Do You Believe In "Happy Endings"?

Yes, We Do!

First and foremost, I am using the word “ending” just because this week we finished our internship and finally completed our MBA Degree! However, even after our graduation, we are going to continue with the blog. So, please follow us next year, we promise to continue sharing nice experiences here.

Do you know why I used the word “happy”? What do you want after graduation? How about a nice job to put into practice everything you have studied in the past months? So… Guess what? I have recently got a job at RBC (Royal Bank of Canada). I am going to start work as an Account Manager on January 9th, 2012. And Renato got a job offer earlier this week from another large financial institution to work as a Personal Banker, now the company is doing the reference checks and all bureaucratic stuff. Competitors living under the same roof!

So we are here to say thank you to everyone who contributed to make the program such a great success!  What a ride! We have a friend who summarized very well this amazing experience. So we make his words our words:  we really did enjoy the MBA program and we are very proud of what we learnt and the friends we made. Awesome skills acquired. Definitely one of the best decisions we have ever made. 

Thanks for following our blog this year… We will be back in full form in January! Renato and I hope that your Christmas will be enjoyable and may the essence of Christmas remains always with you. Season's Greetings!

Get out of Your Shell!

Come on, get out of your own shells!

It is not new to say that Canada is a multicultural country, that is easy to walk for 5 minutes and hear 3, 4, 5 different languages being spoken, and blablabla. That is why Patricia and I were wondering: hey, how do Canadians feel about it? How do Canadians feel about people speaking English with a strong accent, a lot of people coming to live here and “take their jobs”...

Sometimes I think that Canadians try harder to adapt to foreign people than foreign people try to adapt to Canadian way of life! Sorry, but for me it sucks! Come on, we are living on their land!!! If Canada is a safe, developed, and highly organized place to live is because Canadians worked hard to make it. So, I just think foreign people should be more grateful to that and try to adapt themselves to Canada! Personally, I would not feel happy seeing, for example, store signs and restaurant menus in Spanish instead of Portuguese in my country. 

Looking for further information on that, I found that, of course, Canadians are not very happy about the behaviour of some immigrants here. Even though 80% of Canadians agree that “immigration has a positive impact on the economy of Canada” and 73% of Canadians disagree that “immigrants take jobs away from other Canadians”, 66% of Canadians agree that “there are too many immigrants coming into this country who are not adopting Canadian values”. Yes, 66%! Every 2 out of 3 Canadians believe that the immigrants are not adopting the national values (you can find further information on this research on this link for Canada Immigration and Citizenship website: http://goo.gl/vcayO).

I know that some nations have wonderful and rich cultures which are worthwhile to share with the world. But come on!!!! Canada has a beautiful and rich culture too. And that is available to whoever wants to learn it.

Let me give you an example. You are having friends over your home to celebrate Christmas. Then they start to speak a language you cannot understand a single word. Besides, they tell you they are not praying to thank God for everything because that is not what they do on their country! Would you enjoy the meeting? I would not and I would ask: “why did you come here then????????”.

So: come on, get out of your own shells! Catch up with Canadian culture, catch up with Canadian way of life! We are on their place, my friends!!!!!

Thanks for reading!

And the Long Awaited Day Has Arrived!

Last Friday, the temperature began to fall and during last weekend, we have felt, for the first time in our lives, the temperature of -19°C (feels like -25°C) Brrrrrrrr…What a unique experience! Now, it is time to share with you some truths.

First and foremost, your hair can freeze! I went outside with a wet head and…yes, my hair froze. So the first tip (especially for girls) is: you should not go outside with a wet head on a cold day, your hair can freeze causing it to become brittle and could cause damage...

Secondly, it is harder to breathe when it is so cold! It is better to wear a scarf or face mask over the nose and mouth, it can help to warm the air before it enters the lungs. I also prefer to breathe through my nose on these days. 

These were the two things that caught our attention. However, we are not afraid of the cold!  So… with dry hair and face masks, on Saturday afternoon, we walked in downtown Calgary and we were impressed with how many people went outside! 

As soon as we arrived at home, we open the door of your balcony and something really funny happened! We could not resist the opportunity to record a funny video! Check this out: here is what happens when you open the door of your balcony when thermometers are showing -19 °C with wind chill of -25 °C! The video is in Portuguese, but you can understand anyway! I am pretty sure! 

Sunday was also cold, but sunny! OMG! What a wonderful day! So I said to Renato: We should go outside and play. Of course he accepted the invitation! We took our snow sleds, we went to Confederation Park and we were in heaven. It was so much fun to go down the mountain at the park! You can check our pictures and some videos.
When you have a chance, please remember or enjoy for the first time the simple joy of speeding down the hill, wind whipping your hair. Thanks for reading! Stay warm!

Trick or Treats?

Trick or treats?

Last year was the first time Patricia and I spent a Halloween in North America. And this October 31st was the first year we spent our Halloween working, which was a different experience.

In Nanaimo, we were very impressed because people are very excited about the Halloween and houses are very well decorated, which is very different from our reality in South America.

In Brazil, there are, generally, some isolated Halloween parties happening, normally sponsored by English schools. But no big deal, no kids asking for treats. Also, in the companies, nobody cares about the Halloween.

Here, it is an important festivity, like we used to see in the movies. So even in the workplace people enjoyed the festivity, offices are decorated with carved pumpkins, scary masks, well designed cobwebs…  In my work, I could see so many people dressed up for the Halloween!! That was a shock; I was not expecting to see people wearing black dresses, masks and so on… The weirdest part for me was when I was going back to the office after lunch. I was walking after a lady whose black hair was a complete mess. I started to think “wow, this is messy, this is horrible”. But things got better when I saw a spider (a fake spider I hope) climbing her hair. Yeah, things got better because I realized that her hair was a fake one (hopefully).

