What is it like to choose to immigrate to Canada and live in the land of maple leaves? Is it always full of freshness, or is it troubled by cultural differences? A customer who has immigrated to Canada for a year said Let me tell you, I regretted it at that time! On August 10, 2011, we boarded a delayed Air China flight from Guangzhou Baiyun Airport and began our long-awaited trip to Canada. One year has passed in the blink of an eye. I am not good at expressing my feelings without any reason, so I will record our major events during this year in the form of a running account as a commemoration.
1. August 10, 2011
I entered customs in Vancouver at noon and flew to Saskatoon in the evening. On the 11th, I arrived at Prince Albert in the early morning and applied for a social security card and medical card in the morning. On the 15th, we went to Candle Lake and we all caught our first fish in Canada. I officially went to work on the 22nd and received my first salary check on the 25th. Many people can't tell the difference between Prince Albert, Princess Edward Island and Province of Alberta, thinking that I have stayed in PEI or Alberta. In fact, Prince Albert is Prince Albert, the third largest city in Saskatchewan, with a population of about 40,000. Prices Edward Island is Prince Edward Island, a province of Canada, located on the east coast of Canada. The Province of Alberta is located between BC and Saskatchewan, where Vancouver is located, and is rich in oil. On the 29th, LP returned to China after a short trip of nearly three weeks, and I continued my life in Canada alone. On the 30th, I bought a car and received a social security card (SIN card). The car is a Ford Escape 2.5-liter four-wheel drive automatic. The reason why I bought the car so quickly is because it is difficult to move around here without a car.
II. September 5, 2011
On the 5th, we enjoyed the first long weekend, Labor Day in Canada? There is no holiday here on May 1st International Labor Day. On the 8th, I passed the Saskatchewan driver’s license written test in one try. On the 13th, I received the Health Card. On the 15th, I failed my first driver’s license road test and was deducted 50 points (maximum 9 points). After practicing for a while, I passed the test two weeks later on the 29th. This time I was deducted 9 points. If I deducted one more point, I would have failed.
3. October 19, 2011
On the 19th, more than 2 months after logging in, I received the Maple Leaf Card. With the Maple Leaf Card, it is convenient to enter and exit Canada. I immediately decided to use the two-week Christmas holiday to go back to China. It would be uncomfortable to spend the entire cold winter in this small place alone. On the same day, the Engineer-in-Training (trainee engineer) application was officially submitted to APEGS, the Saskatchewan Engineers Association. The association responded that the results would usually take about 10 to 12 weeks. Regarding the application for engineer qualification (P.Eng), after my application is successful, a special post will be posted to introduce the application process in detail.
IV. November 2011
As the cold winter begins, travel is greatly reduced. It doesn’t get bright until after nine in the morning, and it gets dark after four in the afternoon. In short, it’s dark during commuting time. No wonder some people suffer from winter depression.
5. December 2011
The company is closed for about 2 weeks every year from Christmas to New Year's Day. This holiday is from December 17th to January 2nd. Because air tickets get more expensive as it gets closer to Christmas, I took a day off and returned to China from the 16th to the 29th. The whole family drove to Hainan for six days. This time I had very good meals in Haikou and Sanya, which greatly changed my impression of Hainan. The warm winters in Guangdong and Hainan and the delicacies available everywhere are unmatched by Saskatchewan.
VI. January 2012
There isn’t much for me to do when I go to work in the company. I often sit there and read all day long, and sometimes I feel like dozing off. Because the company's projects are all small wooden structure houses, the structural workload is very small. Unless the architectural drawings are also designed, there will be no future. By the end of January, the Engineer-in-Training (EIT) application had been submitted for more than 14 weeks, and there was still no news at all, so I sent an email to APEGS to inquire about the progress. APEGS then responded to me saying that due to the large number of applicants, it would take about 4 months to start my application.
