Moving To Canada – What You Need To Know

Today we are going to talk about the things that you should know before coming to Canada I wasn’t informed initially, because there are definitely things you ought to know and things you wish you did before coming to Canada.

1. Food

The first thing that you should know is food. suppose I had brought my own food from back home from my own country before coming to Canada. so food is one of the items that you should get when coming to Canada. When I came to Canada I struggled a bit with food I struggled a bit with eating it was very difficult for me to eat the foodstuff that they have here.

those are All things that I’m used to eating it’s not part of my culture so I should have brought dried foodstuff so there wasn’t enough time to go to the market to buy fresh foodstuff and then dry them and then package them in Ziploc bags so it was just very sodding and very rushed and for that reason, I didn’t bring much food and honestly I paid dearly for it because I struggled the first few weeks when I came into Canada.

I struggled with eating struggled with finding what to eat struggled with not being able to like eat the stuff that’s here because it’s just not part of my culture and all of that it really hit me and there was an African store by the way but then when you come into Canada as a new immigrant the first thing you don’t want to do is to go into African store and spend your money buying food there that’s why you have to bring your food from back home because foodstuffs that are at African stores they are really expensive crazy expenses so like going to an African store was just not really in my plan because it’s just not it just wasn’t possible at the time wasn’t feasible for me.

but then I went back home to visit my parents once between twice shy so after visiting my parents I went to the market and I packed enough foodstuff to last me for over a year I brought it back with me to Canada from my visit so pro tip guys when you’re coming into Canada it doesn’t matter if you’re coming as a pr or if you’re coming as an international student or worker or anything as long as you’re going to be staying for a very long time in Canada you want to make sure that you bring food especially if your culture is not like the culture here in North America bring your own food so that you don’t go through what I went through.

2. Clothes

the second item on the list that I wish I knew was clothing I brought clothes that I shouldn’t have brought to Canada because at the end of the day I never wore those clothes it’s been Like six years and I just never wore those clothes right.

so when I was planning to come to Canada I was thinking oh I need to get some clothes I went to the market I bought a lot of sweaters because my cousin told me that it was cold and I brought a lot of sweaters that by the time I got here it was just useless Because those sweaters weren’t made for this kind of Canadian weather.

right so like I bought a lot of sweaters I came with a lot of jackets that were just completely useless by the time I got here because they weren’t thick enough to protect me so if I had known better I don’t think I would have brought any clothes with me because at the end of the day I never wore more than half of the clothes that I came with.

I ended up buying coats here like the first weekend of my being in Canada my aunt took me to buy clothes at the mall so what was the point of me bringing clothes, anyway so pro tip guys when you’re coming to Canada try not to bring too many clothes because at the end of the day You’re still going to buy clothes.

if you’re packing your suitcase for example 10 of your entire belongings should be for clothes maybe 60 to 70 percent should be for your foodstuff and the remaining 20 can be for any other miscellaneous items like your shoe toiletries or whatever it is else that you need to bring with.

you just don’t bring too many clothes with you when you’re coming Because at the end of the day you may not get to wear those clothes. you definitely buy clothes like trust me even if you’re going to buy clothes at the thrift store even if you’re going to buy them so cheap the fact is that you’re still going to spend money buying clothes so try not to bring too many clothes with you when coming.

3. Driver’s License

the third thing that you should do before coming to Canada is to get your driver’s license before coming to Canada so I remember when I turned 18 I wanted to learn how to drive I wanted someone to teach me how to drive but nobody would have the time to dedicate to teach me.

getting a license here is kind of expensive especially if you’re doing it from scratch well I mean subjectively speaking it was expensive for me I spent almost two thousand dollars trying to get a driver’s license from a class seven to a class five.

meanwhile, if I had known how to drive if I had had a valid license from my home country all I would have needed would have been to Go take a road test and that would be all just take a road test pass and then try to transfer my license to a Canadian license and that was definitely cheaper that would have been way cheaper for me than how much I spent.

because then I mean I paid for the learner’s license I paid to take the knowledge test and then I paid to get like the physical copy of the license and then I paid to go to a driving school that’s where like the bulk of that money went into and then I paid to take another road test to get the class 5 license so it was just really expensive.

another thing was I went to the provincial driving school the one that’s run by the government I couldn’t go to a private driving school because the private schools that I contacted wanted me to come with my own car but I didn’t have a car.

but the driving school that’s controlled by the government the instructors had their own car that they would use to teach you how to drive so I was like that was just more convenient for me at the time so that’s why I wish I had learned how to drive back at home because then I wouldn’t have I don’t believe I would have spent the amount of money that I spent trying to get my license.

so pro tip again when you’re coming here just make sure that you have a driver’s license, valid driver’s license and then when you get here all you have to do is try to figure out What the requirements are to transfer your license to a Canadian license depending on the province you’re in.

driving is not a luxury in this part of the world it is a necessity it is very important, especially for the winter months when it’s freezing cold you want to be able to just get to where you need to go instead of standing in the freezing cold for a long period of time So yeah um driving was something you should learn back home before coming here I didn’t know how pricey it was going to be trying to get my license from a learner to a class 5.

4. Expenses

the next thing on my list that I wish I knew was the fact that Canada is an expensive country it’s generally expensive just generally across the nation it’s expensive but then the variation in Expense now depends on the province that you live in.

for example you pay taxes on every single thing fortunately for me I am in a province where the tax is very low so it cannot be compared to places like Ontario or Quebec or British Columbia that have like higher tax ranges or higher taxes so you end up spending more.

So that’s just one thing every single month money is disappearing from your accounts right every single month you have to have something doing that generates income in any way even if it’s an odd job because every single month money is disappearing from your account as long as you’re the one fending for yourself.

you have to pay rent or mortgage if you own a house you Have to pay electricity you have to pay for air conditioning you have to pay for garbage disposal, water, and internet, you pay phone bills you pay for daycare if you have children you pay property taxes if you have a house or if you have a condo it’s just every single month a large chunk of money is disappearing to the kinds of bills that you have to Pay for whether you are a single person who lives alone or you are married and you have a family.

bottom line is that every month you’re spending a significant amount of your income on bills and it just never stops just keep paying and paying and paying and paying and paying so yeah It is among the things you should know that Canada is an expensive Country to live in.

general but it doesn’t matter because I’m here and I’m getting on with the system it is what it is this is the way the system has been set up and this is how it’s done here right so I’m not alone I’m not the only person who has bills to pay everybody else has bills to pay so it’s one of those things.

Conclusion

Anyway, so I think that’s pretty much it for things you should know if I happen to remember anything else I guess I’ll probably add it to the article so stay updated. that’s all I have inside my head. I wish you the BEST OF LUCK as always.