Well, it took some time for me to get used to the Halloween environment, but I think I got it. Next time I see spiders climbing ladies hairs I will be fine!

And we did enjoy seeing the kids dressed up walking around asking for treats. Unfortunately, because we live in a building with no kids, nobody showed up here saying “trick or treat?”. Or, well, maybe fortunately because we did not have treats in our house!!

We had fun in our second Halloween and we are looking forward to the next one. And, who knows, maybe next year Patricia and I will go outside, knock on neighbours’ houses, and try to get some treats.


Thanks for reading!

The Weather in Calgary – Part 1

Our week forecast: chilly and sunny

The title of this post is The Weather in Calgary – Part 1 because, for sure, we are going to write some posts about the weather here. Coming up: Part 2, 3, 4 etc…

As soon as we decided to move here, we started to hear everybody's opinions about the weather in Calgary. Yes, everybody has something to say about the weather here. We have heard thinks like: “Calgary has only one month of nice weather during the whole year”; “in Calgary, it can snow even during the summer”; “everybody has a truck in Calgary, because there is too much snow”; “it is cold but sunny there”, and other thoughts.

Well, we are not experts about Calgaryan weather. However, after 2 months living here, we can share some thoughts about it.

First of all, the weather has been nice since we arrived, so it is not true that Calgary has only one month of nice weather during the whole year. We can guarantee at least 2 months! LOL!

Regarding the snow during the summertime, we talked with some Calgaryans about snow falling in July. That is true, some friends, who live here for a while, confirmed this fact. But when it happens, it is just for one or two days: the temperature drops, it snows, and after some days, it is 30°C again.

Everybody has a truck in Calgary? Come on… It is pretty common to use the public transportation, especially to go to downtown. Today Calgary is the second most expensive city to park in North America, behind New York City. And we heard that when it snows, more people take public transportation, because they do not feel safe to drive with snow. Let’s wait and see… The good point is that bus stops are completely covered, which makes it more comfortable to wait for the bus during the wintertime.

Yes, we have sun! That is so true. In two months, it rained only four days. After living in Nanaimo for 14 months, this is a reason to celebrate.

And finally, of course here is colder than in Vancouver Island. In the last weeks, in the morning (when we are going to work) it is always O°C; and in the evening (when we are going home) it is around 13°C. According to forecasts this week will be colder!  However, as it is not humid here, O°C and even -3°C in the morning is not so bad. The same temperature in Nanaimo feels like colder!

So, this is our first weather update.  Snow is coming, so the post The Weather in Calgary – Part 2 will be published soon. Thanks for reading and have a great week.

Different Thanksgiving Meal!

Our delicious Thanksgiving meal

You may remember that last year, we had our first Thanksgiving dinner here in Canada at our friends Karl and Mariel’s place, in Nanaimo. We had a great time talking with Karl’s family, listening to good music, and eating turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, pumpkin pie with ice cream… Wow! Canadians have a great way to thank God!!

Well, from that day until this weekend so many things happened as you guys have seen by reading our posts. So many good things and some tough moments which made us stronger. To summarize: Patricia and I had very good reasons to thank God again for 12 amazing months. A Thanksgiving dinner would be perfect, but we changed our minds and we thought that could be even better if we had a Brazilian lunch to celebrate.

That is what we did! We went to a Brazilian “churrascaria”, which is a restaurant which serves barbecue, the real Brazilian barbecue. Well, we can tell you that we had a very good time there and I will tell you why. The Brazilian “churrascaria” normally works this way: you have a table with some salads, rice, potatoes, polenta, beans, and stuff like that and you also have waiters who keep bringing you fresh meat until the moment you say something like “please stop, for God sakes, I am so stuffed!!”. At the “churrascaria” where we went to this weekend, they had 11 different meat types and, wow, we ate a lot. We have never been in a “churrascaria” here in Canada, so we were really missing the Brazilian barbecue. After that lunch, we walked for a while and had a quick nap to help our poor digestive systems, but it was really worthwhile!      

Very good way to thank God for everything He has given us and a good way to ask Him to help us out here in our path in Canada!

And since our digestive systems are still working on the Brazilian lunch that we had this weekend, Patricia and I also enjoyed this beautiful fall weekend with a walk at Confederation Park, a breathtaking place right in the back of our place. Check these pics out and let us know if this is not a breathtaking place. We hope you readers enjoyed the photos and also your Thanksgiving weekend!

God bless you all!!! Thanks for reading and see you soon!

To Flame or not to Flame, That is The Question!

Flames 4 - 2 Coyotes

This week, after one and a half year living in Canada, we had the opportunity to watch our first NHL game. A supplier of TVI (the company that Patricia is working for) gave the company two tickets  for a pre-season game, where the Calgary Flames would face the Phoenix Coyotes, in Calgary. And Patricia's boss asked here if she would like to go to the game! Of course! 

When we first publicly mentioned that we would watch the Flames against the Coyotes, the controversies started among us and our friends… They said: how can you guys switch from the Canucks to the Flames in just a blink of an eye!? You bandwagon jumpers, you gypsy horses…

What our angry friends did not understand is that Patricia and I were only picking a second favourite team. Now Patricia has the Flames as her second favourite team and I have the Canucks as my second favourite team!! 

We had some fun answering those “accusations” on Facebook and went to the game! When we dropped off the train and saw the arena, we could only think “wow, what an arena… beautiful”. So, we had our dinner and got into the stadium to watch the game! You can see some pictures here. 

