Andrew Aigner-MuehlerLIVING OVERSEAS from my eyes.. COMING TO CANADA
January 26th 2008 05:13
COMING TO CANADA
On the 10th May 2005 when I left London Heathrow bound for Toronto Pearson airport in Canada. I was leaving with no money, I had a Natwest Mastercard which was never used and a Natwest Switch Maestro card which had money owing on it.
As you probably know when you apply for a working visa of another country, you are suppose to show proof, you have enough money to fund the initial part of you stay. For a Australian entering Canada we need $4000 Canadian saved up. As I have told you, I had nothing, I can not explain to you what I was feeling and thinking on the flight to Toronto, my nerves got worst as we landed and started to approach customs and immigration. I just did what I usually do when I have something to hide, I do the same thing every time I go back to London, Dublin and Austria and that is to be a very nice and talkative tourist, only some times do I tell the truth about my intensions, if it’s a short stay of a few days I tell the truth, if it’s a long stay, I try to tell them what they want to hear. At customs in Canada they don’t ask anything about funds, it just takes them time in issueing your visa. I had no problems at all. Grabbed my bags headed to the airport express coach to take me in the city where I was staying. I was staying at the Toronto budget hostel for three days. Before I go any further I just need to ask why do they call it Toronto Pearson international airport, when there are signs saying thank you for flying in to Mississauga? Maybe its easier to say Toronto, or is it people recognize the name Toronto before Mississauga. What can it be?
My first impressions on arrival to the downtown core is that Toronto is a miniature New York. When you come by coach in to Toronto you will arrive via the Gardiner Expressway which by passes a familiar looking building called the Rogers Centre. I needed to confirm with some one else on the bus that building was the Skydome where the Blue Jays play. Why did they change the name, when the name Skydome is well known around the world, along with the CN Tower and Niagara Falls, which the falls are couple of hours drive away still, they are the reasons why tourist are attracted to the city. C’mon Ted if you really wanted to carry your name on the building, why didn’t you call it Rogers Skydome. Keep a bit of history, especially the way it originally got its name. The Skydome today would still be the premier indoor sports stadium in the world, and it was built twenty or so years ago. Yes there are other indoor stadiums which are huge and fantastic but nothing like the Skydome which was built back then, with a dome shaped roof which can be a third with in a hour.
Anyway I stayed in the hostel for three days before moving down to just of the lakeshore for a month. The reason I only stayed in Toronto for a short while was I couldn’t get a job. I found one job, which wasn’t really a job but a part time past time, and I stumbled on to that by mistake. I was walking to the holiday inn on King street when I noticed a sign on a door ‘looking for part time work apply within’, so I went upstairs and inquired about it, it was for extras on movie and television sets, it sounded interesting, I paid my fees, had my photo taken and a week later was on the set of the TV movie ‘4 Minutes’ as a extra.
The day after the champions league final I left Toronto for Lake Louise, Alberta, to start a position as the assistant night auditor at the Lake Louise Inn. I applied for the position off the website summerjobs.com , I needed a job and fast. I knew I was starting a job in a resort, I jumped on to the website to check out the resort and it looked great, I was really looking forward to it. Because of the times the trains and buses were running and my flight was one of the first to leave I had to crash at the airport that night, if Tom Hanks can do it in the movie ‘Terminal’ I can do it too. I landed in Calgary and then had to get a shuttle out to Lake Louise. As were driving through towns like Kenmore and Banff which are slightly big towns but still are a fair way out of Calgary. Fifty minutes after leaving Banff we made it to Lake Louise. The driver said this is the main center and I can remember saying “what have I done”. The main center consisted of a information office, bottleshop, candy shop, bakery/ snack bar, clothing/ sports store, book shop, chemist, bar & grill, market (mini supermarket) and the depot (post office).
I got dropped off at the hotel reception, and asked the receptionist for Jason Pfeiffer who employed me. Jason wasn’t around so the controller Craig Hall took care of me, took me on a tour of the region and then shouted me lunch in Legends restaurant. After lunch the housing manager took me to where I was staying for a week or two before moving in to my proper accommodation at the staff accommodation. The next day I started training. Mark who was the current night auditor was training me if you call it training, the first night, he did the work and talked his way through it, the second night, I was doing the work by following the book, Mark was resting his eyes in the chair, if I needed help he was there. After that I was upstairs by myself, if I needed help I had to go down stairs and get him, and that continued through to the end of my two weeks of training.
