Our flight went smoothly, no issues there and no crazy layovers. We were thinking when we were buying the flight tickets to have a layover in Island and spend some time there as well, but it was cheaper through UK.
Also in the airport everything went smoothly. No long waiting times/lines, our luggage arrived and the immigration officer was quite nice. They were warning that immigration can ask also for example your proof of funds, but they didn´t do that, which was nice and quick. We had picked out an AirBnB place in Calgary about a week before, so we knew where we were going, kind of. Got some maps and bus tickets from the airport, looked up what bus we need to take and went for it. I had downloaded Calgarys map on my phone, so I wouldn´t have to use my data from Finland which could end up being quite expensive. As there wasn´t straight line to where we needed to go, we first went to downtown.
Busride wasn´t bad at all, took some time but can´t complain. We were going through the suburbs and Liis was really surprised how huge the suburbs are. Lot of private houses almost from the airport all the way to downtown. We are used to having more compact cities where you see also quite a lot of apartment buildings, then in Calgary the taller buildings were basically only downtown thing. And apartment buildings didn´t catch our eyes at all. Thinking that our AirBnB is close to downtown we were heading its way with a bus, checking our progress with Google Maps, it took round trip in Calgary to get there, but could have been worse. Place was quite nice, we had a room with en suit bathroom and shared living room, plus kitchen.
We spent almost two weeks in Calgary, but we got most of our things done in two days. All the official stuff, like getting our SIN, getting our bank account and local phone card which are the most important things. We got our phone card from Walmart and it was bad idea, we spent almost two hours there, because the lady was taking her sweet time there, plus all the other people asking questions all the time. Anyways, recommendation for those buying a phone card, do it at service providers shop.
Rest of the time we spent searching online information about work and different places around Alberta, because we did not know what and where yet. Did have some ideas, but as always things are and look different on the spot. We kind of skipped the touristy stuff and might have been good idea, as I was saying we did not know where we were going and when we find work. I also kept looking into car options around Calgary just in case.
So with those two weeks we figured out that we are heading Red Deer next, which is exactly between two biggest cities in Alberta: Calgary and Edmonton. Plus as it is not too big city unlike Calgary, but still a fairly big city (about 100 000 pop) to us, so that you have everything available and for sure there is work. I did contact one smaller (family) landscaping/concrete company and was surprised on quick answer. Owner Chris told me to contact him when I get to Red Deer and we will have interview.
We booked another AirBnB in Red Deer for a week and looked into transportation there. We were hoping that using train would be cheapest way, but actually it wasn´t. There wasn´t many departures and it was quite expensive compared to bus. Booked the bus and our AirBnB was really nice to us and gave a ride to the bus station.
In Red Deer the accommodation actually was walking distance from the station, which was nice and town itself looked quite nice and green. Our hosts were really friendly as well. We did had to extend our stay there couple of times as things took longer than we were hoping for and they were really helpful in that way as they had one day some repairman coming and they had closed rental for two days, they opened it up again for us, which was really great from them. Looking around the town centre it looked fairly clean and surprisingly small. In here we did notice homeless people/those who have gotten caught in between wheels of life. Those who we talked to they were also saying that town has had some tough time after the oil market "crash" few years ago, as the town is making quite a bit of money of oil.
Town also has fairly decent public transit which makes it good to start without a car. Walking around downtown area and close by there were many ads up saying there are apartments for rent, but finding a decent place turned out to be quite difficult. Most of the places were unfurnished, but that was not good option for us as getting all the stuff for the apartment would have become bit too difficult, so that cut down many places for us. There was something in Red Deer apartment rental Facebook group and we did go see one place little way out of the centre of the town, it was just a room though. It was really spacious with our own bathroom and we were ready to take it, but the landlord was not happy with our references, so we had to start again basically. We almost were ready to take unfurnished one, but Liis wrote to one AirBnB place in Red Deer that was renting out month to month and asked if we could get a discount as it was over our budget. Turned out it was a rental company and they said they would have a place for us. So they did, it was unfurnished when we went to see and quite small, but location was great and they promised to get furniture for us. So we signed the papers and moved in couple of days later.
After moving in, I did have my interview with Chris and not so long after I had the job as well. Interview was easy going, which I liked. He did ask me some questions which put me off a little, as they were kind of logic questions or just abstract. But I did like it, made it feel less strict/official and left good feeling about the guy as well. Chris did warn me about heavy work and long days. Long days are no problem for me, but getting used to all the physical work took time, as it is different kinds of physical than working in the kitchen. I will make separate post for work tho.
And because buying a car and everything related to it is quite a story by itself as well, I will make a separate post about it as well.
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