Patricia and I, then, started to look for our seats and when we finally found those, we got so excited. We would watch the game so close to the ice… About three metres away from the ice! Unbelievable!! The game was perfect: Flames defeated the Coyotes (4-2), we saw former Canucks player Raffi Torres so close, we had so much fun that night… 

So, yes, the Flames are my new favourite team. And it’s not only because of that game, but also because of the way Calgary has welcomed us and because of the way Calgarians have embraced us… I feel like I am here for a long time. Calgary and Calgarians are treating us very well and taking care of us like Nanaimo and Nanaimoites did. 

You know, people say that I cannot cheer on the Canucks and on the Flames at the same time, but I will! I am now a Flames fan, but I still love the Canucks because of all the good moments that Luongo and company,  Nanaimo, and BC provided me! I know that cheering on the Flames and on the Canucks at the same time is like cheering on Brazil and Argentina at the same time, but… I will try!

Thanks for reading! See you!  

Our First Month Here

Calgary Tower and our amazing blue sky!

Last week, on Tuesday (September 20^th) we completed one month in Calgary. Yes, time flies… It has been one month already.

As everyone who follows our blog knows, in Nanaimo, we met special people who helped us and made our journey even nicer. So, in the beginning we were anxious to know if the same would happen here, since we were moving to a larger city in a different province.

It was a pleasant surprise to meet great people here as well; everyone has been so kind and friendly. The person who (along with his fiancée) welcomed us here and hosted us at his house for a week is a friend of a friend. It means: we have not met one another in person until we arrived here in August! We met them in the Calgary Airport. Nevertheless they did everything they could to make us feel comfortable at their house! A very special thank you to Alexx and Geneviève for the perfect welcome to Calgary!

My internship mentor also was so nice. She (together with her husband) invited Renato and I for a delicious dinner at the Calgary Tower Restaurant as soon as we arrived here. It was a night of good chat, good food, and good fun. Another very special welcome to Calgary!

For us Nanaimo is, for sure, the most beautiful city we lived in. We always asked ourselves: will we like Calgary the same way we like Nanaimo? Will the city be beautiful? Will we find a cozy home? 

Well, the answers are “yes” for all the questions! Our second pleasant surprise was to discover the beautiful city of Calgary! Calgary is full of historical and contemporary attractions.  It is possible to step back in time by visiting the blacksmith shop or riding the steam locomotive to get a taste of what Calgary was like 100 years ago, and it is also possible to be impressed by the modern architecture of the buildings in downtown. The Bow River flows through the city of Calgary, which makes the city even more beautiful. You can check out some pictures here! 

Besides, we found a cool home in less than one week. Thank God! And thanks again to our patient friend Alexx who helped us a lot! We are living near downtown, Renato and I are taking the bus to work and we both get on our offices in less than 30 minutes! You can see our home sweet home here!

Now we are anxiously waiting for the real Canadian winter! People are saying that we will likely have some snow by Halloween! Yes…by Halloween! Since we arrived here, however, the weather has been amazing; warm; very sunny; but a bit cold at night! The temperature ranges a lot during the day. When we are going to work at 7:30am, it is common to see the thermometer showing the temperature of 5°C, and at the same day, when we are going back home at 4:30pm, it is 27°C! Just like that...

Last but not least, just to let you know that we have forgotten what is rain! It rained only two days since we are here! Please do not be mad with us, but this is true! We are missing Nanaimo, our BC friends and VIU, but not that annoying rain that falls “just” nine months of the year! LOL!

Thanks for reading! See you!  

Let’s Have Some Fun…

One of the most unforgettable place in my life…Lake Louise!

Hey guys, here we are again! As everybody knows we are working hard since June 2010 and there has been no time for fun! Last weekend, however, was different! We had a really special weekend visiting the Alberta Rocky Mountains area. And the best part was that we were not alone, a couple of friends from Brazil came to visit us here: Gabriela and Fabricio!

I felt comfortable to say that the region is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. On Friday at 6pm we are already in Banff National Park. The park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it is so close to our new city! Banff is about 90 minutes west of Calgary and the trip is beautiful! This is one of the coolest things about living in Calgary… You can reach the mountains at 6pm every Friday if you want!

Banff is a very charming town, only four square kilometres, bordered on all sides by wilderness! The town is a service centre for park visitors and offers everything from nice accommodation, dining, lively nightlife to shopping etc. On Friday we only had dinner and drink some wine in our hotel room!

Saturday morning we decided to go to Lake Louise! Oh My God… The place is hard to describe, in two words, I would say: breathtaking scenery! The emerald waters of Lake Louise is probably the most beloved and most photographed scene in the Canadian Rockies. I have some friends that already visited Lake Louise, and I had seen their pictures, so I already had an idea about how beautiful the place would be, but when I arrived there I was impressed with such beauty that only nature can create. We spent a couple hours looking at Lake Louise! We walked a three-km trail towards the end of the lake. It was amazing. 

After that, a scenic drive took us to the awe-inspiring Moraine Lake. The lake is far quieter (so it is also more intimate) than its famous neighbour Lake Louise. Despite its name, Moraine Lake was formed by a rockfall, not a moraine. And just out of curiosity, during our trip, we figured out that the mountains once appeared on the back of Canada’s $20 bill. 

At the end of the day, time to relax at Banff Upper Hot Springs. The hot pool (it was 39°C on Saturday) is outdoor, so while we were in the pool, we could look across the valley to Mount Rundle. So nice…

You can check our pictures from Lake Louise, Moraine Lake and Banff Upper Hot Springs here!

