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!