It’s our first Halloween here in Canada. If you’re thinking I got the title wrong. Nope, it’s not my baby’s first time, but “My” first time trick or treating. It’s my Baby’s second. When I was a kid, nobody celebrates Halloween, at least in the neighborhood I grew up in but that might be a different story for rich kids. If there’s one thing I’m sure of, we Filipinos look forward to November 1 and 2…
As the saying goes, time really flies when you’re enjoying. Six months ago, we landed in a cold and unfamiliar country called Canada. We’ve been waiting for this since that day in EDSA. We were excited, nervous and to some extent, afraid. Having a job before arriving here somehow alleviates our doubts and fears. Our First Few Weeks in Canada Mainly, our first few weeks in Canada is the getting-to-know stage. We have to finish most of…
Previously I shared about how we got our OHIP and I also talked about getting a family doctor. This is something new to us, or maybe it was called differently in Singapore and in the Philippines but a family doctor as per the settlement.org site are usually the first doctors to diagnose and treat most medical problems. If you need to see a specialist doctor, usually, you need a family doctor to refer you. Family…
Except for the usual asthma attacks when I suffer from cold, I rarely get sick. That’s what I thought before coming to Canada. That’s the reason why we didn’t follow the advice of getting a temporary health insurance while waiting to be covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). Within three months, I had to visit a doctor twice due to staph infection. As to why I’m having it now, I have no idea. One…
It’s my 30th birthday today. I feel old but happy. Time seems to slip very fast after you start working. When you have too many things to do, too many responsibilities to shoulder and too many dreams to fulfill; time really flies. Still, I’m very thankful for all the blessings that God has given me and my family. Looking back, I did accomplish some of my dreams.Who would have thought that I’ll take a graduate degree…
I have been very blessed and of course extremely lucky to have secured a full-time job 3 days before landing in Canada and to add a cherry on top, this job is the same job I have been doing for 8.5 years. It was not easy. I tried applying for jobs even before entering the Express Entry hoping that a Canadian company will take notice of my resume and hopefully offer me a job which will boost up…
After 1.5 years of planning and preparation, we’re here in Canada and it’s really cold. Coming from a very hot summer in the Philippines, you’ll feel the coldness to your bones and it’s not even negative yet. We have to prepare for winter, it’s all that I can think of at that time. We arrived on a Saturday night and spent the whole Sunday resting if you can call it that because we were already awake…
I have 5 more days to go before I start work (I’ll be sharing my experience in another post) and with a lot of things to share, I am using whatever free time I have left to write. April 17, 2016 is our flight date, we’re flying with Philippine Airlines bound for Toronto with a technical stopover in Vancouver. We stayed in a hotel near the airport for easy and hassle free ride to the airport.…
Before flying, we made a checklist on what to bring. This will ensure that we have all the needed documents before we move out of the country. It’s actually not so hard to research since most web sites and blogs have a section on “things to do/bring before landing”. My favorite sites for these kind of research are either canadavisa.com forum or settlement.org. Be sure to bring whatever you think you’ll be needing since it will be…
A week before our landing, after much pondering, I decided to get an LTO Certification with Ribbon so I can drive in Canada under a G2 license without having to undergo G1 (Student License) training and examination. Surprisingly, this process is not too tedious. Overall, even though I’m dealing with two Philippine government agencies, it just took me a total of 35 minutes, which by Philippine government service standards is extremely rare. Anyway, below are…
