photocopies of the resident card (they shouldn't ask for this but do it either way) and 2 photocopies of the "cedula". Everything in different pages.

You should take it to the consulate and aproximate 2 weeks later, you have to go back to stamp your fingerprints (make a phone call to the consulate to verify the papers are ready).

After the fingerprints, they tell you it takes aprox. 6 months for the registry to be updated (took 2 weeks for me!!). Is good to do it as soon as possible, because they can close the registry at any moment.

The life of the immigrant

2011-09-27T09:34:00.003-04:30

How can I be happy and sad at the same time?
Why are my sad tears rolling down my face while my eyes and heart are smiling?
How is it possible to be happy with what we have and still miss so much of what is far?
How can it be so painful and be so grateful at the same time?

This is my country now, it is my home; yet my family is not here.
My friends and their families are my family now; yet I need my parents here.
It's the same sun and the same moon, is my same God, is the same love.
My heart is filled with love, but there will always be a void, you are not here.

Four years doesn't make it easier, and doesn't make it harder, its just more of me missing you. Your hugs, your kisses, your smell, your touch. I miss you with all my soul, and will always be like this.

Wish you were here.

One roof!!

2011-09-26T09:56:00.002-04:30

Jesus Got Us Fallin' In Love

One roof is the event that The Meeting House did this year to celebrate all God has accomplished in the community over 25 years. Given that The Meeting House is not a conventional church, this couldn't be a conventional event!

I love what they did with the event and the special touches all around. This video shows how church can be a good place and a fun place at the same time.

Konnichiwa!! (Japanese classes)

2011-09-23T10:11:00.000-04:30

Yesterday I started classes at the JCCC (Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre) here in Toronto.

When I was in Venezuela I took one level of Japanese, but didn't go anymore because of timing issues and the teacher was all from "the man first" culture.

Here, I've only had one class and I'm having a blast! Is one day a week, hour and a half, for 10 classes, for $100, not bad! The only bad part is that it's only during spring and fall, so no winter or summer sessions... Still don't know if I'm going to find another place for that time yet, or just wait until spring, but we'll see :)

My class is 8 guys and 5 girls, and everyone has interesting stories on why they are learning japanese; including 2 that are learning so they can comunicate with their parents in law xD

The other funny thing is how many languages we talk. I was talking to the girl sitting next to me, and the guy sitting next to her, and between the 3 of us, we know 5 languages and learning japanese now! Pretty fun :)

You want how many on a what?

2011-09-19T16:50:00.003-04:30

Tim Hortons... Gotta love it :) There is a certain hate/love relationship between canadians and this place, some love it and some hate it. Seems to be the one place everyone has an opinion of!

I'm sure everyone has their own little stories about the place, but for me, the drive-thru has to be THE place to find the funniest or the most annoying ones LOL

We got one of our inside jokes from that place. Every single day my friend would go there (and he used to go every day), he would ask for 2 this, or 1 that, and the woman taking the order would go "How many?" in some type of accent. It became the phrase to say among us, "how many?" and we would all laugh about it.

A few weeks ago I went and ask for a breakfast sandwich on a biscuit, but I pronounced it really really funny, and it has been such a joke that I don't want to pronounce it right anymore. So the girl at the drive-thru kinda laughs but still understands what I want without problem.

Yesterday we go again, and this time I'm not driving, so my "nomnom" (who is driving) decides to try to ask for my biscuit the same funny way I do (he is canadian btw) "can I have 2 sausage breakfast sandwich on a biscuit please" and inmediately the woman at the drive-thru goes "on a what?!" hahahahaha

Seems like I'm the only one able to pull that one off :) Now my other friends are going to try the same, see who else can make them laugh, take it seriously or make them say "you want how many on a what?!"

Letter to my friends

2011-08-31T10:08:00.001-04:30

Always in my heart, always in my wishes. Even if I'm not there, even if I don't call, you are always in my thoughts, always in my prayers and dreams.

I may not be there, but I'm always with you. I may not look for you, but I'll be there if you need me.

I'm not ready, I can't make myself, is hard for me, it will always be. I just want you to remember that I'm always here, I love you, you are my friend.

North York

2011-08-16T09:12:00.000-04:30

North York is part of Toronto, at the north of it. Is still part of the Yonge Subway line, so pretty useful, as you still have easy access to Downtown and other areas.

I like it a lot, is more quite than Downtown and still close enough to go there everyday :)

Here are more some more pictures!
https://picasaweb.google.com/110806094750990713148/NorthYork

Fireworks, MTG and Anime

2011-07-11T11:00:00.002-04:30

How to keep busy? With a ton of fun stuff to do xD Thats why I haven't been posting as much as I want to, too many fun things to do to miss them :)

This year for the first time I fired my own fireworks with a group of friends! They do it every year for Canada day, and this year I had the pleasure of going with them and even get my own special fireworks, the bandito LOL
Went to a park, had some music, $800 of fireworks, chairs, blankets and lots and lots of fun! Spent more than 2 hours firing them hahahaha

This weekend on the other hand, had my second pre-release tournament of MTG :D The only girl around 30 guys or so, I won the door prize, probably because of my interesting status at that moment hahaha, but not complaining about that! A lot of fun playing cards, won 1 round, lost the other 2, but have great cards for my collection and will get my prize at the end of August, yeay!!

Besides that? Lots and lots of anime!! I normally try to be watching one anime at all times, but somehow right now I'm watching 4 anime + avatar the cartoon, how did I get in so much to do, I will never know LOL But have so much fun doing it that I will keep at it xD So thats why I haven't been writting too much, but I'll keep trying, not going away, just trying to find the balance :)

Why Canada?

2011-06-21T10:21:00.004-04:30

A gut feeling, the right place to be, destiny, coincidence, a leap of faith... All lines that could be used in my immigration to Canada, all lines that could be used in my coming here to Toronto.

I was looking at immigration since 2005 or so, study in Japan? Live in Australia? Go to Spain? The latest 2 common choices around Venezuelans, the first one because of my love for Japan, but Canada? hahaha, nah, thats too cold and I don't know anything about the country!

Around February 2006 my mom sees a newspaper ad for a Canadian immigration lawyer talking about the country, the process and her services and she goes "why don't you go and see?"... "umm... well, have nothing better to do that day, sure!" God's plan in process :)

So I go to the conference, and the moment she starts talking about Canada... wow... I.. start... crying... I admit it, I'm a cry baby, but come on! It just felt right! All the moments when I was a kid and wanted to buy a winter coat in Venezuela, or winter boots and my mom would go "where do you think you will use that?" clicked, me hating the all_year_warm clicked, this was the place I needed to go.

A week later I had a lawyer, and less than year and a half later I had a permanent resident visa. During all that year I read and studied Canada like crazy!!! Went to every single immigration forum I could find, and listened to Canadian radio stations online.

By fortune/chance/destiny the radio station I liked the most was Chum FM, a Toronto radio station; so a year of hearing about Toronto, the chances for the IT market, the english instead of french, the fact that is an amazing big city, all of them were in play for deciding Toronto would be my home.

Knowing no one here, being the first venezuelan blogger in Toronto, they were all part of the leap of faith, an experience I don't regret at all and absolutely love.

Zumba time!

2011-06-15T13:33:00.003-04:30

I'm not a gym or sports person, I'm ok with them and enjoy watching some sports but I'm not a fan of practicing them xD

Having said that, I like to stay fit, and I need to exercise regularly for health reasons so I keep looking for the perfect exercise that I will love. Using the Bosu ball has been fun and I like it but is lonely doing it at home alone :) I like Yoga but haven't done it once in a proper yoga place, again I end up doing it at home (soon to change!), and then we have belly dancing that keeps calling me to try it out, and Zumba!

I love Zumba :) :) From the official Zumba site description it says "Zumba classes feature exotic rhythms set to high-energy Latin and international beats". Even though it changes from instructor to instructor, is basically exercising while doing dancing steps for salsa, cumbia, samba, bachata and merengue.

It wasn't easy to find places in Toronto for Zumba, but some gyms offer them, as well as the place I'm going: TorontoDanceSalsa. I really like this place, my instructor is an asian girl that moves really well, the dances and the music are fun and the prices are not bad!

Common Resume Blunders

2011-06-13T07:00:00.000-04:30

I was checking out Linkedin and found this very interesting article of the 13 most common resume blunders people make.

Read and learn :) May help you if you are working on yours or trying to find a new job!

Three and a half years later

2011-06-10T13:35:00.007-04:30

I'm here, three and a half years later and I think I'm very much used to the Canadian weather, I love the 4 seasons and the only thing that I still find a little weird is the drastic changes like the last storm we had this week, with hail falling on my car and the temperature at almost 40C :S

Back in Toronto life feels a little easier than in Mississauga, but all is relative, I'm sure if I had kids it would be another story... The reason I moved? People keep asking but just a few get a real answer, isn't it enough to know that is better for people that want a more dynamic style of life? :)

My mood goes and comes, and my blog shows it hehe, sometimes I write a few times a week, sometimes more than a week goes by without writing, but I'm still trying to find the right balance between what people want to read about, what I want to write, and the personal aspects of what I do. I thought I had that balance but somehow it seems like is not the right one right now and it may take a while until I find it.

In general I'm happy, I'm happy with my life in Canada and my friends, and everything that seems like an obstacle is just a bump on the way to teach me something and prepare me for the future. I still love this country and still feel like this is my country, I feel happy to be Venezuelan and will be really happy the day I can say I'm Venezuelan AND Canadian! :)

The meeting house, a different church!

2011-06-02T09:02:00.007-04:30

I was raised catholic in Venezuela, but never with a close mind to other religions or atheists, everyone is entitled to believe in something and that something is not wrong just because is different to what I believe in.

The thing about my school catholic upbringing is that it was all about how God is going to punish me and how I HAD to do this and that, and not about the good things (at least they didn't concentrate on that), so I stopped going to church many years ago.

A few months back a friend invited me to a christian church, where things were a lot different, there is a pastor giving the service, no images, and the message was different, we all try to do the best we can and if we fall, we get up and try again.

I moved to Toronto and had to find a new church again, and this one is even more different than the other one hehe. I have been to this one twice already and love it!

I go to the movie theater, choose a seat and listen to the live band play songs, then I seat and listen to a short introduction by the local pastor, and read on the movie screen quotes from different places about today's subject, then a video clip from a movie, tv series or documentary comes on and next is the pastor talking from Oakville.

