Meeting other Aussies in Vancouver

You might not want to do this intentionally! After all, you're here to experience canada. And it would be a huge loss if you came here and didn't really make friends with some! And besides, Canadians are dam nice people!

But I do realise that it's pretty easy to meet other aussies and chin wag about new holland. Plus they are here and just as keen as you to make new friends! Who knows, you might make some good friends for life. We have.

So, you can sign up for the meetup group: http://aussie.meetup.com/164/ They had a good get-together for the AFL grand final last year, and I met some nice peeps, and through them, met other nice peeps!

You could go to whistler where they all hang out, but it might be as though you never left home. You might also get an unmistakable rush of cultural cringe occasionally, when you encounter behaviour more bogan than what you'd see in the drinking hole slums of coober pedy....

Things you can't get in Vancouver (& suggested substitutes)

Cordial - yeah, no Cotties here! You can buy Ribena if you like, but that's not exactly cordial, and it's a dead-set rip! In the supermarket, go to the freezer section and look for tubes of syrup (about the size of a coke can) for about 90c - $1.30 each. You can defrost these and mix them with about 3 litres of water to make something prettydamm close to cordial! Raspberry flavour is the best!

Public barbeques in Parks - forget it! They are nowhere! Try something else like getting a little portable from Canadian Tire or a place like it. http://www.canpages.ca/list.jsp?nt=C&na=canadian%20tire&ct=vancouver&pr=

Barbecue shapes - you might be able to source them through the aussie importer connected to mooses: http://www.canpages.ca/page/BC/vancouver/mooses-down-under/1922650.html I've not realy found any local substitutes that come close to pizza shapes and bbq shapes in vancouver.

Barbecues with a "flat plate" on one half and "grill bars" on the other. They don't exist. I looked but had no luck whatsoever. In nth america, it's all about things getting smoked & charred from the bare exposure to the flames. So the concept of doing eggs & bacon on the barbie is foreign. As is the idea of doing a burger with the lot where you grill your pattie but fry off your eggs, onions and bacon on the flat side and bring it together at the end (oh yeah). I literally got a friend who is a steel fabricator here to make me a custom-plate for one side of the grill. You might be able to find a perfectly sized bit of steel you can oil-up and use.....if you're lucky!

Very Hard to find:

Papadams - the attendant at safeway didn't know what language I was speaking! For your indian ingredients, it's well worth a trip AAALLLLL the way down main st to about 49th ave. You can get the bus down to "Little India" and there are about 10 grocers within a 3 block stretch.

Puff pastry - don't look for it in those flat sheets. You gotta buy a small cube of it (about $5 for 2) then thaw it and roll it into a flat sheet with a rolling pin. So basically you're paying $2.50 for a normal sized sheet. Very expensive!!!

Tim tams - definitely available! Go to "The Bay" department store. Enter by coming up through granville station and the first section you walk through is a food & kitchen section. They have shelves of tim tams here

Finding a neigborhood in Vancouver

If you're used to Melbourne, here are the equivalents in Vancouver:

English Bay - South yarra (tidy streets, high density living and high rents. Also fitness freaks running around to Stanley park - reminiscent of the 'tan area!)

Granville Island - Prahran market? (if you put prahran market in port melbourne, this would be it!)

West End - Prahran meets st kilda (gay area, with a bayside feel and good cafe scene)

Commercial Drive - Brunswick st (grunge, dirty, hippy, multicultural and alternative. Very colourful and good food! Lots of wierdos)

Richmond - springvale/clayton (best place for asian food & produce, rent is cheaper, a fair hike from the city!)

Chinatown - West melbourne (I'm not talking about the chinese side to it, but just how the cbd morphs into it and it's a bit of a quiet pocket)

Yaletown - Southgate (yuppie, sterile, picturesque)

Main Street - Chapel St (but more the Windsor end - plenty of style and spunk, not so wanky)

Cambie Village (cambie & 12th) - Glenferrie rd malvern (shopping village surrounded in pleasant suburbs. More functional and convenient than oozing with character, but lots of nice restaurants)

Kitsalano - Brighton (it's a nice area with a shopping strip and close to the water. A little yuppie - probably a more youthful version of brighton to be honest...)

North Vancouver - Camberwell (very family friendly, lots of parks, schools, suburban feel, hilly, village shopping feel)

Coal Harbour - docklands (amazing views, a bit more personality than docklands, expensive!)

Shaugnessy - Canterbury (rich and detatched from reality)

got more? please add them!

Getting you drivers License in BC

The official line is: You need a BC drivers license if you've been living in BC for 3 months.

Don't ask me how they know when you got here. Don't ask me what happens if you are here for 6 months (intending never to drive), then decide you are going to start driving. Don't ask me what if you leave the province and come back. I don't know!

Basically, the process is:

1. do your knowledge test
2. do your practical test
3. drive legally
   

But here are some details you will need for navigating these seemingly simple tasks:

1. Get an ORIGINAL letter from Vicroads (or RTA) stating the date of issue on your license. My victorian one didn't show an issue date. So the only way to prove I had 10 years driving experience was to get this original letter. A fax didn't cut it!
2. get the rules handbook from an ICBC outlet for free and study up http://www.canpages.ca/list.jsp?nt=C&na=icbc&ct=Greater%20Vancouver&pr=BC
   
3. Do the practice tests on the icbc website: http://icbc.com/
   
4. go to an ICBC office to sit your test - you need to pay a fee and bring your aussie lisence. It's one of those take-a-ticket-and-wait things, so if you're going on a Friday after work, be prepared to wait a few hours. They are a government organisation and don't give a SHIT about customer service. BE AWARE - you will need to forefeit your aussie lisence when you pass your knowledge test. So think about: whether you need to drive in the forthcoming few weeks, how you're going to get home from the icbc office, what you're gonna do for ID in the following few weeks.
   