Going back to the website of the hotel, it was nothing like the real thing, but that’s the power of computers these days, but that wasn’t the problem. The hotel didn’t like to spend money. The monitors were the same as when computers first came out, they were running a package called Squirrel through windows 95 when it should be ran through atleast windows 2000. The computers always would crash. All the equipment they had was so old. The money guest use to pay to stay there was not what they were getting. Im surprised those guests who were put in the Pinery rooms didn’t complain and ask for their money back and go across the road and stay in the YHA hostel.
Anyway I lasted seven weeks in Lake Louise, I left because of politics of the hotel as well as Lake Louise being so remote, to be honest I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I applied for the position, the lake was around fourteen kilometers away from the Inn, the market was so expensive for food but wasn’t selling anything decent to eat, if we wanted meat or any decent groceries and pay a sought of okay price we had to go into Banff which cost $32 return with staff discounts. There was nothing to do in Lake Louise except for going hiking and at that time of the year we were warned about going hiking by ourselves because of the many bear attacks that had happened across Alberta.
Mostly all of the residents done one or both things on the evenings, drink alcohol or smoke joints. After seven weeks it was getting to me, so I returned to Toronto by Greyhound Canada.
Again I stayed at the Toronto Budget Hostel, this time for a week. Summer in Toronto, let me warn you, it is very humid and hot, when I arrived Toronto was in the middle of a very bad heat wave.
One week after returning to Toronto, I found myself accommodation in a basement out in Mimico, the closest intersection would be Evans and Royal York. My landlords were Ukranian, and they charged me first and final months rent being $350 Canadian a piece. For that I received a my own bedroom, toilet/shower, kitchen with microwave and stove top, a sought off lounge with basic Rogers cable (31 channels). I shared the basement with a Serbian guy Nick and another Ukranian guy, who cant say his name because I don’t actually know it.
The following week after hunting very hard for a job, I started at 1 Reality Enterprises as a independent contractor.
On the 10th May 2005 when I left London Heathrow bound for Toronto Pearson airport in Canada. I was leaving with no money, I had a Natwest Mastercard which was never used and a Natwest Switch Maestro card which had money owing on it.
As you probably know when you apply for a working visa of another country, you are suppose to show proof, you have enough money to fund the initial part of you stay. For a Australian entering Canada we need $4000 Canadian saved up. As I have told you, I had nothing, I can not explain to you what I was feeling and thinking on the flight to Toronto, my nerves got worst as we landed and started to approach customs and immigration. I just did what I usually do when I have something to hide, I do the same thing every time I go back to London, Dublin and Austria and that is to be a very nice and talkative tourist, only some times do I tell the truth about my intensions, if it’s a short stay of a few days I tell the truth, if it’s a long stay, I try to tell them what they want to hear. At customs in Canada they don’t ask anything about funds, it just takes them time in issueing your visa. I had no problems at all. Grabbed my bags headed to the airport express coach to take me in the city where I was staying. I was staying at the Toronto budget hostel for three days. Before I go any further I just need to ask why do they call it Toronto Pearson international airport, when there are signs saying thank you for flying in to Mississauga? Maybe its easier to say Toronto, or is it people recognize the name Toronto before Mississauga. What can it be?
My first impressions on arrival to the downtown core is that Toronto is a miniature New York. When you come by coach in to Toronto you will arrive via the Gardiner Expressway which by passes a familiar looking building called the Rogers Centre. I needed to confirm with some one else on the bus that building was the Skydome where the Blue Jays play. Why did they change the name, when the name Skydome is well known around the world, along with the CN Tower and Niagara Falls, which the falls are couple of hours drive away still, they are the reasons why tourist are attracted to the city. C’mon Ted if you really wanted to carry your name on the building, why didn’t you call it Rogers Skydome. Keep a bit of history, especially the way it originally got its name. The Skydome today would still be the premier indoor sports stadium in the world, and it was built twenty or so years ago. Yes there are other indoor stadiums which are huge and fantastic but nothing like the Skydome which was built back then, with a dome shaped roof which can be a third with in a hour.