The message is great, the pastor is very easy to like, and you feel involved with the message and the people, you end up happy, maybe with a nice better view of things and, if you are like me, with the desire of coming back next week :) The local pastor talks again briefly and you go home.

Talking about their message and the way they think would be an every week post that I'm still not sure I will do, but if you are interested in any of what I just said, I encourage you to go to their site and find out more, is worth it!

Correction: The service from Oakville is not live, is a recording of last week's service there, so they are always a week ahead.

Sunday fun - Port Rowan

2011-05-27T07:00:00.001-04:30

This last weekend was a long weekend because of the Victoria Day Holiday, so it was a nice rest for some and an adventure weekend for others :) Mine I would classify as half and half, and one of the things I did during the weekend was to visit a town I didn't know, Port Rowan.

Port Rowan is a little town right next to Lake Erie with just a few shops and lots of farm houses everywhere, a little cute place to relax and have a nice time, specially if the weather is as beautiful as it was on sunday afternoon.
It was a nice day of looking at amazing views, walking hearing the birds sing, and eating a great ice cream!! That ice cream parlor is the cutest store I have seen, inside and out and didn't take pictures in it just because I was so mesmerized that didn't event think about it xD

So bought some ice cream, something like chocolate fudge brownie flavor LOL, and went walking down to the dock and the lighthouse, enjoying the little boat houses, and just listening to the birds and the water, so peaceful!!!

A really nice short trip that will forever remember :)

Doors Open Toronto 2011 - Getting ready!

2011-05-25T10:41:00.004-04:30

From the official Doors Open Toronto website:
"Close to 150 buildings of architectural, historic, cultural and/or social significance open their doors to the public. Admission is free. Doors Open Toronto 2011 theme is Photography."

I love Doors Open Toronto! Went 2 years ago, missed it last year and I'm really excited to go this year again. Every year they have different places to go and you can never go to all of them in one event, so year after year you have new places to visit :)

This year I'm very proud to promote a very cool, very useful, very FREE iphone/ipod/i_everything application a good friend of mine developed. Is a Doors Open Toronto app that will show you all the places open this year, map to see where they are located, description of the places and categories of what you may want or may not want to see.

Are you interested in only visiting churches? Not churches at all? Haunted places? Ecological places? So many categories where to choose from! and you can add your itinerary in the app so you don't forget any of the important places you want to visit.

So, who is going this year?! And if you have an apple device, check out the app and let me know what you think! :)

The IT market

2011-04-14T14:29:00.002-04:30

I have received lots of petitions for specific subjects and how I see the IT market has been one of the most requested ones! :) Please remember this is only from my point of view, any comments about the subject are welcome.

I think I should start by saying how it has been my working life here in Canada. Don't remember how much I already wrote at some point, so from the start, it took me a month and a few weeks to find job as an intern (thanks to Career Bridge) in a software company as a C# Developer, got promoted to a full time position after 3 months and became the DB expert of the company, along with my C# skills of course ^^; after 1 year and a few months decided to change jobs and found one as a Java Developer where I currently work, but turns out they needed my C# skills way more than the java ones and became the sole owner of one of their internal products, to then become the DB Team Lead of the company, and still use my C# skills because I can never get away from that one hehe.

I have seen the amount of people coming in and out of the company and is MASSIVE, and I'm also in a Canada Jobs group in Linkedin and see all the job posts being announced every single day for the IT people. Without looking for a job I receive at least 2 emails a month from recruiters calling me for interviews, so I know the IT market is in pretty good shape right now.

In IT, from what I can see, the areas with more work are Developers (C, Unity, C# and Java on the top of the list), DBAs and Sys Admins (specially Linux).

And when talking about salaries, from the averages I have seen we have:
QA: $35.000-$40.000
Developer Junior/SysAdmin Junior: $40.000
Developer/SysAdmin: $50.000
Developer Senior/SysAdmin Senior/Team Leads/DBA: $65.000+ (based on experience)

For new immigrants to find a job in IT it depends completely on the area and how current they are, I have seen people take between 1 and 5 months. Obviously, the more current, more experience and more contacts you have, the better ;)

You are my mirror

2011-04-12T15:00:00.000-04:30

Writting like there is nothing left, like your world has crashed and burned, like there is absolutely no end, writing so you can ease the pain.

Nothing can hide me but I can always try, nothing can stop me but I can always hide, nothing can break me but it will leave me scars, this can not kill me but can make me sad.

I smile, I cry, I laugh and dance, I mourn and hide, I open to love and close to myself, I look at the stars and look at the rain, I see my good side and my very bad ways, this shows me my very true self.

Why are your eyes so sad? why so much pain? and from whatever you have inside, you come to my aid. Because its you and me, and no one else, because He is by our side and will always be there, because you and me are one, and we divide but we are the same.

My love for you is here and your love for me is there, we just need ourselves; and I look at the mirror and see for myself, we are strong and happy, you and me, I and myself. Thank you for being there.

Mississauga vs Toronto (again!)

2011-04-10T19:51:00.004-04:30

Mississauga or Toronto?

Thats one of the most asked questions I have ever heard, and I always reply with the same answer, it depends :)

Neither city is just better than the other one, they both offer different things for its residents and it depends on what you are looking for to decide which city to choose (including any other cities you want to include).

I first lived for 1 year in Toronto, now spent 2 years and a half in Mississauga and going back to live to Toronto. The reason? What I'm looking for has changed.

Toronto is specially good for single people and couples with no children, Mississauga on the other hand is great for families with children. I have loved my time in Mississauga, really peaceful and everything you need, but it can become a little boring when you just want to go out really quick to have fun, or want to go to the gym without having to use the car, or want to spend the night out in a club.

So again, it completely depends on what you are looking for ;)

So far

2011-04-07T15:16:00.004-04:30

Part of a year and a half in my life
(No order in the events at all)

Planted Tulips and I'm watching them grow right now!

Applied to sponsor my family to become Canadian Residents :)

Spent Christmas with both families here, every single one of our parents, brothers, sisters and nieces!

Sold the house!!

Went to France :) (Europe for the first time!)

Applied for the Canadian Citinzenship!!! Already received my booklet and now it's time to study ^^

Went camping :)

Bought an apartment in Toronto!

Ate apples from my own apple tree :)

And so much more to come!!!!

Coming back

2011-04-06T09:21:00.003-04:30

Year and a half of changes and more changes, year and a half of going up and going down and going sideways, year and a half of not writing.

I need to confess that I've missed writing but everything that was going on with my life kept me away from it, but I'm back!

I'm not sure how to come back, what information I can give that will be useful and how I can keep helping with my little experience but I'll try once again :) Will keep looking for the little things that make me happy and make me who I am and will continue to get them back.

Hope we can work together to get this blog back in track! ^^ Any subjects you would like me to talk about? :)

Missed you!!!

I wish...

2009-09-20T19:53:00.001-04:30

I wish I had a camera
to look into your eyes
to capture how you shine to me
and your sweet and smiling eyes.

I wish I had a camera
specially for me,
a picture of your heart
like no one else has seen.

There is emptiness on you
in the pictures I have seen,
but my eyes can see in you
what no one else can see.

I wish I had a camera
to capture for the world
what I can feel in your eyes,
your heart, your love and...
...me.

Glen Erin Trail

2009-09-17T18:15:00.002-04:30

I know I said I wouldn't come back because I didn't have the time, but I've been receiving such amazing messages that decided to do like so many of you told me, to write at least from time to time. So is probable that I'll be writing a lot more in spanish, but I'll try not to leave this one die!

One of our latest aventures was to go again to Niagara Falls, but this time to try something different! Igor tried the Whirlpool Jet Boats, and he said it as AMAZING, so if you are thinking about doing it and have the money, please do so! It's worth it :)

Another thing that we did, was a whole adventure :) Close to the jet boats, there is a totem park and a liiitle metal staircase, which we decided to take to see where it would take us xD

It's called Glen Erin Trail and it takes you to the rapids, and if you keep and keep walking, to the whirlpool :D

The walk is not easy!!!

But eventually (after 2 hours) it gets a lot easier.

To get a lot worst :S

And after more than 2 hours, get to the whirlpool and more stairs to go up!!!

Is it worth it? Only if you really want an adventure and can handle the bad spots xD

More pictures :)

Good bye

2009-04-28T19:40:00.002-04:30

Hi everyone!

I'm sorry to say that I'll be leaving my blog in english. I haven't been writing in my blogs because I don't have enough time in my life right now, and thinking and thinking how not to loose my blogs, the only thing that I can think of is to start writing in just one of them, so this one is done for now :(

I had a great time will all of you, and you are welcome to visit me at my blog in spanish, leave a comment (is ok to write the comments in english ;)), or just drop by!

Thank you!

Ottawa :D

2009-04-15T18:56:00.003-04:30

This long weekend we managed to go to a new city: Ottawa!!! We didn't have a lot of time because we drove there Friday and came back Sunday but we tried to see as much as possible :)

The parliament was really beautiful, I didn't expect it to be that big and amazing :D

The Notre-Dame Cathedral was cute from the outside and completely breath taking inside!

The river running between Ottawa and Gatineau...

And the Civilization Museum :D were we had a blast looking for eastern eggs xD

A really beautiful view from every step and a really nice city!

For more than 1.000 pictures (yeah, between Nelly and me managed 1000 pictures!) just go to my picasa :D There a lot of blurry pictures because I didn't delete them before uploading them, sorry ;)
Ottawa
Ottawa2

Taxes time!

2009-04-04T13:38:00.003-04:30

Taxes time!!! I kind of like taxes time in Canada because is different to how is done in Venezuela. When we get to this point in Venezuela is when you know how much you'll have to pay the goverment, but here is when you get to know how much the goverment will return to you after all the money you already gave them ^^

You can do your taxes for last year at any point between January and April, but I like March, since is not at the very last moment and because we never do it at the very beginning ;) Is important to keep everything you think it could help you for the tax return, like:
* TTC monthly passes, GO monthly passes and in general any public transportation monthly pass.
* Mortgage receipts.
* Car payment receipts (only if you bought it, no leasing).
* Utilities receipts.
* If you moved that year, the rent of the van/truck.
* And in general keep everything that you think could help, worst case escenario, you wont use it!.

