Moving closer to (most of you) guys

[masta247]

So.. in 2 months I'm making a big change in my life..

I am moving to Vancouver, Canada.

Yes, I was considering moving somewhere far for a long time, I've been to Vancouver before, I loved that place, and would like to give it a try long term. Now that I just got my master's degree, I terminated my apartment rental here effective in May, and bought tickets to Hawaii, where I'm going back to have a few weeks of holidays after pretty much 2.5 years of no holidays from work, and after that, going to stay in Vancouver.
I arranged a temporary work permit in Canada for a year for now, and soon will start planning a new life away from home there, along with apartment hunting and job searching (anyone know anyone in Vancouver? lol).

I know it's not the cheapest city to live in, I know it rains a lot, and I know the job market there is not perfect, especially for someone in their mid/late 20s who worked as a big korean telecom investment project manager.. in Poland. I'm a little worried about that one, it's not always going to be easy, but I wouldn't have it any other way without giving it a try, as that's what I wanted for a long time. Also, I'm moving there with my girlfriend of 2 years now.

So, yeah, I thought I'd share this with you guys even before I told anyone at work (I have some tough talk scheduled), since some of you remember I wanted to move to the US/ Canada a long time ago already. Now the time has come, and it cannot be any more official.

 

[Jokerman]

Good luck. Why not Ameryka?

 

[Pittsey]

Good luck. Further from me though.

 

[masta247]

Thanks, guys.

Good luck. Further from me though.

Well, some sacrifices had to be made, amongst leaving my family and friends here, that's another one.

Good luck. Why not Ameryka?

There are 2 main reasons for that one.

First of all, the immigration laws. To be admitted to the US you either win the green card lottery or have family there. It's very convenient for random, unemployed people from around the world who don't speak english and are ok with waiting for their chance and when it comes, they're more than happy to jump ship (literally, I assume) and move everyone along with their uncles to "the land of opportunity".
However, there are no programs based on rational requirements, for young and qualified people who actually speak English, who really just want to make a move there and become contributing members of their society. Thus, I'd be waiting for my chance and compete with everyone who ever wanted to go to America from anywhere in the world, and year after year see the "shitty" people from here getting there, but not me.
So I thought if that's how you wanna play, then I won't even bother, as I can't really make any plans based on a lottery, and I'm not ok with waiting until I'm in my 30s, 40s, if ever. The lottery is for people who would, which I assume are not the right people you'd want in your country.
I already have decent life here, well paying job and opportunities for better ones, and I just want to give living somewhere else a try for now, while I still can, and in worst case I can come back, while still young. If I waited, I'd just probably stay here and regret not trying life in other places in the world while I fully could, which is now.

Canada's immigration programs, however, have no lotteries and such, and instead provide options based on a scoring system - they take in young people (below the age of 35), who prove their English skills and adaptability, as well as education and previous job experience. Thus, it was easy for me to be accepted as part of those programs, while it wouldn't be possible for me to make a move to the US without waiting for my 0.5% chance a year of winning the US green card lottery. Also, I'd much rather come as part of the "Canada Skilled Professional" program rather than the"USA diversity lottery immigration" program, which is kind of derogatory and not the crowd I'd like to be part of.

In short, the US immigration policy sucks for people like me, and I'd say sucks for America also, while Canada's policy is not perfect, it is incredibly better.

The second reason is more personal. I really liked it in Vancouver - the people, the city, the green attitude and the outdoors. During my travels, Vancouver felt second to none for me and I knew I want to be back. Additionally, they have quite interesting telecom and software industries, which are my 2 favorite bets for work.
My girlfriend is into acting and conveniently Vancouver is also a very good place to go for that, as it's the city that plays America in every third movie or so, and is right up there with LA and Toronto in that regard.
At the same time she claims that the agents in Canada are so much more approachable and talent-based compared to Hollywood or New York, which take talents in only after they make it big, not counting a few rare "success stories" that lure lots of prospective actors in and leave disappointed, working at Starbucks and dreaming of fame. Fortunately she cares about acting per se, and not dreaming of becoming a blockbuster starlet.

Hawaii was nice as a holiday place, so was LA in a way but it didn't feel too friendly in comparison, and I wouldn't see myself moving to Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore) due to their work culture which I already experienced after almost 3 years at a Korean company.
I guess I didn't travel to enough American cities yet, and I'll be able to after I get to Vancouver, and maybe I'll find a better place for me.
But even then to move there, the US would also have to do a 180 on their immigration laws, which is also why America is so much less appealing to me from strictly formal/the people-place perspective.
For now Canada, and more specifically Vancouver feels like the perfect place to go, I can go there now, and I'd like to give it a try.

