I like details. I like knowing details. In a few days I'll be making the move from the Netherlands to Canada. No small feat, if you ask me. It's a complete culture change, and (hopefully) for a short while I'll have to manage everything on my own. Language fortunately is no barrier -- I consider myself quite fluent in English.

 

The most stressful thing will be flying. I don't mind flying itself. Actually, I love flying. For some reason or another, my hands and feet always feel warm (I have been diagnosed with Raynaud's Disease), which I suspect is due to the slightly reduced pressure in the cabin and generally speaking a relatively high temperature. So far I've only been flying non-stop, and this will be the first time I have a stop-over... In Heathrow, of all places... and I tend to be one of the people who go "what about my baggage?"; "will I need to gather it, and then head to the next check-in?"; "do I have enough time to make it to the next boarding?"; "I don't know the layout of the airport, yikes!", and so on. I'm sure it will be alright, but right now I'm not content with it. Next time when I'm paying for the ticket, it's *so* going to be a direct flight.

 

At the moment I'm still waiting for the address of my temporary housing. Once I know that, I can start figuring out how I can get from my home to work the most effeciently (so far, Transit 101 from TransLink has been very helpful!). Seeing as I don't drive (no drivers license), I'll have to use public transport for now. My bike isn't coming until I find a permanent place to live (it is being shipped by the movers with my other goods). I'll go for a test drive on the bus the day after I arrive, so that there are no unexpected surprises when I try to get to work on monday.

 

Then I'll have to arrange a new bank account, and get a social security number (of whatever the equivalent is in Canada). I still haven't decided on which bank I want to go with though. I'm thinking about going with Royal Bank of Canada, but I'm not sure. Surprisingly enough, it's very hard to find good ratings of banks. I'm currently spoiled with an account with one of the two or three triple-A rated banks in the world (yes, even after the whole economic bloodshedding).

 

Once I'm settled in, I can start looking for houses/apartments. Microsoft takes care of a lot of things for me, though, which is good. One of them is helping me find a place to live. Hopefully I'll be able to get something near a shopping center/supermarket and still be able to get to work without too much of a hassle.

 

If you've got any tips, leave a comment :-)