Anyway I stayed in the hostel for three days before moving down to just of the lakeshore for a month. The reason I only stayed in Toronto for a short while was I couldn’t get a job. I found one job, which wasn’t really a job but a part time past time, and I stumbled on to that by mistake. I was walking to the holiday inn on King street when I noticed a sign on a door ‘looking for part time work apply within’, so I went upstairs and inquired about it, it was for extras on movie and television sets, it sounded interesting, I paid my fees, had my photo taken and a week later was on the set of the TV movie ‘4 Minutes’ as a extra.
The day after the champions league final I left Toronto for Lake Louise, Alberta, to start a position as the assistant night auditor at the Lake Louise Inn. I applied for the position off the website summerjobs.com , I needed a job and fast. I knew I was starting a job in a resort, I jumped on to the website to check out the resort and it looked great, I was really looking forward to it. Because of the times the trains and buses were running and my flight was one of the first to leave I had to crash at the airport that night, if Tom Hanks can do it in the movie ‘Terminal’ I can do it too. I landed in Calgary and then had to get a shuttle out to Lake Louise. As were driving through towns like Kenmore and Banff which are slightly big towns but still are a fair way out of Calgary. Fifty minutes after leaving Banff we made it to Lake Louise. The driver said this is the main center and I can remember saying “what have I done”. The main center consisted of a information office, bottleshop, candy shop, bakery/ snack bar, clothing/ sports store, book shop, chemist, bar & grill, market (mini supermarket) and the depot (post office).
I got dropped off at the hotel reception, and asked the receptionist for Jason Pfeiffer who employed me. Jason wasn’t around so the controller Craig Hall took care of me, took me on a tour of the region and then shouted me lunch in Legends restaurant. After lunch the housing manager took me to where I was staying for a week or two before moving in to my proper accommodation at the staff accommodation. The next day I started training. Mark who was the current night auditor was training me if you call it training, the first night, he did the work and talked his way through it, the second night, I was doing the work by following the book, Mark was resting his eyes in the chair, if I needed help he was there. After that I was upstairs by myself, if I needed help I had to go down stairs and get him, and that continued through to the end of my two weeks of training.
Going back to the website of the hotel, it was nothing like the real thing, but that’s the power of computers these days, but that wasn’t the problem. The hotel didn’t like to spend money. The monitors were the same as when computers first came out, they were running a package called Squirrel through windows 95 when it should be ran through atleast windows 2000. The computers always would crash. All the equipment they had was so old. The money guest use to pay to stay there was not what they were getting. Im surprised those guests who were put in the Pinery rooms didn’t complain and ask for their money back and go across the road and stay in the YHA hostel.
Anyway I lasted seven weeks in Lake Louise, I left because of politics of the hotel as well as Lake Louise being so remote, to be honest I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I applied for the position, the lake was around fourteen kilometers away from the Inn, the market was so expensive for food but wasn’t selling anything decent to eat, if we wanted meat or any decent groceries and pay a sought of okay price we had to go into Banff which cost $32 return with staff discounts. There was nothing to do in Lake Louise except for going hiking and at that time of the year we were warned about going hiking by ourselves because of the many bear attacks that had happened across Alberta.
Mostly all of the residents done one or both things on the evenings, drink alcohol or smoke joints. After seven weeks it was getting to me, so I returned to Toronto by Greyhound Canada.
Again I stayed at the Toronto Budget Hostel, this time for a week. Summer in Toronto, let me warn you, it is very humid and hot, when I arrived Toronto was in the middle of a very bad heat wave.
One week after returning to Toronto, I found myself accommodation in a basement out in Mimico, the closest intersection would be Evans and Royal York. My landlords were Ukranian, and they charged me first and final months rent being $350 Canadian a piece. For that I received a my own bedroom, toilet/shower, kitchen with microwave and stove top, a sought off lounge with basic Rogers cable (31 channels). I shared the basement with a Serbian guy Nick and another Ukranian guy, who cant say his name because I don’t actually know it.
The following week after hunting very hard for a job, I started at 1 Reality Enterprises as a independent contractor.
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