There are a few ways to fill yoour tax return, like using tax softwares, hiring an accountant or going to a place like H&R. This is our second year and we did it again with H&R, where they know exactly what they are doing and almost always will give you your tax return at the moment ;)

Niagara Falls in Winter

2009-03-24T19:35:00.004-04:30

I left the blog again for a few days, because I was working the whole weekend, so I didn't have time to write ;)

This is one of the post that I owed you, Niagara Falls in winter!!! So far I've been there in winter, spring and summer. Without autumn I can say that summer is the most special because you can ride the Maid of the Mist, and winter is the most amazing because you can see this!!!

But be carefull and use a LOT of warm layers because it gets 3 times colder near the falls!! :)

World Baseball Classic 2009

2009-03-19T18:44:00.001-04:30

Another thing we were really fortunate to witness was the World Baseball Classic 2009 that was held in different parts of the world. It was divided in 4 groups that played in Mexico, Japan, Puerto Rico and Canada.

Our amazing group C was Italy, USA, Canada and Venezuela and they played here in Toronto!! 6 great games we had the opportunity to see in person!! :D

The first day was saturday with 2 games, Canada vs USA at 2pm and Italy vs Venezuela at 8pm. You can see here that the Canada vs USA game was FULL!!

But then Venezuela vs Italy didn't have many people, same as the rest of the games the rest of the week. The next game was on Sunday at 8pm, and then we had the rest of the games monday, tuesday and wednesday after work :$ So we would be running from work, to the baseball game, to take the bus home and sleep to repeat again the next day xD at the end I was just a liiiitle bit tired... umm... I was awfully tired and couldn't keep my eyes open hahaha

We won the first place in group C and now the next games are played in USA. But not only the satisfaction of winning but also the energy of the games was the amazing part. Sharing with other venezuelans at the stadium, singing and chanting, and feeling a very nice part of your country next to you, that was priceless.

Discovering the art of cooking

2009-03-17T18:15:00.000-04:30

When I was living in Venezuela, we were 6 people in my house, my mum and dad, Igor and my sisters. All of them cooked, all of them knew how and would storm in the kitchen if you were doing something and start saying what you were doing wrong :p

So I didn't cook, I didn't want to go through all that, so I just did at home coffee, arepas, pasta and rice, that was my whole repertoir when we were talking about food, and when I was alone and had to cook for myself it was pretty much a mess ^-^

So I moved to Canada and had Igor cook all the time, I didn't want to try something and hear him say that it wasn't good or just not eat it. The thing is that I wanted things that he didn't want to do, and that's how I decided to try a few things ;)

I don't have pictures of everything but I first started with a tuna, spinach and mozarella dish that I learned from my parents, and altough Igor doesn't like tuna or spinach, he liked it so much that I can do it at least once a month and he'll eat happily :D

Then I did some potatos similar to french fries but in the oven and with oregano, that I saw on tv, it turned out to be pretty good! Igor loved them!! Next I tried some stuffed mushrooms and it was a nice surprise that it turned out to be so good that now Igor asks for them from time to time :D

As you can see, he is my yummy measure, he is really picky, so if he likes something, it is good!... My next one was thanks to a friend that told me his Risotto recipe while having lunch, and just from hearing it, I could reproduce it and I think is one of my best ones so far :)

A few weeks later I had a potluck lunch at work and had to take something from my country, and we decided that a quesillo would be good! So I went to a friend's house and she taught me how to do it, the result: Amazing!!

And the last one of my tries so far, has to do with me wanting sugar. I'm insulin resistant so I can't eat too much sugar and as you know that is not impossible but you have to be carefull. I wanted carrot muffins but the ones you buy or the ones that the mix is ready, they all come with sugar; so I looked for the recipe in Internet, changed a few things and did them with Splenda, and they turned out yuuuuuummmmyyyy :D

Ice Festival 2009

2009-03-15T17:53:00.003-04:30

I've been away from the blogger world for a long time, no reading, no writing, no commenting, but hopefully I'll be coming back in the next few days, I know a lot of you miss me :)

Too many things have happened in the last few weeks, but I should tell you from now that what kept me away from my blog was my job reviews. I know, is not the biggest thing, but I never said it was something too important or huge; the truth is that the reviews had me completely away, I could only think of them, I knew it was going to be good, but my salary raise would be discussed there too, that was what had me worried. The result? I can't tell you yet ^^ Although I had my review, I don't know how many people at my work read my blog ;)

One of the best things we've done this weeks, was on February 21st, since Igor and I were celebrating 7 years together :) (as boyfriends + married) and went to the Ice Festival 2009 :D

You could see a lot of people working on their sculptures from the very beginning, as an giant ice cube, or you could see them with a shape already.

And if you stayed long enough, you could see the result :)

Beside the contestants, there were some pretty amazing ice sculptures that were already done and have no idea who did them!! ^^

And although the cold was a little harsh, it was pretty much a very beautiful experience ;)

Quick post/update

2009-02-04T17:21:00.002-04:30

Quick post to let you know that I'm alive and ok and I'm not leaving my blog, but I'm living through a few things in my life that don't leave me time or energies to post, so thank you for being so patient, I promise to be back!

My new budget

2009-01-25T21:53:00.002-04:30

After buying a house, moving to Mississauga and leasing a car, my budget has changed just a little bit... Well, a lot! xD So here you go, a budget for 2 with house and car living in Mississauga and working in Toronto :)

House payment -1,600.00
Hydro -150.00
Gas -153.25
Water -50.00
Fido -100.00 (Cellular phones)
Rogers -145.00 (Home phone, Internet and Cable)
Home Insurance -70.20
Life Insurance -46.21
Car Insurance -262.65
Car Leasing -259.18
Food -300.00
TTC -100.00 (Tokens that we use from time to time)
GO/MT Aiglee -200.00 (Go train and Mississauga Transit buses)
GO/MT Igor -150.00 (Go train and Mississauga Transit buses)
Car Gas -100.00
Total $3686

Of course this a 2 salary budget and you can always save not having cable and things like that, but you can have an idea of how much would cost now!

Buying a car

2009-01-19T19:59:00.003-04:30

When buying a car, there are a lot of different decisions you need to take care of, like a new car or a used one, leasing or buying, budget, type, company and color and who knows how many more.

For us was pretty easy since we already had a year here and just bought a house, so our credit rating was pretty good. We wanted a new car and I really wanted a Toyota, so we went to Motorway Avenue here in Mississauga, that has all the car companies in the same street! that way is pretty easy to go from one to another one if you want to ask in different places and they compete for you, so you can get better offers ;)

We decided to lease a Toyota Yaris Sedan, which is like a very long rental (5 years in our case) and is more economic than to buy the car; if you do this, you can return the car in 5 years and just get another one! The monthly payments are going to depend in your initial payment and the price of the car.

It took us a grand total of 3 days to say which car we wanted and to have the keys in our hands, so it was pretty easy :D

The big problem now is to get all the snow off it almost every morning ^^

Medical emergency without healthcard

2009-01-10T18:27:00.002-04:30

Many wonder if it's worth it to get medical insurance in Canada while you don't have a health card, would I be save? How much would it cost to pay for the emergency?

Well, when my mother in law was here a few weeks ago we went to Barry to do some snow tubbing, but as soon as we arrived she slip in the snow! She was in a LOT of pain so we had to take her to the hospital and get her to the emergency room.

The wait wasn't that long, maybe around an hour, although when you are in pain, I can imagine that it feels eternal. They take care of people in order of how sick you are or arrival, depending of how big the emergency is. The nurse saw her ankle and said she was sure she broke it, so she had to go and see the minor injuries doctor and have some x-rays done.

When the doctor saw her x-rays, he told her that yes, she had broken her ankle in 2 places and that they had to talk about the options... options? in plural? Well, he called a surgeon because she needed a surgery to fix those bones :S

The surgeon told her that having it here would cost around $6.000! Ouch! Since we couldn't pay that kind of money and she had medical insurance back in Venezuela, they put some kind of cast and sent her home. We came back, changed the flight and she is now in Venezuela waiting for her surgery there.

How much was the hospital bill? A little over $700! $100 for the doctor in minor injuries, $150 for the surgeon consult, $30 for the crutches and everything else hospital charges. After this I'm more than sure that people should get medical insurance when they can.

On my way to work

2009-01-07T20:52:00.001-04:30

Before moving from Toronto, I used to take the subway to work, a 30 minutes ride at any moment, and almost nothing from the subway station to the office!

Now that I moved to Mississauga, since I work at Downtown Toronto, the story is a little bit different... I have to leave the house around 7:28, when is still a little bit dark ^^

In 10 minutes I arrive at the bus stop, and you can see that there is more light now :) So I'm leaving the house just at the sunrise xD

The bus ride takes around 10 to 13 minutes and leaves me at the Go station, where I have to wait aprox. 5 more minutes for the train to arrive... Both the trains and the buses are really on time!!

The train takes around 35 minutes to get to Union Station in Toronto, which I can use to read or watch anime in my new psp :) ... Once I get to union station, I use the path to walk to work:

It takes me around 10 minutes underground (using the path) and around 5 minutes on the cold to get to work ^^ ... So I'm leaving at 7:28 and arrive at work at 8:55, is a much longer trip but enjoyable! Sorry for the quality of the pictures, it was SOOOO cold that I couldn't take time to really take them hehe. Imagine, it was this cold:

I didn't use any zoom ;)

I'm back

2009-01-05T20:10:00.002-04:30

Hi!!! I'm back :) and I'll be trying to write as much as I did before, even if I have to write them beforehand! I'm sorry for not writing in so long but I promise to write more and to answer the comments you have done in previous posts! Thank you so much for the loving words, the christmas cards and all the good wishes!!!

Many things have happened in the last month and I'll be trying to write about all of them in the next few weeks... Our house is looking better and better, we learned how to handle the trash with the restrictions the city has, we bought a car :) Igor's family came to visit, we saw Niagara Falls in winter! We had a trip to the hospital with someone without health card (she is ok), and I haven't told you about my new trip to work and many more things :)

Well, I think is enough for this post, now to write 1 or 2 more posts ;) Thank you for waiting for me!!! And I wish for you to have a very happy new year :D

Moving day II - The second and final chapter

2008-12-05T19:11:00.003-04:30

A week ago we packed everything in this apartment:

And loaded everything to an uHaul truck, which I don't recommend, since we had many problems with them trying to get an hour to look for the truck and giving it to us in Markham instead of Toronto, but the help was great!!

And we moved to this beautiful house!!