The day before was so intense, so on Sunday we decided to stay in Banff. We decided to walk to the Bow Falls Trail. The path leads right past the Bow River, so we had all the time a beautiful view over the water. Before going back to Calgary, we stopped at Lake Minnewanka and we figured out that the average water temperature is 4°C! Do you wanna swim? You better stay right there, eh! It was very windy and we had fun taking some pictures! Check it out!

What an amazing weekend we had! Hope you have enjoyed the reading! See you!

New Life in Alberta

After the ferry, the buses, and the train, we deserved a beer with our friend Gustavo at his place in Richmond…

After a long time, here we go again. Sorry for the “postless” time, but the last few weeks were very tough for us…Everything started with two finance exams in the first week of August. We wrote the CIFC (Canadian Investment Funds Course) accreditation exam. This accreditation is from Investment Funds Institute of Canada and, if you pass, you are allowed to be sponsored by a Canadian financial institution to sell mutual funds in the country.

After that we still had an international finance exam… Hard course and hard exam, but I have very good memories from this course and from Professor Charles Schell, who taught us something that no other teacher could teach me in 30 years: the meaning of liffe. Yeah, he taught us the real meaning of LIFFE: London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange! J This is such a nerd comment, but I have to say that I had a good time on Charles’s classes and I will miss those…    

Upon passing on both exams and making our last shifts in our part-time job on a grocery store in Nanaimo, Patricia and I had another mission: move to Calgary!! Our first plan was: rent a big car, take all our stuff, drive to Calgary, store the stuff, and look for an apartment. However, this would be very expensive and, then, we changed our minds. The new plan: sell the furniture, give away some stuff, try to put our lives in four suitcases, and fly to Calgary!! Patricia suggested posting our furniture at Kijiji.ca. It worked: we quickly sold almost everything and made some money for our trip. Then, we had to shrink our suitcases: we brought 128 kilos of stuff from Sao Paulo to Nanaimo in June 2010. Now, we had to turn that into 92 kilos… It was very hard, we left some stuff in Nanaimo, more stuff in Vancouver, and then we got it! Ready to go to Calgary in the very last minute!

So, after walking a lot, taking a few buses, one ferry, some train rides, a taxi ride, one flight, and a very comfortable car ride, we could finally rest for a while in a friend’s home in beautiful Calgary. By the way, we have not met this friend of us until we arrived in Calgary. He is, actually, a friend of a friend of us who lives in Brazil. Got it? Even though he has not met us in person before we come, he and his pregnant wife took care of us for our first days in Calgary until we find a place to live. They (Alexx and Geneviève) definitely took care of us and we are very thankful for the perfect welcome we have received here in Calgary. What a good start… We cannot complain about anything.

I will let Patricia tell you about our first days here in Calgary in the next post, OK? Banff, football game, 6 degrees in the summer…  But before I go, I wanted to thank Nanaimo for everything we have lived there… Thanks a lot, Harbour City! Do not be jealous about Calgary, because we love you!

See you soon guys!

Similarities & Differences between Canada & United States

Crossed Flag Pins USA-Canada

It has been a while that I want to write a post about the similarities and differences between Canada and the United States. Before arriving here, I used to think that Canada and USA were pretty similar, mainly because of the British heritage and the proximity between the two countries. 

At least for me, when I figured out that celebrities like James Cameron, Bryan Adams, Avril Lavigne, Ryan Reynolds, Jim Carrey are Canadians, I always thought: Oh my God! Really? I thought s/he was American.

I listed some differences that I noticed since I am here. One: the government policy for immigration is considerable different. It is much easier to immigrate to Canada than to the US. It is possible to see, even in a small city like Nanaimo, an expressive number of immigrants who live here legally, paying their taxes and working hard to boost the economy of the country.

Another big difference is Canada´s connection to the British monarchy. USA did not keep the Queen and the connection to the monarchy and Commonwealth.

Besides, it is impossible to write about Canada and USA and do not mention the health care. The majority of the Canadians are proud of their health care system. Even Justin Bieber (yes... Justin Bieber, I cannot believe that I am quoting him) already expressed his thought about it. In an interview to Rolling Stone magazine, Bieber weighed in on the US health care system. He mentioned: “You guys are evil. Canada's the best country in the world. We go to the doctor and we don't need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you're broke because of medical bills.”

Everybody knows that both nations predominantly speak English, but if you ask a Canadian to say words like ABOUT or HOUSE , it is easy to notice a different accent. It is funny for us... We have some professors that are sooooooooo Canadians when they say those words. And: pay attention! Here, we do not write harbor, Nanaimo is the harbour city! There is not bad behavior... The right way is bad behaviuor...

One difference more: if you are speaking with someone that you do not know if it is a American or a Canadian, just start to count how many times this person says the words: sorry and thanks! If he or she says those words too much, certainly, they are legitimate Canadians.

To finish this post, of course I need to mention that Canadians play hockey better than Americans do. I am so sorry for my American friends, but since Canada beat United States to seal ice hockey gold in Vancouver Winter Games, I can write that! I have a Canadian friend that told me once: “there are two things that Canadians do better than the rest of the world: play hockey and complain about the weather”.

I am sure that Americans (even the US population who lives along the border) do not complain about the weather like Canadians. Oh my God! They talk about the weather during all seasons! Now it is summer time, so they are happy! In the summer, every time you are in the elevator, your neighbour will look at you and say: “Nice day, eh?” By the way, this "eh" is really Canadian. In USA, probably you are going to hear: “Nice day, huh?!” Anyway, if the day is nice they are happy and do not complain!

Hope you have enjoyed the reading! See you!