5. Try to book in a driving exam on the ICBC site as quick as you can (because you'll be driving illegally until then!). You may only find availability in the immediate week, or in about 6 weeks time! The immediate spots are there due to cancellations.
6. Read the additional guidelines in a manual you can get from the ICBC site before your test. You might also like to go for a refresher with an instructor. http://www.canpages.ca/business/BC/greater-vancouver/driving-instruction/R4-264600.html
   
7. Go to an instructor NEAR the school you booked into and ask them to take you on the route the examiners take! You will learn some good pointers on right-turns-on-red, 360 checks b4 reversing, ending school zones, and other things that don't come naturally!
8. You will get your aussie lisence back when you pass your driving exam

Good luck! It might seem stressful but I found no problem with the process. A lot of blogs are overly cycnical of the process. But I think you only hear from the people who fail. My examiner was reasonable, polite and looked for signs of experience rather than looking for reasons to fail me!

hope this helps!

Buying a Car in Vancouver

Yeah, this is a confusing one. Avoid it if you can. The skytrain is pretty damn good!

But if you can't, here are some bits of info:

Vehicle inspections
Just like you can get an RACV, RACQ or NRMA check in Oz, you can use BCAA to get a vehicle check here. Pretty much the same gig: make an appointment between BCAA and the seller and pay BCAA. You can get the report emailed to you.

Roadworthy
No such thing! But you need an "air care" accreditation to prove you're not registering a polluting piece of crap. Ask the seller if it has air care and for how long. An air care lasts 2 years in most cases and after that you need to get a new one. Just like roadworthy back home, it's not the cost of the "inspection" that costs money (about $70), it's the potential cost to get the car fixed if it doesn't pass the test!!!

Taxes
You don't pay stamp duty on a car, but you pay a 5% tax if you buy it from a private seller and an extra 7% if you buy it from a yard/dealer. You pay this at the time you transfer the car ownership to your name.

Registration & Insurance
Don't get me started, it's a disgrace in BC. You're not buying insurance, you're paying a tax. The BC government are the only insurer here and you have to go with them! Even if you buy 3rd party, with $1m personal liabilty, you could be up for $180 per month! Want fully comprehensive? Could be $3k a year! You can bring down your premiums with letters from your australian insurer showing x years of no-claim history (10 years might get you 40% off).

This covers the insurance part (like the AAMI bit), plus the liabilty insurance you'd pay with your rego back home (like TAC for Vicroads or to the RTA in NSW).

Transfer of ownership
Go with the seller to an Autoplan office to sign over the vehicle and also sign up for your insurance, registration, pay your tax and get new plates. These are everywhere:
http://www.canpages.ca/business/BC/vancouver/insurance-agents-and-brokers/961-434600.html

Roadside care
If you want to sign up for the auto-assist type services. Talk to BCAA for that.

Where can I find Aussie beers in Vancouver?

Firstly, let me say that the Canadian ones aren't that bad! You just need to go for Granville Island and Big Rock rather than wasting time with Molson, Sleeman, Moosehead, etc!

But if you really want some of the home grown (or home licensed) stuff:

Mooses down under serve Boags premium and Coopers Pale Ale!
http://www.canpages.ca/page/BC/vancouver/mooses-down-under/1922650.html

I have also seen VB in some of the BC Liquor bottle-o's:
http://www.canpages.ca/list.jsp?lang=0&nt=C&na=bc%20liquor&ct=vancouver&pr=BC

Something else you may find strange - not much cold beer available in BC! That's right, you need to buy it warm, then take it home and put it in the fridge! Terribly inefficient if you ask me!

Where to buy Vegemite in Vancouver?

This is an important one!

So I've found a few places who stock it. Basically, expect to pay about $8.99 (plus tax) for one of those super-small jars that would be $2.20 at Coles or IGA back home!

Anyway, I've found them at these 2 places (might be worth calling to check first, they seem to order in small batches):
http://www.canpages.ca/page/BC/vancouver/dollar-grocers-ltd/3239012.html
http://www.canpages.ca/page/BC/vancouver/super-valu/3642061.html

You could also call Mooses Down under. I know they have a supplier who imports Veg, and bbq shapes, tim tams, burger rings, etc. They might be able to help (or even sell you some direct):
http://www.canpages.ca/page/BC/vancouver/mooses-down-under/1922650.html

(if you're reading this and know of more, please post them in a comment!)

If Marmite is your vice, just go down to Safeway. It's everywhere and it's only a few dollars.

good luck

Do I need a tax file number?

Yes! You need to get a tax file number BEFORE you start looking for jobs! A lot of employers will ask for that in the early stages of recruiting. You will get the NUMBER on the spot when you apply, but you should set aside some time to sit in the queue at the government office!

So let's start with some terminology! It's not called a tax file number here, it's a "social insurance number" or SIN. And the tax office is called "Revenue Canada" or "Canadian Revenue Agency".

So you'll need to:

1. head down to a "service canada" office (get there a few hours before closing time, you might be waiting)
2. take you passport, visa, and a good book or paper to read and pass the time waiting
3. take a ticket and wait in line (I was there a couple of hours)

You'll get a SIN number on the spot, then they will post you a card with the SIN number on it (which will become a useful bit of Canadian ID) - so have a mailing address ready (whether it's a friend, or pre-arranged with the hostel or whatever!)

Do it on a rainy day if you can, just in case you need to sit in the queue for ages!

locations in bc:
http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/cgi-bin/hr-search.cgi?cmd=lst&pv=bc&ln=eng