And we've been loving every minute we spend here :)

I'm really really grateful with all the help our friends gave us and we had a blast!! :D You can see many more pictures of the moving and the house here ;)

High-demand occupations

2008-11-29T08:22:00.003-04:30

The list of high-demand occupations for Federal Skilled Workers has been publish! As soon as I read the news, I couldn't leave without posting about it.

You can find the list of occupations here:
Job Categories
If you don't see your occupation in a category, look in another one, don't give up!!

The information in the CIC web page says that everyone that has applied after February 28, 2008 and his/her occupation is not in the list, will be contacted to return them their money and the application form. You can read the news here.

There are 38 occupations in the list and among them I found medicine, chefs and cooks, IT Managers, University Professors, and almost everything in the Oil Industry, among others. Good luck to everyone waiting for this list!!! And remember that it doesn't matter if your occupation is in this list, if you have a job offer!

A year ago...

2008-11-27T04:11:00.002-04:30

366 days ago (leap year) we took a plane to an unknown country, with only 4 suitcases, the money the embassy asked us to have, and many dreams of a new life.

366 days ago we didn't know what to expect, we said goodbye to our families and left for a new path of life, a new beginning.

366 days ago, we arrived extremely tired to a new country, but with so much energy that we didn't sleep the whole day.

Today we still have many dreams and hopes.

Today we are one of the most happy people of the world.

Today we have jobs in our areas.

Today is the closing date of our new house, our new home.

Today is our 1 year anniversary of happiness in this wonderful country that opened its doors for us. WE ARE HAPPY!!! Thank you for being with us in this adventure!!

Moving day I - Boxes

2008-11-23T10:22:00.003-04:30

We are moving!! Soon :) So we needed boxes of course! There are a few places were you can find boxes.

1) You can buy them at Staples or somewhere similar
2) You can look for them in recycling centres or rooms
3) Do like us, go to a supermarket and ask them at what time is the best time to get their empty boxes, for free ;)

We went to the supermarket at 6am or 11pm and was perfect! We managed to get a lot of free boxes that we are using for our moving day, so you can save a little more for your new home :)

Santa Claus Parade

2008-11-17T19:53:00.002-04:30

Yesterday was Santa Claus Parade, so we went to welcome him!!

It was really fun, crowded and cold xD If it wasn't for the kids, I don't think I would have stayed more than half an hour, but they make it worth it :D We went with my "adoptive" nephew and the son of a friend :)

We saw floats:

Bands, and all kind of fun things!

I didn't know about Canada Post picking up Santa's cards so next year we'll have it ready ^^

You can see a lot more pictures here

Home insurance

2008-11-14T22:12:00.002-04:30

I'm sorry that I've been so lost, but I've been working so much that right now, 10:48pm I'm at the office with prospects of returning home tomorrow morning!! ;)

My next post was going to be about home insurance, but today I was talking with my friend Hernan and we were just talking about it, so I thought it would be a nice idea to make this post just with the conversation we had, I hope you enjoy it!

The home insurance, I'm confused, I have insurance for all my belongings, now, the home insurance is that? or is something else that covers fires or whatever

I was just thinking about doing my next post about it. My home insurance covers up to 250.000 if I recall correctly, plus the belongings and liability. So it would be water damage, fire damage, someone stealing your things or something happening to a neighbor or someone else because of you. For example, someone falling on the sidewalk of your house because you didn't clean it, or a fire that started at your house damages the neighbor's house.

But, if I already have insurance for my belongings, do I already have home insurance?

no necessarily

I have my insurance for my belongings where I am right now, so I just have to change the address once I move and that's it, but now I understand that I have to get a new insurance for my new home?

yes, but ask your lawyer about it, because in our case they told us that they wouldn't give the keys for the house until we had a home insurance.

So, you already have a home insurance?

We are going to have the mortgage insurance, the home insurance, and the life insurance for the amount of the mortgage.

You get the home insurance a week before the closing date, but we already talked to our insurance agent and she already gave us a quote and the lawyer is going to talk to her from now on.

ok, I'll also have the mortgage insurance and the life insurance with the mortgage amount, so now I have to make sure about the home insurance.
and do you have to get a special insurance for that home insurance or it can be any insurance company?

Yes, any insurance company
We have the home insurance and the life insurance with the same people since they have special packages.

How much are you going to pay for the home insurance? I'm paying $60 for the life insurance and $125 for the mortgage insurance

The mortgage insurance is charged with the mortgage and is aprox. $1600, so I don't know how much is just the mortgage insurance. The life insurance is going to be between $40 and $20, depending on the medical tests... The home insurance is right now $75 and once I get car insurance with them, the home insurance will be aroung $54

so, then the home insurance will include everything, the house and the belongings?

Yeap... until certain amount of course
5000 in computers, 5000 in jewelry, and I don't know how much for everything else.

and what did you have to do to get the home insurance? did they do an inspection or your word was enough?

half my word and half the house listing that the realtor gives the insurance company, or the lawyer.

does the listing has everything about the house?
construction year, etc, etc?

Construction year was my word (which the inspector gave me)... the listing is the one you saw on the Internet which it says how many bedrooms and bathrooms the house has.

So now you know it, when buying a house, don't forget the home insurance ;)

Aclaration about how to buy a house

2008-11-09T13:01:00.002-04:30

I'm sorry that I've been so lost from my blog this last week, I have SO much work right now! So please stay with me :)

I want to use this post to publish an aclaration my friend and realtor Pedro sent to me about one of my posts:

"Since you are giving only 5% of downpayment, the mortgage is considered "high ratio", so the bank asks for insurance. If the downpayment was equal or higher than 20% of the price of the house, that insurance wouldn't be necessary, although you still can get it if you want to. The institution most commonly used for that is CMHC(http://www.cmhc.ca/); although there are others. The web site has a lot of information about the type of insurance and the premiun applicable depending of the downpayment."

This ends everything I can remember about buying a home, so the next posts will be about moving! :D

Buying costs

2008-11-02T17:41:00.002-04:30

Once you've found the house and made an offer, you have to get approved for a mortgage with a particular rate of interest, make the inspection and wait... The mortgage broker will let you know who is going to be your particular lender and how much will be the rate of interest you'll pay. If you are giving 5% or less of initial, you have to have a mortgage insurance that will guarantee the bank their money in case you can't pay.

So, how long do you have to wait for the closing date? Well, that depends on different factors, did you sell your house? did the sellers found a house? Do you have the money? etc. The wait can be from 2 weeks to 6 months, in our case we are waiting 2 months from the date of the offer.

What do we do while we wait? Get the money!!! These are the things you need to pay when buying a house of $336.000 with $10.000 of deposit and 5% of downpayment:
- Lawyers and transaction Fees: aprox. $900
- Land Transfer tax: aprox. $3500
- Mortgage fee (CMHC fee+ references): aprox. $380
- DOWNPAYMENT: $16800 (5%) - $10.000 = $6800

So, after paying $10.000 with the offer, we still need to pay aprox. $12.000 more the day of the closing ;) So, don't forget to add all the other things you need to pay when buying!

And when calculating what you are going to pay monthly for your house, don't forget:
- Mortgage
- Insurance
- Utilities
- Taxes

Happy Halloween!!!

2008-10-31T20:10:00.002-04:30

Happy Halloween!!!

Today we could go to the office with our halloween costumes!!! I'm not used to this, but going with the spirit of the fun in the office, I tried a little something:

Around half the office dressed up, but I won't post their pictures without their consent, now, this one was SOOO good that I couldn't stop myself xD

The inspection

2008-10-30T19:44:00.003-04:30

The inspection was really really interesting and we learned lots of different things. Normally an inspection is made to the house just to see what problems it has and the client (the buyer) has to decide if (s)he wants the house or negotiate repairs or a lower price.

The inspection includes looking for humidity, cracks on the walls, floor or ceiling, check if the furnace and air conditioning are working, check if all included electric ampliances are working (fridge, kitchen, dishwasher, etc).

They also check whatever they can access from the electric instalation and the plumming, the attic to check the ceiling of the house, water preassure, roofs and whatever they can see about the fundations of the house.

One of the important things to remember is that they can't break anything, so they wont break the walls to see if the plumming is ok (for example) and they can't never ever be 100% sure that everything is working perfectly, but they can always give you a better idea of what you are buying and if everything appears to be in working condition.

Our inspector is reaaaally good, since he is from Argentina the inspection was in spanish, and he explained EVERYTHING he did and how everything worked, like how to change the filter of the furnace, how to control the air conditioning, how to see if the roofs need repairs, and lots of other things :D

The cost? $320 payable with check, and besides the confort of knowing that our house is above average and the great class we got, he gave us that big folder where it explains in much more detail what we need to know about Canadian houses and the kind of things we need to do every month/year. :)

Making an offer

2008-10-26T06:04:00.000-04:30

Now that you fell in love with a house, what do you do? You make an offer! An offer may become your final contract to buy the house, so make sure is well done; if you are using a realtor, great! they help you with that, if you are not, sorry but I'm not sure how do you do it by yourself.

The case is that the price the sellers are asking is not exactly the price that you pay, it may be more, it may be less, so you have to be prepared when you find THE house and stablish a final price for you. This is easier to explain with examples:

The first house we liked and wanted to make an offer was listed for $320.000, so we offered $308.000 (which was the price a similar house got sold a month before) and a few repairs that needed to be done. The seller sent it back for $318.000 and no repairs (final offer), so we decided not to buy it; it was too expensive for what it was.

Then, when we fell in love with our house, the listing price was $339.900 (a month before was $344.900), so we went to our realtor's office and saw similar houses in the same area to compare prices and see how much we could offer for the house, and he recommended us to offer $329.000, with a closing date of November 28 (the sellers were asking for October) and a deposit of $5000, and the house had to pass the inspection to our satisfaction.

We sent the offer and we had to wait for their answer, when we got it was $336.000, they accepted the closing date, changed the deposit to $10.000 and agreed to the inspection. Now we could have sent another contra-offer on top of that one but decided to accept :D So that was the beginning of our contract and our final price!!!

In other cases, you will see yourself paying more than the asking price if you have other people fighting for that house too. I have a friend that was buying an apartment, she made an offer and the seller communicated saying no to that offer and that they had another offer they were considering (they don't tell you for how much) so you need to send a higher offer to win the house. I think this one is really stressfull!!!