 

[dilla]

Good luck, man. You're gonna do great.

Though BC isn't really next to anyone, but SOFI. And Rahim, if you're in to that kind of stuff.

 

[Casey]

I love Vancouver. Fantastic city. Maybe I'll see you there.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

Good luck, Masta.

That's such a huge leap forwards - nice one!

Canada is a beautiful country and I'm sure you'll be happy there.

 

[S O F I]

I make my way up to Vancouver from time to time. Maybe we shall meet.

Cool, though. Congrats man. Big step but I'm sure it'll pay off.

 

[masta247]

God, the fall is rainy here. I am temporarily working on a prototype VR/AR glasses for a certain processor company *hint*, my girlfriend also got a decent job but I have to say people are very stiff and serious about their work over here. Kind of hard to become buddies with co-workers and they seem uptight about their jobs and personal opinions. Kind of like they leave their normal selves outside the office door and live actual lives only on weekends.

Also I love the city, but it feels like the locals are taking it for granted a little bit. Additionally, I can't get used to the stone age north american banking system (cheques? Really? And I have to pay you guys for having and using my money? Can't pay online with a debit card? No easy way to instantly transfer money? Wuut?) and the telecom services / internet - Canada has.. data caps on broadband! Lol, and that's on top of lousy speeds for insane prices. I went from paying 12$/month for 300mbit/s to paying 45$/month for 25mbit/s.. with a 250GB/month data cap! Hurts. And that is with the best provider that serves only downtown Vancouver and actually allows me to use the Internet, although with a ridiculously slow speed after using up my data cap.

It's also a little hard to find healthy foods, and I was surprised that Vancouver is quite proud of green and healthy food options compared to other cities around, that is a little scary, especially since back in Europe I was known to be a pizza lover and even I find myself having "normal food" cravings.

I mentioned I work at my place temporarily, because working 40+ hours a week with 2 weeks vacation per year in a rather uptight office is very far from what I desire at this point. The pay is good, but I find it crazy not to be able to enjoy this place because of work, especially not since I set up a cozy home office!
But it's extremely rare to find something more laid-back, or work-from-home, or virtual team based, that would also work on something cool. To the point I didn't see anything like that yet. I find this surprising also, as the city is trying to be very modern and almost all of even tech companies here still act like it's 1875 and embrace the idea of trading money for time at the office, instead of results while retaining personal freedom. I'm not in high school anymore. In Poland the market is also taking its time to adjust, but at least some companies are trying.
If I were to stay here longer, I'd probably save up and start own business ran properly, or freelance. I mean, it'd be so easy to snatch talents here if you're a "cool" business and offer the employees at least some flexibility.

Otherwise, I really like the city. As a place, so far it seems that it has everything I wanted. Maybe minus the amount of rainfall. Man, I never thought I could chill by the ocean and go hiking in the mountains or woods within minutes away from my home. That and the nice people on the streets are things I would never get tired of.

 

[dilla]

You can't move to the Northwest and complain about rain.

Also Canada has horrible rates for internet and cell carriers. I've heard they're on three year contracts and most plans top out at a gig or two of data and they're priced like US carrier unlimited plans. Just real bad.

 

[masta247]

You can't move to the Northwest and complain about rain.

Also Canada has horrible rates for internet and cell carriers. I've heard they're on three year contracts and most plans top out at a gig or two of data and they're priced like US carrier unlimited plans. Just real bad.

Yeah I knew it rains, but man that is insane. Last time I saw the sun was more than 3 weeks ago.

Telecom prices are crazy and the government seems to make the situation worse by allowing only Canadian carriers to operate in Canada, and they're the richest companies around, even if the service is third world like. Obviously something's wrong with that. Otherwise I love it here, so these are more of the critical observations. Just shows that each place has its problems, and that some of these problems could be easily fixed (and are in other places)but they aren't in others because people are used to a certain way things work in given places and allow or prefer them to be just the way they are. I mean, if I was a large telecom company owner Id be super happy that I can laze around and offer old infrastructure of low quality standards while charging artificial fees for things that don't cost me a cent.

And yeah on T-Mobile in the US I had a deal with everything unlimited plus 5gb of LTE data for 35$. It was on prepaid, an exclusive deal from Walmart or Best Buy I believe. Here I pay 45$ for 2gb of 3G data (because for LTE Id need to switch to a fnacier brand within the same carrier that charges 15$ more for otherwise the same thing).. within a freaking zone limited to the Vancouver metro area. And yeah calls and texts are unlimited but I don't need that, I made 3 conventional phone calls last month, for 10 minutes in total and sent 1 text. I used up more than my 2gb of data though. There are no plans with huge data and little amount of minutes/text. Unless I leave my zone which is where I pay a lot for everything. The telecoms like inventing limitations here, and it's funny how it's allowed and the market doesn't regulate itself.
In Europe I had 6gb of LTE data for 2$ every 2 months and paid around 5cents per minutes otherwise, never spent more than 10$ a month on my phone service.