Some (Weird) Thoughts

"I'm with the skater boy...I said see you later boy...I'll be backstage after the show"

Hey everybody, first of all, we would like to say sorry for last week, when we did not post anything… One assignment due last week made us use more time than we were predicting!

But let’s come back to the topic of the week: I am more than sure than an MBA program makes us smarter. Actually, veeeeery smarter. Seriously, this is an unbelievable program. Hard workload, but it is definitely worthwhile. However, the MBAs eventually drive their students crazy. I have been going through some weird thoughts since the beginning of the program. 

For example, today, while I was commuting to my job I was thinking about what I could do during my break. However, my thoughts suddenly went to soccer. After some minutes, my thought went away from soccer to another thing that I love: music. Upon those two moments, some thoughts about the Canadian workplace came along and joined the other previous thoughts. Weird, eh… And then I started thinking that those sudden changes in my mind were not accidental. I mean, they could have happened because my mind was trying to tell me that I can join soccer, music, and job somehow. Yes!! This is the moment to be innovative and have some innovative ideas and stand out in the workplace in the near future! 

Upon that, first thing that my came up to my head: wow, I can be innovative when presenting the results of a project. Instead of boring PPT presentations, why not taking the computer with the presentation and hit it down to the ground and break it completely and yell "woohoo"! Well, that is what some rock stars do after performing a good song. And that works for them: the public in general yells together with the rockstars and when the concert is over, everybody says that that was a success! So, why not to smash the computer?

Hmmm, OK, OK, I have to acknowledge that maybe that would not be suitable in a meeting room. However, my thoughts did not give up and keep moving on. And that is why I have another insight: well, maybe music and workplace does not match well, but soccer does! So, I thought about a way to deliver an animated presentation and my crazy mind brought up another idea: in Brazil, soccer players use to celebrate scored goals by showing some message in a t-shirt that they are using underneath the team jersey. They deliver messages such as “God loves you” and “100% Sao Paulo” (this second message tries to say that the player loves Sao Paulo too much). So, I thought that it could be a good idea to do something like that to animate a boring presentation about the company’s financials. During the presentation I could pull up my t-shirt and show messages like “Shareholders: company XYZ loves you!”, “100% net income”, or “0% losses”... Who knows, that could work! 

OK, only one more thought that I would like to share with you to know what you think about: in Brazil, players use to play some samba songs when they are commuting to the stadium. What if, the CEO, the CFO, and the COO of the company, during their flight to the investor annual meeting, sing some Bryan Adams, Avril Lavigne, Neil Young, or Simple Plan songs to be more relaxed at the meeting? I can imagine the CEO and the CFO doing a duet singing Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boy”…      

Well, I would love to hear other ideas about this! In the future, when I apply those ideas in the workplace and give you the credits for those!! 

Thanks for reading all those crazy ideas! I told you that MBA drives us nuts… Anyways, we see you next week!

The Things We Have Missed

Sao Paulo pleasant traffic!

Like Patrícia wrote on the previous post, a year ago we arrived in Canada! Yeah, time flies... Of course we miss a whole bunch of people like our parents, our brothers, our first niece, our friends, our dogs (yes, they are like human in my opinion)… Classic, eh! And believe it or not, we miss our in-laws too!

But besides the people we miss, there are some “things” that we miss. It may sound weird, but I miss a real rain. Yes, I miss exactly what you have just read: a “real rain”. Come on, Nanaimo’s daily rain is not a real rain. Where are the thunders? And what about the lightning? I really miss those things. People from Nanaimo may not know, but, even though, pouring rains are scary, they produce one of the best melodies for you to sleep. It is true: a pouring rain at night has a great somniferous effect! But I have to acknowledge that a pouring rain in the rush hour is not nice. Especially when you live in Sao Paulo… In January and February it rains hard almost every day down there around 6pm. The problem is that this is the time for everybody to take off their jobs and go home, so: traffic is a mess. It was common for me to leave the bus and walk some kilometres to get home because cars and buses were simply stuck due to the flooded streets or because of some fallen trees in the middle of the way. Well, definitely I do not miss pouring rains in the rush hour! 

Back to the things we miss. I know that is obvious, but we miss our beaches with sand, warm temperatures, and warm water!!! Canadians can say there are sand beaches here and somewhat warm temperatures in some places in the summer. But, if a Canadian tells me that there is a beach with warm water, I will not believe! So, when Patrícia and I have our first vacations here we will fly down to the US or to Central America to relax and dive in warm waters. 

Besides the thunders, lightning, pouring rains, beaches with warm waters, there are other things that we have not seen here and that we do not miss at all, such as: air pollution, messy traffic, social inequality, cars drivers that do not respect pedestrian crossing the streets, and… cockroaches. I think Canada also has cockroaches. I run a quick research and found this. So: if Canada’s Government is concerned about the cockroaches maybe they are here. But we have never seen them in Nanaimo, what is good for us!

Well, that is all for today! Have a good week and see you soon!   

One Year in Canada

The two flags have been with us since the beginning...

June 20, 2010. While our friends were celebrating a 3-1 Brazil's victory over Ivory Coast at World Cup 2010, we went to Guarulhos International Airport. Tears falling from our eyes when we said goodbye to our families, 128kg checked baggage limit, and a lot of anxiety regarding what we would face in Canada.

A year ago we arrived in Canada. Certainly this year abroad was the most intense year of our lives. The balance could not be more positive. Everything has been going fine up to now (despite the Canucks' loss to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final). We rented a nice apartment as soon as we arrived here; we discovered how to use bike as a transportation (under the sun, rain, snow...whatever); we went back to our "student life" and counted every single penny spent, we prepared our first Christmas turkey (away from home); we saw the snow falling; just three weeks after getting our Work Permit Visa, we found two jobs (one on-campus and other off-campus), we made friends from all around the world, and we have been studying, studying, studying!  