Another example is a friend that found her dream home. The house was listed at $349.900, she offered $332.000 (aprox. I don't remember this one exactly), they got it back for $345.000 and they sent it back for $340.000 (final offer), and the sellers accepted!!! :D So in this case, she managed to buy for $10.000 less than the listed price and the sellers where the ones to accept the offer.

There you have it, how close are the real prices to the listed prices and what you can expect to happen when making an offer for a house ;) Next step, the inspection!

Housing Area

2008-10-23T06:08:00.000-04:30

Once we have the realtor and the mortgage broker, we need to decide what we want and where we want it. You may think this one is easy, but it's not so much when you need to take into consideration what you want, the location and the price.

We wanted a house, either semi-dettach (is like a big house divided in 2 in the middle) or a dettach, at least 3 bedrooms, at least 2 and a half bathrooms, open concept kitchen, a private garden, a garage, a finished basement, a nice location close to public transportation, not too old and under $350.000. Easy? not so much.

There is no way you can find a house like that in Toronto, so you need to get away a little bit. Ok, what about Vaughan? Too expensive! A house like that is more than $350.000, less than $400.000 but if it's more that what we can afford, why counting?

Ok, what about Mississauga? Nice choice! Is really close to Toronto and we can get exactly what we want, or at least close to that ^^

Really, for all the ones that are scared/mad/confused that we are "leaving" Toronto and moving to Mississauga when we said we loved Toronto, don't be! For me, all those areas (Vaughan, Mississauga) are very much Toronto, just a little bit to the side and with less buildings; I'll keep saying I live in Toronto, just that my mail will say Mississauga xD I'll still work in Downtown Toronto, I'll still be here a LOT, and I still love Toronto, nothing against it! It's just that our dream house was built in Mississauga!

Next episode, you have the realtor and mortgage broker, you fell in love with the house, how do you proceed?

First snow flakes Fall 2008

2008-10-21T18:20:00.001-04:30

Today we got the first snow flakes in Toronto for this winter!! Wow, really soon eh?

A few pictures of Toronto

2008-10-20T07:25:00.000-04:30

To break a little bit the stream of posts without pictures, a post with a few pictures my family took while they were here :)

Downtown:

Old City Hall:

Eaton Centre:

Harbourfront:

Kensington Market:

Yesterday I got my G2!

2008-10-18T09:47:00.002-04:30

Yes! I'm finally able to drive in Canada :D

The test was really easy, especially after the classes I took with one of the Ex-Examiners academy instructors. I thought it would be better this way since I had almost a year without driving and I was a little rusty, besides, they give you the tips to go for a perfect test!

The instructor came to my house and we had a 2 hours first class where he saw how good or bad I was. With that class he told me that I need it 2 more hours and the test. He charged me $30 the hour (which is the price all other academies I asked charge) and $140 for the car the day of the test.

The day of the test, he will give you 2 more hours (included in the price) of practice, and will take you to the testing centre, where you'll have the test in the instructor's car.

The test takes between 10 and 15 minutes, where you have to do regular things like turning right, turning left, stoping at a light and stops signs, parallel parking, three point turn and side parking.

So now I have my G2! :D If you want the name of the instructor, let me know! He is really good ;)

Mortgage Brokers

2008-10-14T07:00:00.003-04:30

The second step after getting a real estate agent is to get a mortgage pre-approval. One major advantage of getting pre-approved for a home mortgage loan is that it gives you a firm idea of how much you can borrow. If you know how much you can borrow and how much you have for a down payment, you can easily set a maximum price as you search for a home. You will not waste countless hours looking at homes, only to find out afterwards that you cannot afford the mortgage. (Quote)

It is important to remember that the amount of mortgage you will qualify for is the maximum. It is the amount that the lender feels you can afford, but it is not necessarily the amount that you want to pay. It sometimes is advantageous to be conservative here. For example, if you qualify for a $100,000 mortgage and you have $15,000 available in cash for downpayment and closing costs, you are qualified to buy homes with a maximum selling price of $115,000. So as to not push yourself to the limit, you may want to look at homes that sell in the $100,000 to $110,000 range. (Quote)

How do you get a mortgage pre-approval? The easiest way is to get the help of a Mortgage Broker (which real estate agents normally have). A mortgage broker acts as an intermediary who sells mortgage loans on behalf of individuals or businesses, so (s)he will have a portfolio with different mortgages from different companies, and you'll have all the information in one place without having to go from bank to bank asking for one.

Typically the tasks of a mortgage broker are:

Assessment of the borrowers circumstances. This may include assessment of credit history (normally obtained via a credit report) and affordability (verified by income documentation).
Assessing the market to find a mortgage product that fits the clients needs.
Applying for a lenders agreement in principle (pre-approval)
Gathering all needed documents (paystubs/payslips, bank statements, etc.)
Completing a lender application form.
Explaining the legal disclosures.
Submitting all material to the lender.

So, if you want to know how much you can afford is good to get the services of a mortgage broker that will explain everything to you, giving your credit history and others, but please don't do this without a real intention to get a house since they will check your credit history and that will stay in it, telling everyone that checks it that you already tried to get pre-approved.

Real Estate Agents

2008-10-12T13:32:00.002-04:30

This is going to be my first part of my housing series, where little by little I want to inform you all about how to buy a house ;)

What is one of the first steps you need to do when you decide to buy a home? You can start in different places but one that is the most useful is finding a real estate agent. Real estate agents help you find the perfect home for you and take you by the hand along the whole process, making it a lot easier!

And what kind of real estate agent you need? A realtor! "The term REALTOR® is a trademark identifying real estate licensees in Canada who are members of The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). REALTORS® adhere to a strict Code of Ethics and Standards of Business Practice. The code of ethics is a firm set of rules, describing what kind of performance you have a right to expect from a REALTOR®. It's your guarantee of professional conduct and the best in service." CREA

A realtor helps you find the house, takes care that the price is right, helps you deciding what you can afford to pay for the house, informs you about the paperwork you need to do, connects you with the right people (mortgage broker, lawyers, inspectors, etc.), and that is just a little list of the many things they help you with.

My recommendation for a realtor? Dionis team, any one you choose from that group I can certify that are the best of the best, they work with Royal LePage and I can give you their information anytime!

And how much is going to cost you the services of a realtor if you are buying? NOTHING, zero; the services of a realtor when you are buying are 100% free, so why not? :)

Nuit Blanche Toronto

2008-10-06T06:00:00.000-04:30

Nuit Blanche (White Night or All Nighter) is an annual all-night cultural festival. The festival lasts from sundown until sunrise on the first Saturday and Sunday in October and has, since its premiere in Paris in 2002, spread to many other cities internationally, including Toronto!

This is the third time Torontians can enjoy this event and this year is estimated that attracted more than 1 million people ^^

It was pretty amazing with galleries and museums open for free, people acting in the streets and works of art all over downtown; we couldn't see everything since it was too much, but we had a GREAT time and I wanted to share what we were able to see :)

Into the blue: Fujiwara Takahiro’s "Into the Blue" is a giant, illuminated, transparent cone-shaped balloon. Floating in the middle of the Eaton Centre, "Into the Blue" will present two distinct faces. From a distance, it will reflect and refract the surrounding light.

Up close, one will be able to walk beneath the work and experience it as an environment.

Zombies in Condoland: "Zombies in Condoland" is a series of night actions that mimic a film screening set for a low-budget horror film.

Waterfall: Katharine Harvey suspended a "quilt" of recyclable plastic from the north side of the Ontario Power Generation Building, suggesting a suspended waterfall.

LIGHT UP THE NIGHT - Sitting Ducks: Be part of nature in the city and visit the ducks of Devonian Pond - located in the heart of the Ryerson University campus. For one night only, the live ducks that traditionally visit the pond will be replaced by hundreds of environmentally friendly man-made ducks - bedazzled with light and playfullly moving throughout the water.

Stereoscope: Stereoscope is an interactive light installation at Toronto City Hall. This installation by the German group Project Blinkenlights transforms the landmark towers into a huge display screen by arranging lamps behind each of the 960 windows of the building. From dusk till dawn, the façade will serve as an ever-changing and evolving kaleidoscope of graphic animations automatically generated and interactively orchestrated.

Fall...

2008-10-04T06:00:00.000-04:30

Fall is here! Well, it has been here for a few days, but I finally have a few pictures to show you :D

The temperature? 11C ;)

Enjoy!

Immigration: The Constant State of Doubt

2008-10-01T16:40:00.002-04:30

My first invited blogger was really fast! He wrote his post in spanish and I did the translation, hopefully I got it right! Enjoy :)

I've been in this country for 3 years, but if we take the application process and others, then it has been more than 4 years with Canada in my head. It's just that the immigration subject doesn't start the day you arrive in Canada... it starts way before! Maybe even the same day you decide to leave your country, and between the different options, we had this country.

Since that holy day we decided to leave and thought of Canada as an option, the doubts started: "Should I really have to go?", "and will it be Canada the right place?", "Will I find a job?", "How much money will I need?", and like that, hundreds of questions went through our heads and will continue to go until the day we say yes, Canada is the place where we want to go, no Spain, no Australia and no Italy... Canada.

During the whole process we continue to hesitate. During that year and a half (or more) that the immigration process takes, we get so much information, take all the paths that Google offers, read blogs, forums and newspapers, listen to the radio, watch movies and tv, talk to friends and strangers, and learn. We'll be learning for 18 months or more, and filling our heads with information that will help us decide. Decide what we will do about our professional experience, with our studies, where we'll live, what we'll eat... and like in every other learning process, the more we learn, the more we have doubts!

The instant you arrive you'll get doubts about your everyday life, with the new things you'll encounter in your path. Doubts about how to handle the day to day, if the choice was correct, or maybe if the winter boots will be as warm as we thought. The everyday life, our new routine and the one of our family will also give us challenges and doubts. Even though, I think doubt is an essential and necessary part of our lives. Doubt is, among other things, part of our soul food that will makes us learn.

I've been 3 years in this country and every day I have more doubts, because if I have doubts I exist... and I like to know that I'm still alive.

Guillermo
Blog: http://loszieglerencanada.com
RSS: http://loszieglerencanada.com/feed/

Invitation

2008-10-01T11:02:00.002-04:30

These days I've been thinking that I have several posts in mind but don't have the time to write them (fall, real estate agents, square one, and others) and that I have so many people that read me and have really good opinions and subjects to talk about, that I decided to make an invitation.