VII. February 2012
On the 19th and 20th, I used the Family Day holiday to visit the provincial capital Regina for two days. The coldest days are over and you can go walking around. At the end of February, I finally decided to submit my resume to several industrial design companies in Saskatoon to try my luck. During the few months I was in Saskatchewan, I actually got to know several Chinese structural engineers working in Saskatoon through my blog and Homeland.com. It turned out that when I started the blog, I never thought of the additional role of the blog. In addition to helping myself unintentionally, the information I provided in my blog also helped some friends who are very interested in Saskatchewan, which can be regarded as benefiting others and myself. Through these engineer friends, I got a lot of valuable information, such as what design companies there are in Satun, which company needs to recruit people, etc. Moreover, asking them to submit my resume for me has a better chance of winning than submitting it myself.
8. March 2012
I have been working in this company for more than 7 months. Even if I can’t find a job for a while, I am qualified to apply for unemployment insurance (EI). Since applying for EI requires more than 6 months of employment experience, my boss was extremely merciful to let me go at this time. I'm tired of staying in this little place called PA. There were few opportunities to find a professional job, there were no suitable schools for learning English, and it was extremely inconvenient to fly back home, so I decided to move to Saskatoon after finishing my job as a PA.
9. April 17, 2012
On the 17th, I sent an email to APEGS again to inquire about the progress of the EIT qualification review. The association replied that someone was already reviewing my application. Half a year after submitting the information, they finally started reviewing my information. On the 19th, I received the interview notice via email from my current company. I went for an interview on the afternoon of the 23rd. I thought my performance that day was acceptable. Although I am a person with three skills (no industrial structure design experience, no steel structure design experience, no local qualification certificate, and my English is average during the phone interview), the HR manager at the Toronto headquarters did not think well of me, but fortunately I am not a recent graduate, I have some engineering experience, and the required salary is relatively low. In addition, Chinese insiders put in good words for me, and I actually got an offer from this company. About two months after I started submitting my resume, I started working on April 30.
10. May 2012
The company has a lot of training for new employees. They pay special attention to safety training. What kind of project management software should I learn, but there is no training on the design software I use for work? Too much but useless. You have to figure out the skills you need to actually eat by yourself and ask others for advice.
11. June 3, 2012
On the 3rd, the company sent me to Toronto to participate in the design of a large potash fertilizer plant. The time was tentatively scheduled for three months. Anyway, our new batch of The employees recruited have no projects to do in Satun. At the Toronto company, I learned that there are also overtime hours in Canada, and I basically work six days a week. Of course, during the past few months in Toronto, I also used Sunday time to visit all of Toronto’s famous attractions. On the 20th, I received a notification from APEGS that my Engineer-in-Training application was finally approved. There was no need to make up classes or make up exams. The transcript of the Master of Engineering, which is not very valuable in China, should have helped me. Afterwards, I received EIT stamps and certificates one after another, and the P.Eng application was considered a successful first step.
12. July 2012
On the 1st and 2nd, I took advantage of the National Day holiday to go to Kingston and visited Thousand Island Lake, City Hall, Queen's University, and Fort Henry.
Thirteen. August 2012
It’s the first anniversary of the landing. The work in Toronto was postponed until mid-November, so LP's flight ticket was changed from Satun to Toronto. I’m looking forward to reuniting with LP in Toronto in September so that we can go see the Great Falls and visit Ottawa together.
More than one person has asked me, do I regret coming to Canada? Of course I regret it! Why did I not come to such a good place earlier? Why did I realize it so late? Not to mention that I have been here for more than a year. The experience in Canada, even the experience in the first half of the year, is already worth the price of immigration application. If I had come earlier, I would have had the motivation to study for a degree at a younger age and better adapt to the language and society; if I had come earlier, it would be meaningless to talk about this. There is a saying in Guangdong: "If you know in advance, there will be no beggar." It’s business to experience life now. Even if you can't make it in the future, or if you get tired of playing in Canada and want to go back to China, this experience will be a valuable asset in your life.