We were positively impressed by the high level of the education in Canada. We are studying so hard like we have never studied before!

Today we understand why almost no one who attends the program works at the same time. We do not have time for anything else. We sleep (less than 8 hours a day), we work 25 hours per week, we attend classes, we work in several assignments, and we study for the quizzes, mid-terms, and final exams. After this year, we can say: we are tired! We want our Hawaii vacations! But, on the other hand, we are so happy with everything and there are a lot of surprises happening that give us a boost of energy! All the time, we realized that we are on the right track. 

The good news that happened recently was the fact that we have found great companies to do our internships! To finish the program a four-month internship is mandatory. 

So we thought about what we wanted to do after graduation and we chose the companies that we would like to work for. And... guess what? We both just got the "internship of our dreams"! We are very happy with the quick response of the companies and with the availability of our future bosses!

Of course the city we chose to work “helped” us. While everyone wants to live in Vancouver because of the proximity to the sea and the better weather during the winter months, we will re-start our life in Calgary, Alberta. The province of Alberta is the richest in Canada because of the huge oil reserves discovered in the early 1950s. The winter is severe though. In other words, many job opportunities and few resources available. That is what everybody says! Let's see... Calgary: here we go! Now we are going to live in the real Canadian winter.

We are moving in August. Now, a new cycle of anxiety starts. A different province, a different and larger city (Calgary has 1 million people), a life under - 40° C, working in different areas of expertise. I am going to work in the Investor Relations area for a mining company: TVI Pacific. Renato is going to work in a well-known university (in the International Centre) in a project to bring more Latin American students to the school: SAIT Polytechnic.

To sum up, we are very happy, especially because Renato and I worked on this Canadian project together and, so far, everything is going pretty well for both. It could not be better. See you!

What can you Buy with a Dollar?

Take care of your Loonie

As everybody knows the purchase power is something relative, it depends of a lot of factors and, mainly, it is related to how much you can earn “selling your labor force”. We also know that everybody likes to say: “Oh! The cost of living is increasing! The price of everything is getting more and more expensive”. But for us, almost everything here is much cheaper in comparison to Sao Paulo, the city we lived in Brazil. 

There are three things here that are complete different for us. First, the coupons to save money! We do not have coupons to clip in Brazil and here we love it! Every week we check at the newspaper to see how we can save our precious money! This weekend I used a coupon and get 5 dollars OFF to buy three bottles of shampoo! Without the coupon I would pay $11.31 and I paid $6.311! Good deal, eh!?! 

The second is the promotions. Here the promotions are really promotions! This weekend we also bought a 2 liter bottle of Coke for $1.09, and the regular price is in general $2.38. It is also pretty common to find some products with a label “Quick Sale (50% off regular price)” and the other one is “Pay One, Get Two”! Of course, we loved all types of promotion!

Last but not least: it is possible to buy something with one dollar. For example, fruits: more than one pound of banana or apple; vegetables: more than one pound of cabbage, eggplant or yucca; canned fruits and vegetable; two liters of soda; donuts; danishes, cookies, etc, etc, etc… I can guarantee that the list is pretty big! 

Our summer semester ends next week so we have no time for anything, no time for spending one dollar! LOL So the blog post will be short tonight… but we have cool news, and  we will share them soon! See you soon!

Nouvellement Marié, Nouvellement Immatriculés

Brand names in English: President's Choice® and no name® 

Brand names in French: le Choix du President® and sans nom®…

One of the things that I really love about Canada is the fact that the country has two official languages. I do not know why I like that, but I really do it. Maybe because it is so fancy J! Or because in my opinion it is very cool to see two different nations living relatively harmonically within a country like it happens here in Canada with Quebecois and the other Canadians.

I think that it is fair enough to have the anthem in French and English (the French version is better than the English one in my opinion, by the way), it is also fair enough that the politicians in campaign have to debate their ideas in English and French, it is also fair enough to provide general information to the population in English and French. Quebecois people have the right to receive the same information that English speaker Canadians receive.

However (there is always a “however”), some things are so weird… Example: some brands have their name in English and French!! Whaaaaaaaat? Yeah, unbelievable, at least for me! I can imagine some marketing teachers crying, having horrible nightmares, or in more extreme cases, trying to kill themselves when they see stuff like that. Well, at least brand managers can make more money here in Canada than in any other country in the world. Of course they can: if I were a brand manager here I would ask my company to double my salary.

For me, having two brand names is like having two names: one in English and another one in French. So, if my name is Peter in any country, when I am here in Canada you can call me Peter-Pierre. If you are John in your country of origin, you would be John-Jean in Canada and so on.

Hmmm, now that I am thinking about this, I think that maybe I am in trouble… My last name “Coelho” means “rabbit”, in English. So, in this case, as long as I am in Canada, should I change my last name to “Coelho-Rabbit-Lapin”? I will think about that…Rendez-vous la semaine prochaine!

Fifteen Degrees, Haunted Houses, etc

OK, Vancouver looks good, but what is going on with the prices of the houses???

Next month we are going to complete one year in Canada. It has been interesting and weird to notice how our parameters have changed over this period here.

Moving from Brazil to Canada resulted on a big change on our temperature parameter first of all. In our home country, when it was 15 degrees, we used to think “oh my God, it is getting cold, let’s take a movie and stay in home”. Now, if it is 15 degrees, we celebrate “whoohoo, let’s wear our shorts, sandal and go outside to have some fun”.