I want to invite everyone to post in my blog, just write me to aiglee@yahoo.com with the subject and the post, in can be in english, spanish or both (even better) so it will be in both blogs. I would like it to be something that will help the readers, for example, if you are in Canada, something you had to do in your immigration process or some interesting experience you had; if you are in another country, some visit you did here or a piece of interesting news you read about.

I won't publish everything I get, but I'll write back telling you why, or the date it will be published :) And it will have the name of the author (you can use a nick if you want).

What do you think?

Great Toronto Area

2008-09-22T19:34:00.002-04:30

A lot of people ask me about the different neighborhoods and their characteristics, but they are so many that it would take ages to do, so I'm giving you an idea of how everything is divided.

The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is composed of 5 municipalities that you can see here:

Each city in those municipalities have its own characteristics and charisma and is up to each person to find which is the right city for them.

More specific the city of Toronto is divided in 6 big areas you can see here:

And each of those areas is divided in a lot of different neighborhoods ^^

In the Toronto Life web page, you can choose an area and a neighborhood to read its characteristics and reviews ;)

Have fun!

Supermarkets

2008-09-14T08:01:00.002-04:30

It's time to go to the supermarket, so many choices, so little time... In Toronto we have Rabbas, Sobeys, No Frills, Loblaws and Dominion among others. Rabbas, Sobeys and Dominion are for the most part open 24 hours a day and no frills is the less expensive one of all, which one to use?

A lot of people choose to do their shopping in the less expensive one; a few more choose to go from supermarket to supermarket buying different things in different places, like going to Sobeys for the best fruits, no frills for the rest, and every kind of combination you can think of.

In our case we go to Dominion all the time, and now we are trying to buy shampoo, soap and that kind of things in Shoppers (24 hours Pharmacy), why Dominion? Because is SO close, that's another way of seeing it right? ;)

For your budget, we spend for both of us, around $200 a month. I just heard about $600 a month for 2 adults and 2 adolescents, and in general it depends of the supermarket and what kind of thinks you like to eat :)

And for more specific prices, here you have a flyer for the dominion, or choose any store to see Loblaws flyer, and same with No Frills!

Enjoy :)

Movie theaters

2008-09-10T20:29:00.002-04:30

One of our favourite hobbies is going to the movies, so we try to go every friday! Sometimes we can't manage, or we don't have any movie we'd like to see, but more often than no, you'll find us friday's nights at the movie theater.

There are economic movie theaters and some that are more expensive but in general, you can expect to pay around $11.95 general, and $14.95 for Imax. We pay that in the Cineplex movie theaters, and we really really like them. We have one in the concourse level and we go to another one close to Queen street which has an Imax.

In the food department you can expect to pay around $10 for a food combo (popcorns, nachos, hot dog, etc), and you can find other types of food inside, like eating burger king while watching your movie ;)

Whatever movie theater you choose, try to see if it has special promotions like the cineplex theaters that have the scene card I talked in a past post. That one will give you a free movie every 10 movies, and 10% off in food inside the movie theater :)

My family was here

2008-09-06T21:05:00.002-04:30

As everyone know, my family was here for 15 days, they left on the 20th. I really can't post pictures about it, because I don't want to expose their pictures without their permission and I don't have them ^^ But, for family and friends that want to see them, just let me know! I'll give you the link with a few of them, 3 DVDs of pictures is just too much xD

We did so many things:
- Tim Hortons
- Kensington Market
- Harbourfront
- Toronto Island
- CN Tower
- Wonderland
- Queen street
- Little Italy
- Greektown
- Little Brasil (with a Brasil festival included ;))
- Niagara Falls
- Beisbol game at the Rogers Centre
- The Beaches
- Eaton Centre and York Mills
- My office
- Just walking around the city
- Meeting our friends
- Eating japanese, italian, greek, hot dogs, etc. at home and the street

I miss them, that's impossible not to do, but I know I'll be fine, I know I can do it. I love my new city too much, and my friends... well, they are my new family and I love them!

Besides the memories, my family left me with something else, 6 suitcases of things we left in Venezuela :)

We had to buy 2 new bookcases in Ikea:

And we have back our beautiful wedding album:

With every passing moment, our house is becoming more and more, our home.

YMCA schedule

2008-09-04T18:22:00.003-04:30

For those of you interested in more free workshops with the YMCA, I got the new schedules :)

There were so many classes and so little time that I looked for a better option and found what I was looking for, the online schedules :D

Enjoy!: YMCA

Family life

2008-09-01T09:59:00.003-04:30

How do kids and adolescents take it when you take them out of their life and into a new country? A new life?

Kids and adolescents adapt a lot faster than adults, there is no doubt about that, but do they miss something? Most of them miss and need their family... What can you do about it, when your kid is looking for a new grandma or granddad , a new aunt or uncle, and doesn't find it?

Is incredible how your relantionship with other families helps a lot in these cases, since your new friends will be their new family. I found in my new life an adoptive nephew!

This is a drawing he did one day we went out together:

(On the bottom from left to right you have him, his mum and his dad. On the top from right to left you have Igor and me, and we just told him to draw his family!)

A few days ago his beautiful mother, Nelly, told me that Xavi calls me aunt Aiglee, and I went WOW! incredible, I love it, I'm happy of being his aunt Aiglee. Yesterday, we were in his house for the first time and I was distracted doing something when that beautiful boy comes close to me and tells me "auntie, auntie" and I go "yes?" and he says "I love you so much!". I can't start to describe how my heart felt at that moment :) And when we were leaving their house he tells me "I'm going to miss you all day tomorrow and all night!" Ohhh, God, I love my new adoptive nephew!.

Adolescents are not that different. The day before yesterday I met the kids of other friends and she tells me "we are like family now, right?", again, oh my God! so lovely! "Of course, we are family now!".

Please, when you immigrate, choose your friends carefully, since they will be your kids's new family! I'm happy with my friends, and feel honored of them becoming my kids's new second family.

Getting to the airport

2008-08-23T16:59:00.004-04:30

There are a few ways to get to the airport:
- Taxi
- Car
- Special buses
- TTC

A taxi from Pearson Airport to Downtown Toronto can cost between $40 and $60 depending of the type of car (if it's a van or a regular car), if you use the taximeter or a flat rate, and what part of Toronto you are going. You can normally pay with credit card but it's always better to ask before hand and is normal to give a tip of 15% to the taxi driver, specially if you have luggage with you and he helps you.

By car you can find directions with a GPS or google maps, so I'll skip that one, and there are so many special buses that you have to look for them and since I didn't use any, I'll leave it to you.

To get to the airport for my family arrival, I used TTC

The buses you have to use depends completely of the time you are taking the bus. I wanted to be at 6:30am at the airport, so I couldn't use the subway and needed to use the midnight bus service. The midnight bus are buses that work when the subway is closed at night and you can take the one to the airport at Eglinton, wich was perfect for me! Is normal price and the duration from Yonge & Eglinton to Pearson Airport is around 1 hour.

Another way if the subway is already open, is using the subway to get to Kipling station and then taking the rocket to the airport (is another bus that only has the airport as a stop); that one took me around 20 minutes the bus and around 40 minutes the subway (from Eglinton to Kipling) and you don't have to pay extra, just your normal TTC rate.

Can you get to the airport using the TTC now?

Ohh, I forgot, the last midnight bus leaves at 4:10am, so when I got to the airport it was like this:

:)

Getting back on track

2008-08-23T16:54:00.002-04:30

Hi everyone...

Well, my family is back in Venezuela and I'm almost back to my normal life, so I'll be posting everything soon, just be a little bit patient since I'm still slow catching up with everything and everyone!

I'm also a little bit down since they got back, so my mood is not in writing mode yet :)

Scene card

2008-08-09T07:00:00.000-04:30

The scene card, is a points card for the cineplex movie theaters :) Every time you are going to buy movie tickets, you should present your scene card and that will reward you with 100 points per movie.

Every 1000 points you get to see a free movie! So every 10 movies a free movie, no bad at all!! Another benefit is 10% off in food inside the theater, so you get 10% off popcorns, pop, pizza, hamburguers, etc., depending of the movie theater.

The card is free, and you can get it at:
the scene web page or the quiosks at the movie theater. Enjoy!!!

Average salary

2008-08-05T07:00:00.000-04:30

How much can you expect to make?

That's a question that everyone keeps asking, and of course there is no set answer but at least we can have an idea, right? A lot of people have different careers or job opportunities and live in different cities, so maybe this can help.

You can go to Monster salary and choose a job title that it's suited to what you want to know, and the city you are looking for. After selecting those 2 options, you'll be presented with subcategories to what you chose before, select one and click "create salary report".

And there you have it, averages in the area you wanted to see :) Which can go from managers to sales clerk, and a lot of different career paths.

YMCA information sessions

2008-08-01T07:00:00.000-04:30

I got an email from YMCA informing me of the information sessions they are going to have in july and august (Sorry, didn't have time to post july), so I wanted to give you the information for august in case someone is interested :)

05/08: Canada: A nation (10am - 12pm)
06/08: Telephone skills & networking (10am - 12pm)
07/08: Your road to employment (5:30pm - 7:30pm)
09/08: Canadian workplace culture (11am - 1pm)
12/08: Your financial rights (10am - 12pm)
13/08: Internationally educated accountants (10am - 12pm)
14/08: You've just arrived (French) (10am - 12pm)
16/08: Ontario education system for students (11am - 1pm)
19/08: Welcome to Toronto! (9:30am - 12pm)
20/08: Internationally educated teachers (10am - 12pm)
21/08: Become an apprentice (5:30pm - 7:30pm)
26/08: Labour market Information (10am -12pm)
30/08: Ontario education system for parents (11am - 1pm)

All the information sessions are free, and you only need to call to (416)928-3362 ext. 2165 to get more information or register to one of them (or more).

Those information sessions will be held at the YMCA at 42 Charles st. east, 3rd floor (less than a block from bloor subway station) and their working hours are monday to thursday from 9am to 8pm, friday from 9am to 2pm and saturdays from 10am to 2pm.

Our work life

2008-07-30T07:00:00.001-04:30

I work at Konverge & Know, which is a fairly small company in downtown Toronto for software development. We always have a lot of work in different projects and every day we get more and more xD

The people working with me is from all over the world, we are between 20 and 30 people and the maximum quantity from the same country are 3 from Pakistan and Canada and the rest is 2 or 1 from other countries, which make it pretty interesting :) We all have different cultures and it's really nice to learn from all of them. For example, the latin americans are the only ones that say hi with a kiss every morning (for now, 2 from Venezuela and 1 from Mexico) and the ones from USA and Canada really like how we say hi ^^ 90% of all of them say good morning every morning, and at least half the office likes to talk from anything and everything from time to time, so it's a pretty lively office!