 

[dilla]

Yeah the telecom situation is only slightly better in the States. At least there's an option for unlimited data but it's still North of $70 a month for the entire plan. That's just one issue. The CDMA vs GSM thing is still going on and that makes some phones a no-go for us. Like the latest offerings from Xiaomi. I guess Sprint supports the LTE bands but has to "activate" or something for the phone. It was an issue for some of the Nexus devices too. Just a mess.

Even some of the "unlimited" data plans throttle after a certain point. For my plan, I am "deprioritized" on towers during congestion after 21GB used. I suppose that's somewhat fair and I haven't really seen any hits to performance in my house, which is where most of my data is used in streaming.

It's just a mess. But you're right, different places have different problems. Electronics are cheap here in the States but infrastructure is shit and overpriced. In Europe, it seems the opposite. Nothing highlights it more than Apple products. Yesterday's MacBook Pro reveal was an hour long abortion on stage. Sad thing is, I'm still trying to justify it even though I know the argument for it is weak.

 

[Rukas]

How are you settling in now? Home sweet home or still weird?

 

[masta247]

Hey, thanks for asking! Since I originally posted here, I lived in a couple of other places that I wanted to try out. But then there are formalities, silly visas, taxes, hundreds of pages of documentation and borders (how come it's still a thing) making it difficult to just hop around and live anywhere and whenever. The laws just want you to decide on the place where you will calmly stay without moving too much throughout your life, and in the end, it really is a pain in the butt to go around that. Last year I did taxes in 3 different countries, had trouble explaining my residency status for tax purposes in all of them, paid taxes twice in two of them, had public healthcare and retirement savings in 0 of them (as I didn't live in any for long enough), not to mention that there's either a short tourist visa or going through hell like I want to stay in a given place forever and move my whole family with me collectively seeping on social benefits until the end of times. I actually wanted to move to Brisbane for the winter, but found out that there's no way for me to do that without an offer from a physical Australian employer unless I'm fine with a short-term tourist visa, which just isn't enough. There is a longer visa that doesn't apply to the citizens of Poland. To actually give living there a try, I would have to make it my main goal in life and spend a couple of years making that happen.
On top of that, the world isn't really well tailored yet for being self-employed globally. So yeah, I would perfectly live all over the place, and I did for a while, but there are too many hurdles and it's become too painful.

As I became a permanent resident of Canada and the country fully took me in, about two months ago I came back and started resettling here again. Probably it's my favorite, most complete place but..

I think it will always be a little weird. No place is really perfect and I miss a lot of things from all sorts of places, including things that simply work better there, that the people here don't even realize. Or the tropical weather, as I also spent 6 months in Thailand and it's hard to go back to grey and rainy winters. Most of all, I miss the people that I left behind in Poland and the other places that I stayed in.
On another hand, I love the location, the country is cool and stands for most of the right things, people are really nice.. although actually it's not as easy to make genuine friends compared to anywhere else I've been to, and I feel weird about being best friends mostly with the other foreigners. I feel like a bit of an outcast, but I'm enjoying my days here as well through the good things that I came here for.

In terms of work, it feels funny to have to prove myself like the rest of the world doesn't mean much, despite Warsaw being much more advanced in my industry than Vancouver is, but I'm happily in a position where I can. It's just funny and a little offensive that I have to.

 

[Rukas]

Brisbane is a horrible place to live.

I might be able to help you out if you ever want to move to Melbourne.

 

[masta247]

The main idea behind Brisbane was the sunshine all year round while living in a western place with some tech business going on and decent pay, and I met someone who was speaking very highly of the place, but she was actually from there. I liked the idea, but the formalities suck. I also stumbled upon some less-than-stellar opinions about the city, but thought that each place has its negatives and took it as that.

I heard that Melbourne is nice. When I researched it, it sounded in many ways like Vancouver (I think they beef over the first place as the most livable city). But again, my main motive was the weather, as otherwise I'm happy in Canada, and Melbourne would be much less of an upgrade in that regard. Still, I appreciate it and will let you know if at some point I travel there.

 

[Rukas]

Sydney then. They actually have much better weather than Melbourne and of course have a lot of tech development.

I think Perth will move into tech now that mining is dying down and that’s like the richest city in Aust lol. Lambos everywhere.