In Brazil, when we saw an apartment for sale for CAD 150,000 we imagined “wow, this must be a really really good one, this is for rich people, not for us”, especially when we put the ridiculous Brazilian interest rates into the account… No way! Here, if we see a house for sale for CAD 150,000, we use to think “hmmm, there is something wrong with this house: leaks, weird neighbours, haunted house, whatever”. Houses here are a way more expensive than in Brazil, especially in Southern BC: totally out of our league! Vancouver? What is going on with that city? Is there any gold mine or an oil reserve underneath?

Our parameters also changed in regards to sports. When we were in Brazil, it was impossible to imagine Sunday and Wednesday without watching a soccer game. Now, I am sad because the 2010-2011 hockey season is heading to its end and I will not have any single game to watch over the weeks… Our Moroccan friend Ali Bouharrak cannot believe that Brazilian guys are comparing the excitement of a soccer game to the excitement of a hockey game!

Clothes? Electronic stuff? Food? Here we have all of those much cheaper than in Brazil. We use to spend twice more money in food than we spend here! And now we understand why, in Brazil, a job opportunity to make CAD 3,000/month would not be so good and why, in Canada, a job opportunity to make that amount would be good. With that and with all the economic background that professors Daniel Simons, Rosmy Jean Louis, and Raimo Martalla provided us, it has been impossible not to think about the huge differences between Canada and Brazil in regards to income distribution. But, well, this is a big topic and we can talk about that on another post in the near future!

See you soon!

Banks in Canada... Weird!

Look at this: it is like a cheque to play Monopoly…

There are a lot of things here that make us proud to live in Canada. We thought: WOW! Now are really in a developed country. But there are some things that are on the list "we expected more" (LOL), and among these things are the Canadian banks. 

Of course customer services are really good and there is not a metal detector to stop us when we are in a hurry. Here some customers go the bank with their pets and this is normal! It is not necessary to wait for a long time in line, since customers are always served quickly.

But there is one thing that for us was “really weird”.  The first time we received our mobile phone bill to pay the due date was day 25^th. But in the same bill it was written this message: please pay by 16^th.  Whaaaat? Nine days before the due date? When we tried to understand that, the company explained us that it is better to pay in advance to avoid problems with payment processing. Ok, no problems!

Another note: if you are not a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident here, it is not quite simple to get a credit card, even if you have a work permit visa and make good money. Here it is not enough. Everybody who wants can have a credit card, but it is necessary to open an account named GIC and put in an amount of money, like a guarantee. This amount is, in general, the same of the card’s limit.

Cheques here in Canada also deserve a paragraph. For us, the cheques here are like toys, like the cheques used to play Monopoly. Here, to receive a job payment, to receive reimbursement from the health insurance company, or even to receive the refund of income tax from the government, if the person wants, it is possible to receive a cheque at home. The company and the government can send by mail. If you like this idea, that is OK, but I prefer a direct deposit in my bank account. But it is not so easy to get paid directly in the bank account! In Brazil, if you want to get paid that way, you just need to write down you bank data in a piece of paper and hand to the company or whatever. In Canada, it is necessary to go to the bank branch and ask for a document called VOID with all the bank information and hand this paper to the company or the government. But it is necessary to do it just once. Better than wait the post office bring our money, eh?

Despite the oddities we are proud customers of our Canadian bank, even more because we never paid a penny to keep our account there. See you soon!
 

We are Back!

It is Nice to be Back! 

Welcome back, dear readers! First of all, we would like to apologize for the long time without updating our blog. As everybody probably knows, we had a five week strike here at VIU, and during this time we decided not to write. When the strike ended, oh… When the strike ended, we did not have time for anything!

The semester was over last Friday (and we are alive, thank God!) and the new one will start tomorrow, May 2nd. But since we received some messages from international students with concerns about VIU and the strike, we would like to restart with the blog, sharing our experience related to this. 

First of all, when you grow up in a third world country, you use to deal with strikes at high school, university, public transportation, health services, security services, etc. But when you decide to study in a first world country, like Canada, and pay for your education, you probably do not expect a strike. But things like this can happen everywhere. We figured out that other well-known universities in Canada, like Dalhousie University and York University, already dealt with it recently.

In comparison to other strikes we had in Brazil, we can say that VIU was better prepared to keep students informed; updates were posted on a regular basis at the university website. In Brazil, on the other hand, the two sides involved in the strike use to have some open meetings, which is good for us to understand better what is going on. Here, it seemed that both parties were disconnected and that nobody was trying their best to find a solution considering us: the students.

When the strike ended on April 10th, one thing was really interesting. It was a Sunday night and almost all the professors e-mailed us explaining what would happen with the course schedules. Also, it was nice to see that the professors were really happy to be back.

Another difference that we noted here: in Brazil, it does not matter how long the strike takes, the semester is extended anyway, according to the length of the strike. Here it was different: the strike lasted 5 weeks and we finished the semester in 3 weeks. It was hard! But, again, our professors were really helpful; they considered the whole situation and made adjustments in the original course outlines. We were really sorry for missing some classes, like Michael O´Shea’s, who was the best one this semester in our opinion. We should have 4 classes more with him, he will cover really important materials, but, because of the situation, we had only 1 class more.

However, there are some situations in which there is nothing else you can do, just try to do your best! That was what we did in the last 3 weeks. Oh, besides, we have worked 20 hours per week too... Those were crazy days and we are still so tired. Renato has just turned 30 working on a hard finance project. But tomorrow will be another day, with a new semester and a lot of things to be learned. We are excited for being back to class and for being back to the blog writing in a weekly basis again! Happy new semester everyone! Let´s keep in touch again!