One of them even made me this after the futbol (soccer) game!:

That was my area at one point ;)

We have snacks at the office, a foosball table, and a big tv. We work office hours and if we need to work extra, we can ask them to pay us the hour or we can accumulate them and use them as free days, which is what I'm doing right now, that is why I haven't been a lot here, a LOT of extra hours!.

At Igor's is pretty different, he get's to know a lot of people from all over the world, but they are much much serious (all work and no fun) and they don't pay them extra hours :( even though they work so many!!! He works for Ganz, which is a pretty BIG company that has a "small" project called Webkinz.

Webkinz are small plush animals you can buy almost everywhere, and they come with a code you can use to have your same animal as a virtual mascot in a very big virtual world. Igor is a system administrator for Webkinz and he more or less likes his job :)

My family

2008-07-29T07:00:00.002-04:30

I'm so so happy, mi family is coming here for the first time!! I have 2 younger sisters and my dad and mum, and they are all coming here on August 5!

That is why I wanted to tell you that I'll be a little bit lost for a few days (they are staying for 15 days). But don't be afraid, I already wrote a few posts and programmed them so you won't be completely Aiglee free ^^

Just for laughs

2008-07-27T10:44:00.002-04:30

This weekend was the Just for Laughs festival! :)

On friday we went to the Jason Alexander Gala, where we saw 5 comedians at the Massey Hall for more than 2 hours; more than 2 hours laughing the whole while!!! It was soooo good, and we really enjoy it a lot!

Then, we went yesterday to see the street festivals, where you can see living statues:

Comedians:

Contortionists:

And a very big mantis in the middle of the street amoung other things xD

It's really worthwhile and I hope to come back year after year, since it has a lot more things that we didn't have the time or the stamina to see :)

In search of...

2008-07-23T18:20:00.003-04:30

We are in search of a web designer for a contract of aprox. 3 months where I work, it has to be a permanent resident already in Toronto.

If you are interested, please send me an email to aiglee@yahoo.com with something you've done and your resume :)

I'm sure I know at least a couple of new immigrants with this characteristics but I really can't remember who was it, so please step forward and write to me!!!

Thanks ;)

Batman - The dark knight

2008-07-20T17:47:00.002-04:30

On friday a friend of mine asked me what I was going to do this weekend, saying "you always do something big on weekends" and I said "no this weekend, this weekend I'm going to rest and clean the house".

Little did I know that I would wake up this morning at 6am, take the bus south to queen street, raining, take the streetcar west to john street, raining, and be on line at the Scotiabank theater at 7:15am on a rainy sunday, to watch Batman in Imax!!

This is the first time that I go to the movies that early xD specially a sunday, but was it worht it? Oh yes! it was really really good! It's a shame that we didn't have the camera to take pictures of the looong line that was waiting under the rain at 7am ^^

Air Miles card

2008-07-16T17:28:00.000-04:30

The Air Miles card is a point card you can use in several places to gain points you can later trade for something else you want.

So far we've had it for a few months and we have almost 200 points which is not that much but if you manage to forget about exchanging your points, it can be of value at a later time when you already have many more.

So you have an example of where you can use it, we use it at Dominion, Rexall pharmacies, and LCBO; and the whole family collects point to a single account, so you can have multiple cards working for one goal, and the best of all? it's free ;)

Miss Universe 2008 - Venezuela!

2008-07-13T22:29:00.003-04:30

No one can deny Venezuelan beauty, and I'm one that loves to say "I'm Venezuelan" and very proud of it!.

We just finished watching Miss Universe 2008 where 4 of the top 5 where latin american women, and Venezuela is the new Miss Universe. We were cheering for her and are very very happy, since the last Miss Venezuela where not that pretty or didn't know english, but this one, inteligent and beautiful, go Venezuela!

Casa Loma

2008-07-13T16:41:00.003-04:30

Last week we went to Casa Loma and the Renaissance festival :) I really wanted to go to Casa Loma since it looked really interesting and after looking at everything, I was a little dissapointed.

The castle is impressive but nothing out of this world, and knowing all the money the owner had and that he lost everything buying and doing every single thing he did there, well, it's sad.

The festival was interesting but little, just nice.

We paid $2 extra for the ticket to Men in Tights which was really good and funny and more worth it that everything else in my opinion.

And wanted to see the gardens everybody talked so much about, but it was really a small garden and a lot of trees.

So, if you want to see with your know eyes, it's nice and if you are using a Metro Pass, show it when buying the tickets for $2 off ;) Otherwise, not really worth it.

Toronto Zoo

2008-07-06T19:44:00.003-04:30

Yesterday we went to the Toronto Zoo. I've been to a few zoos in my life, in USA and Venezuela, but this one is by far the biggest one and most impressive one I've seen!

It was pretty impressive, the type of animals, the care the zoo gives them, the conservationist programs they have and the freedom some of the animals have, or the interaction the people visiting the zoo can have with some of the animals.

One of the first things we did was to go to the stingray bay, where you can touch the stingrays :D That was pretty amazing, and to make it even better, it turned out that we were there at the exact moment they were going to feed them! That sounded amazing, until they told us, that we (the people there) were the ones to hand feed them!!! They gave us shrimps and sardines and we hand feed them! WOW, you would think it doesn't get better than this.

Then we went to see the rest of the zoo, with ALL kind of animals.

And we even saw a pregnant seahorse!! SO CUTE!!! :D

And we were able to go inside the kangaroo habitat :0

So we are thinking, wow, amazing day, and keep looking at everything else the zoo has to offer, when all of a sudden a little friend walks by!

Yeap, I'm not kidding you, just passing among us!

And last but not least, a beautiful big grizzly bear playing in the water with a ball!

Really amazing, we were so tired after all that, but it was reeeeaaaally worth it! More pictures in my picasa album ;)

I got my G1 Drivers Licence!

2008-06-30T16:45:00.003-04:30

Finally, today I got my driver's licence! I had the day off for Canada's day (although I have to work tomorrow) so decided to get my driver's licence. I already had the letter from the embassy that said all the years I had been driving in Venezuela and my venezuelan driver's licence translated, from a few months ago.

What is my surprise that after waiting for more than an hour at Services Ontario, the girl tells me that the letter from the embassy and the translation of the licence are only valid for 6 months :S The letter from the embassy was just ok, it would expire TOMORROW :S but the translation was already expired :'(

I had 3 options, just take the knowledge test without that and having to wait the regulatory times to take the road test, find a valid translation before 5pm and come back, or get everything again and come back. I don't like going to the embassy, and having to do everything again would be really annoying, so I started calling translators I already used at some point or other.

I finally got one to do the translation before 3pm (it was already 11am) but Igor had to send him the scan of the licence as soon as possible. I got home at 12:30pm and he just says "I forgot!" sh*t!! I sent the email and called him, he wasn't home, so I left a message in the answering machine with no idea if he could make it.

At 2pm I call again and he tells me that he is just going in :( but he can try to have it by 3, so at 3pm I'm standing at his front door and thank God he has it ready :D Off I go to Service Ontario again.

I didn't have to wait in line again since the girl told me that if I made it before 5pm, I just had to look for her and she would help me. I paid my $85, took the eye test, they took my picture and told me they would give me full experience. So then I went to take the knowledge test, which I don't remember how many questions had, but I had 2 wrong, ouch, not to worry, I still passed the test! :D

So, after all that adventure I have my temporary driver's licence and waiting for the G1 to get in the mail in 4 to 6 weeks ;) My recommendation for this test? The Ontario driver's book and this web page: Ontario G1 Driver’s License Free Online Practice Test Questions . It has 125 questions to help you prepare for the test and was amazing for me! All the questions in today's test were there ;)

Toronto Island

2008-06-29T08:41:00.002-04:30

Continuing what has become my series of "Knowing Toronto" we went to Toronto Island! :)

To go to Toronto Island we need to take the ferry in the ferry docks near Union Station. You can walk from Union Station or take the streetcar to Exhibition and go down at the first stop.
There you'll have to pay $6.5 per adult to go to the Central Island (round trip, cash) and wait along all these people to get on the ferry :D

The island is beautiful, there are bridges everywhere of all kind! Like this one, which was my favourite!

You can also rent a bike, tandem (2 in a bike), quadricycle for 2 and a kid, or quadricycle for 4 adults and 2 kids. Or you can walk all the way, which is a LOT xD

At Toronto Island you can also find CentreVille, which is an amusement park for kids with rides and a little farm.

Or you can go to the beach and have fun in the water :D

So, there is a lot to do at the park and that was just half of it! Since we didn't have time to see everything in the island xD But we still have time to go back this year or some other year to see the other half ;)

Do I miss Venezuela?

2008-06-22T08:08:00.002-04:30

A lot of people in Venezuela love to ask me the same question "Don't you miss...?" and my answer is always: NO, and it's really hard for them to understand that. Well, I should specify something first, family is not included in this package, I obviously miss my family, that it's something that I shouldn't even have to mention.

They always ask:
Do you miss the beach?: No, I never was a beach person, I prefered mountains ;) and I'm ok enough with a pool from time to time. Did I go to the beach? Yeah, it was fun, but not something that I actually miss.

Do you miss arepas?: No, because we have them here! In Toronto we have access to a LOT of the ingredients we use in Venezuela so we can make a lot of things here and just a few are missed. Enough to come back? Not even close to visit!

Do you miss the music?: No, who said that we can't have latin american music here? Do you miss Venezuelan TV?: I hated Venezuelan tv in Venezuela, why should I miss it here?

Really, not everyone can think like that, but a lot of people has the misconception that we are moving to a place where you won't have anything from your country and that it's not true, specially if you move to a multicultural city like this one.

My perfect example was last weekend, a Venezuelan picnic en Toronto!

They had typical venezuelan food and drinks that we enjoyed so much! So many venezuelans together having a great time takes you to your home country really fast, and we had venezuelan music too:

Did I miss Venezuela more with that picnic? Again, sorry but no, I just thought, what a great event! I hope to keep going to this kind of event here in Toronto so I can have the best of this world and part of the best of my home land :D

Luminato

2008-06-21T20:11:00.004-04:30

Last week we went to the Luminato festival, which is a festival to celebrate water as something that gives life and to celebrate the diversity in our wonderful city. The festival lasted a week but we went only to the saturday part in the Harbourfront.

