Humble Beginnings

It's nearing midnight here in the white city (aka Toronto) as I sit here sipping tea and typing my first blog post of my overseas adventure. So far, so good. No flooding here, just a bucketload of snow! I've had a cough-like thing since my second last day in New York. I think it has something to do with my lungs getting used to the subzero temps. Skyped the parents yesterday and Dad seems to think I'm coming down with pneumonia based on my 'bark'. 

Spent about an hour this morning at Service Canada which is Canada's equivalent of our beloved Centrelink. But alas, I wasn't there for a handout...if only living in another country was that easy. I needed to get myself a social insurance number (SIN) so that once I get a job the Canadian Government can take out their fair share of tax. This process went well and I was issued with a temporary SIN until my card arrives in the mail.

Next stop, trying to get a bloody mobile phone. This process wasn't so successful. Despite having an impecable credit rating in Australia, the folk at Virgin, Bell, Rogers etc don't really give a shit because I have no Canadian credit history. No Canadian credit history means no Canadian phone plan. Virgin were ----- this close to signing me up using my passport and my new SIN but it was declined by a higher power. Not God, just some Virgin financier on the phone activation line. Plan B is to go to the Apple store tomorrow and buy an unlocked iPhone4. Going prepaid should sidetrack all the credit bullshit.

Also on the agenda tomorrow is opening a bank account. I did a lot of research today and I think I'm going to go with the Bank of Montreal. They seem to have a lot of ATMs (or ABMs as they're called here) closeby and there is a branch in the Dufferin Mall, which is less than five minutes walk from my house. Score! Compared to home though, banking seems a bit shit. Every account I looked at had mandatory monthly account-keeping fees...unless of course you keep a minimum balance of $3000, which just isn't feasible for the average Jo Blo like myself.

I think Sahira and Veronica (my very awesome roommates) might be letting me tag along to the movies tomorrow night too, so that should be gooooood.

It's past midnight now and I'm starting to get sleepy - maybe it's the cold and flu drugs, who knows? Off to bed...