Working in Canada…



Our experience working in Canada

 This post was written for international students who are thinking about study at VIU and are concerned about how is the job market for international students in Nanaimo.  Since mid-January, Renato and I are working on-campus and since mid-February we also started to work off-campus, so we had both experiences to share with you guys!

First of all, during your first six months here, you cannot work off-campus, only at VIU.  At the website https://career.viu.ca/ , the university discloses both, on-campus and off-campus, job opportunities.   It is not necessary a visa to work at VIU.

For us, it has being an amazing experience to work on-campus, especially because we are working on something related to our background. Renato and I are developing and implementing a social media strategy for the MBA program.  You can check it out: became a VIU MBA fan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/viumba; follow VIU MBA on Twitter http://twitter.com/viumba; and also check the MBA Experience collaborative blog http://viumbaexperience.wordpress.com/.

After six months studying in Canada, you can apply to get a work permit, which allows you to work 20 hours off- campus.  The process for us was really quick, in less than 3 weeks we got our off-campus work permit.  You can do everything online at the Government website; everything is really simple and clear. After starting your process at the website, the second step is to get VIU´s “approval” for the visa, and to get this, it is mandatory to have good marks in your previous semester. 

After we got our off-campus work permit, Renato and I started to look for some a part time job. Mainly jobs that we could work on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; not to undertake our studies during the weekdays. Less than a month later, another pleasant surprise that Canada gave us! We got a job, yes…we got a job…we got the same job, actually!

We are working as Professional Interceptors in a large department store to promote a credit card. As our supervisor said, our job is “walking and talking”. We were impressed with the friendliness of the majority people that we are approaching. In general, almost everybody has been really nice with us and we are also doing well with our sales!  The other good news: Working 15 hours per week off-campus, plus 5 hours per week in at VIU, we are earning enough to live here, to cover all our expenses. Of course we do not spend a lot! But it is really possible to live here working 20 hours per week if you share your expenses with someone else!

We also need to organize better our time for studying and working at the same time, but it's not impossible! Time flies ... and self-organization is fundamental.

But we really recommend this experience outside the school. We are here also to know this country culture and the Canadians; and the best way to do this is working! 

 Now I need to go. I already wrote a lot. Now it is time to relax a little bit and go to the bed. I woke up at 7am, worked from 9am to 4pm, finished one assignment for Wednesday and also prepared the dinner!  After all, besides studying and working and am also a wife! Keep The Fire Burning...and Have a Good Week!

Becoming Famous – Part II

Patricia and myself at Nanaimo Hall of Fame

After our appearance in the Nanaimo Daily News, our way to Nanaimo Hall of Fame continued!!! People First Radio  invited us to talk about what we have been experiencing here in Canada. It was a pleasure to accept the invitation because we only have good things to talk about Canada and it is always a pleasure to tell good things to the world.

However, Patricia and I were so tense because we would speak live… And this is a tough task. I already worked on radio and I already spoke live. All I can say is that this is not an easy job… So, on Wednesday we woke up, had our breakfast and walked down to the radio building. Ashta Cormier, co-presenter of the show, hosted us with a smile that let us less anxious. Good! After that, Kevin Midbo, the other co-presenter, also came up to us. His calm voice also helped to relieve our tension. Awesome! But some minutes later we went into the broadcasting studio. So, guess what? We were so anxious again, when, suddenly, we were listening to a Brazilian song in a Canadian radio! Yeah, Kevin selected a Brazilian song to open the show! And what a beautiful song: “Longe”, Arnaldo Antunes. Arnaldo Antunes is a former integrant (the main lyricist) of Titãs, a rock band that we love! So, of course, we were fine and relaxed again. Ready to go!

Well, the interview was so cool, we could express all we would like to, and the best thing is that Patricia and I had a great time with Ashta, Kevin, and with the listeners. You can listen to the interview by clicking on this link. Oh, and if you want to listen to good music, click here to listen Arnaldo Antunes’ song and watch the music video.  See you around!

Becoming Famous

The article about us published in the Nanaimo Daily News

Since September 27th 2010, we've got 58 comments and 6,491 pageviews in our 20 posts here. Thanks to all our readers for this! But in this post we will share with you a funny experience. The blog is also making us “famous”! LOL.  

On Feb 12th, during another rainy Saturday in our beloved city, Renato and I went to a coffee shop in downtown for a friendly chat with Danielle Bell, reporter with the Nanaimo Daily News.  As journalists we are accustomed to ask questions and to make interviews and not to be interviewed. But the journalist was so nice and it looked like we were in a conversation among friends.

Besides some fun on the day of the interview, another surprise came when we had bought the newspaper on Feb 15th. They took a picture of the couple to be published together with the article, but, then, they cut off my dear husband from the picture. Is it possible to believe? It was not fair. Ok, we are journalists, we know that thinks like this can happen but for me it was really strange when I opened the newspaper and saw only my face there, without my dear Renato by my side.

It was the worst to endure the jokes after I published the article on my Facebook page. Some friends wrote that Renato was cut off not to take my shine away. LOL. Others said that I called the reporter and asked her to cut him off, so others would not be able to see my handsome husband in the newspaper (okay, who wrote that, in fact, were his mother and his aunt). LOL.

The important thing is that we laughed a lot and now we also have another cool story to share with you, our dear readers! For those who would like to read the article, check it out: http://bit.ly/gUnZvZ. And at the picture above you also can see the newspaper article with my photo…only my photo. Sorry, dear husband!  I love you anyway…