They had everything, from places to eat and buy, magic acts, every form of art expression to concerts of different type of music in different areas.

At night, they had a lot of people all over the place playing with fire in different forms.

And had the opportunity of seeing the Fire Rescue boat in action, which we think was one of the best parts! :D

We love this kind of festivals since you can see a lot of things in one place so you can enjoy all the different cultures we have. If you want to see a few more pictures of the festival, feel free to visit my picasa album ;)

Football!

2008-06-19T19:21:00.003-04:30

Hi everyone!! My new laptop arrived yesterday so I'm back and better than ever! Well, don't know about the better than ever, but I'm definitely back :D

A lot of things have happened since the last time I posted, so I'll try to talk about all of them in order so you can know what we've been living and the places we've gone ;)

One of the things I wanted to tell you about are that companies here like to have activities out of the place of work so we can integrate, have fun and know each other better! I really think it's fantastic and hope that all canadians companies do the same.

My first activity with them was football!!

We went to a football field and play for 3 hours! xD And in case you are wondering, we went in working hours ;) which makes it even better! hahaha

I had a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to our next activity :D

Wonderland!

2008-06-08T19:04:00.002-04:30

We've been to Wonderland twice already, so I think it's time that I say something about it ^^ . First of all, the park is fantastic! I don't like rollercoasters but either way I think the park is REALLY fun and I had a great time :D

You can get there using the TTC, the GO or your car, among others! The first time we went using the TTC and takes 1 hour in bus! They don't accept the metropass so you have to pay your complete fare. In car it took around 20 minutes from Yonge & Eglinton and you have to pay $10 for parking; We'll use the GO next time, so wait for that one :)

There are a LOT of rides and you have to pay extra for just a few rides, just be very patient with the waiting times in line, since they can go to up to 90 minutes.

Less posts for a while

2008-06-06T08:37:00.002-04:30

Really fast and short post to let you know that I'll be posting much less for a while since I sold my computer this week, and although I already bought the new one, the shipping estimate is next month!

I'll also be less in your blogs but I won't leave you! And I hope to continue seeing you here :)

Doors Open Toronto - Casa Loma Stables

2008-06-01T08:39:00.002-04:30

Our last stop in Doors Open Toronto was the Stables at Casa Loma. Casa Loma is a castle built in 1914 and can be visited anytime after paying $17 per adult ;) But in Doors Open Toronto you could visit the stables for free :)

Hope you enjoyed our tour of Doors Open Toronto! You can look more photos of all the places here: Picassa Album

Doors Open Toronto - Bay Lower Subway Station

2008-06-01T08:28:00.003-04:30

Another stop in Doors Open Toronto was Bay Lower station! This one is an old subway station that was used by the public before but after they built the new line, this one is not used anymore.

Except for filming movies!! :D Or train the TTC personnel ;)

If you just look at the subway station as another subway station, it doesn't look really impressive but if you read the history and think about it like that, then is more fun!

Doors Open Toronto - Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

2008-05-29T19:40:00.004-04:30

Our third stop in Doors Open Toronto was the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. Let's start first with a picture of just a part of the library:

Now let's tell you a little bit more about those books than what you can already imagine by the name of the library. The books range from 1789 to contemporary and you can even find manuscripts written in 1050! First editions of hundreds of books, and every rare book you can imagine... WOW! It is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G, and do you know how many they have? More than 600.000 volumes!

The library is located at the University of Toronto and is open from monday to friday for those of you that want to see it ;) And you know what? If you really need one of those books, they let you see it up close :D

Doors Open Toronto - Distillery District

2008-05-27T21:05:00.003-04:30

Our second stop in Doors Open Toronto was the Distillery District! The Distillery District is old but beautiful and you can find shops and places to eat all the time.

The district is normally open and you can go see it anytime, but for Doors Open Toronto had 2 special places that you can't normally see.

The first one we went was the Kiln Furnace and Barrel Vaults (Building 36) which is dated to 1863, and has a five barrel vault which they call catacombs and just thinking about the history makes you wonder and imagine everything that happened there.

The second one was the Rack House D (Building 42) and it's the largest Victorian storehouse at the Distillery District. It was designed by David Roberts, Jr. and opened in 1890. It has 6 storeys and could hold up to 15.000 barrels of alcohol. Can you imagine that much alcohol in the same place? Once you go in is easy since you can easily smell it all over the place ;)

More stops in Doors Open Toronto coming soon ;)

Doors Open Toronto - Gooderham Building

2008-05-27T20:44:00.003-04:30

Our first stop in Doors Open Toronto was the Flatiron Building which is really called Gooderham Building. I love this building, its shape is really amazing and something I've never seen before.

It was built in 1892, making it the first flatiron building, and was built by architect David Roberts, Jr. for distiller George Gooderham. Gooderham could see from his window the distillery district and the bank of Toronto, which he owned ;)

It also has a really amazing mural on it's back, for which is also really popular ;)

Now it's a private building with offices, so you can't normally go in without being invited, and that it's why this was an amazing opportunity to see how it looked like inside :D

6 months anniversary

2008-05-27T20:37:00.004-04:30

Today is our 6 months anniversary in Canada, and I wanted to let you all know that we LOVE IT!!! That is more than we wished for and more than I could ever imagine, is a dream come true.

We live great, have cool jobs, we've made friends and we love the city and the country.

I'm home!!

Future events

2008-05-19T08:58:00.002-04:30

Hey, for the first time in my blog I'm letting you know about an event before it happens so you have the opportunity to go if you are in Toronto ^^ This next weekend, May 24 and 25 is the Open Doors Toronto :D

Is an event where more than 140 buildings will open their doors to the public!! Many of buildings are normally open and will have special events but many of them only open their doors in this special event :D So is well worth it to go and see them this weekend! My favourite buildings marked for this event are the rare books library and the subway station in bay ;)

Please come back to my blog after the event and I'll have the pictures of the places I went, so stay tunned! :D By the way, you can see the buildings and their hours of operation here: http://www.toronto.ca/doorsopen/buildings.htm

As an extra, here you have another event on May 31: Pillow fight!!! Yes, in downtown Toronto with everyone that wants to join them ;) The link for more information: http://newmindspace.com/pillowfighttoronto2008.php

TTC - Toronto Transit Commission

2008-05-14T20:42:00.001-04:30

Who can tell me what the TTC is and something different to other transportation systems you have seen? ^^ The TTC is Toronto's transportation system and it has the subway, streetcars and buses. The subway works normally from 6am to 1:30am and almost all the buses 24 hours a day! You can find the schedules here: http://www.toronto.ca/ttc/schedules/index.htm

An easy way to know where a subway entrance is, is finding this great and confusing sign:
Whenever you see that sign, is 100% sure a subway entrance is there, even if you see it in a door to a building, go in, you'll find the subway ;)

This one is one of the places that you can use to go in with a token, a metro pass or using the booth showing a transfer:

This one was new for me, you can only use it if you have a metro pass, just pass it through the machine and push!

Elevators! The subway has elevators, so please, please, please, if you have a stroller use the elevator, if you have any kind of problem to use the stairs or scalators, use the elevator!

Every station has this great help to know where you are going ^^ The station you are in, the next station of you take that train and the last station in that line ;)

And last but not least, a picture of the streetcar :) If you are using a pass or a transfer, just show it and pass, and sometimes you can even go in using the back door if you have one of those ^^

Questions? comments? Or enough information?

A day in my life

2008-05-08T21:40:00.001-04:30

Some time ago a friend of mine ask me to talk about a day in my life in Toronto, and I would like to answer that with a wednesday! ^^ Obviously this is not a typical day in most people lifes, but I'm happy with my days and there is always room for change :)

On wednesdays I wake up at 6am (or at least try to xD), I change to gym clothes and go to the gym in the mall we have downstairs. (I'm skiping details of course :p)

At the gym I start by walking for half an hour while I read a book, then machines, weight lifting or anything else for 15 or 30 minutes more. I come back home, shower, dress while watching the news and have breakfast watching anime :D then I leave to work.

I take the subway and go reading my book while I'm standing (5 stops) and then I seat down and study for my Microsoft certification (8 more stops), so I get to the office around 9am.

At the office I work :p and eat something light for lunch close to the office, then I work some more xD and leave between 5pm and 6pm. I take the subway again, all the way seating down (13 stops) and studying for my certification.

I get home, make dinner, eat, read the anime and immigration forums I visit, as well as all the blogs, answer mails, talk to my family, and watch TV. All this time is fun time that we use to play wii, xbox, computer games or just watch tv ;)

As you see, there is more than enough time to do all the things you like before and after work, it just takes a little effort and organization ;) Of course, this is the life of the married without children!!! hehe

The tales of my life

2008-05-03T20:05:00.005-04:30

What do tales/stories have that steal your heart? Why do we like so much to be inside a book or a movie? Are we running away of our own lifes when we don't want to leave that fantasy world?

To me there is nothing like a good book... it doesn't have to be a bestseller, and it doesn't have to be written by Shakespeare, to me a good book is the one that makes you live their story, the one you don't want to put down and the one that makes it's world yours, a side world where you can live so many things... I can't say is a wonderful world since I'm a horror fan, but it is a magic world.

I love my life, and the wonderful opportunity of living in a country like this, which I could only hope in dreams, but I can't live without a book in my hands, and when it's far away from me I think of them, I think of the characters and what they are doing; I know they are there and the story doesn't continue without me, but I can't avoid to see them as friends, friends that I want to see, live and dream.

My types of book are fantasy, horror and romance, but it has to be a book that will take me deep, if they don't do it in the first 5 pages, they are lost to me, and once I like a book, it becomes my baby; I still remember the books I had to give away before coming here! and I have my arms wide open for the ones I left at home and that soon will be here.

What makes you read a book twice? Have you done it? I have to confess this is my first time, and since it's a manga many would say is not a book, but to me is more than that. When I'm reading and remember what is going to happen next, I get excited thinking "here it comes, I'm so happy!", and when I don't remember and something good happens is a great surprise. I laugh again, I get excited again and my heart starts to beat really fast when the great moments are coming, I'm in love with my books, and this one in particular, fruits basket, I have it in my heart.