Archive pour août 2009

First days in Toronto

Vendredi 28 août 2009

west-street

I have been fairly quiet since my arrival, because I did not have so much time to write here.

2 main objectives: finding a room and start looking  for a job ! Besides that, I have begun to explore the city, take care of some paperwork stuff, meet people …

For the job, I finally get to 2 final resume, 1 for small jobs and one for a bilingual job, everything here is different from the French resume so it takes time and you need help/advices from people knowing how it work here. I will begin  to give my CV for small job today (Friday) and contiue to work for bilingual jobs.

For the accomodation, it is really fresh, from a few hours! I’ve just found a roommate in downtown of Toronto with cool Australian guys. I am going to speak about it more later, but move in on September 1st ! Normally …

Toronto is a quite expensive city, especially for transport or food but it is a vibrant city with a lot of different neighborhoods. I think there are a lot of opportunities for entertainment, and every people I have met so far are generally cool. Even if I have spoken with English, Brazilian, Australian, French, German in the hostel than with true Canadian!

The rest soon.

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I’m arrived on the Canadian territory

Lundi 24 août 2009

Little message to tell you that I am well arrived in Toronto.  After a journey quite long but pleasant as Air France offers a good service on board, I arrived after 6000 km across the North Atlantic to the Toronto International Airport around from 13:30 local hour, this makes 19h30 in France (6 hours more). Then, a very laborious transition to Canadian immigration to get my work visa, after that I took the bus to downtown and going quite exhausting (near of 50kg to carry) to the hostel …

The hostel seems really nice and there was a french girl at the reception so it was practical after all this transport, I
give you a most developed opinion within a week. Then, to avoid sleeping and waking in the middle of the night, eat and walk in the city !

It is currently 8pm here, almost 2am in France and is time to go to bed to face a big day of paperwork tomorrow.

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Departure August 23rd : Direction Toronto

Vendredi 21 août 2009

Toronto

So a bit of concrete on this exciting departure in Toronto!

Firstly how can I go to Canada and be able to work there ? Thanks to the WHP, ie the Working Holiday Program, agreement between the Canadian and French State that give you a visa to stay 1 year in Canada and to be able to work or travel, note that must be 18 to 35 years. If you want more information about this visa you can look at this french website PVTistes.

So I go, but for how long ? It is expected that I go about 8/9 months and I come back and France around April / May in order to finish my studies. This is the theory, so we will see next year !

My destination ? This is Toronto, the largest city in the Canadian territory ! I chose this city for several reasons. Located in the English-speaking part of Canada, it is best to improve my English, then because it’s a big city, which involves diverse activities, jobs, opportunities … Thanks to its situation in the south of Canada, Toronto is close to the USA (1 hour) and benefits from a milder climate than other parts of the country and of course allows to facilitate travel. Finally I could say I have a kind of attraction for this city when I read things, look at pictures … I will do an article on the city soon!

Note that I’m leaving on Sunday 23rd in the morning with the french national airline Air France! It means in less than 2 days, I must say that I do not realize yet !

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One week in London

Vendredi 21 août 2009

big-gen-londres

I decided one month ago to go to in England before fly to Canada to enjoy the proximity of that country with
France and see this part of Europe that I have very little visited. So between the 11 to 16 August I was on holiday in London!

Arrival in St Pancras Tuesday noon, towards our hotel in Earl’s Court, buy the Oyster card and go for 6 days of Londonlife ! The first day,we discover the beautiful area of Kensington to join Hyde Park, on our route for example the Natural History Museum. Rest in the beautiful Hyde Park, the sun is shining, people relax, it’s very nice! Then, direction Green Park to Buckingham Palace, which are not so very special for me … Walk in St James Park and then a short trip around Big Ben.

Second day, quick look at the famous Oxford street, full of people, little time for shopping in Primark offering clothing at prices defying any competition. Then Picnic in Hyde Park and ride … 3rd day, much bigger, we walk all along the Oxford street and i can tell you it is very long ! We take our lunch in a small restaurant in the district of Soho, before tackling the famous British Museum. Then visit the districts of Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Regent Street … And a beautiful night in London’s clubs ! The program for Friday, go back to Trafalguar Square, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament, London Eye, Tate Modern, St Paul’s Cathedral and Tower Bridge at night … What monuments ! And we see that London is a big tourist town.

Saturday we discover another large park in central London: Regent’s Park, a different style of Hyde Park but very charming, with its small lakes and activities especially for children. We pass a large part of the day in Camden Town, is roughly « alternative » neigborhood, still active and with a huge market on Saturday. Sunday, last day, we go on Holland Park, the neighborhood of Nothing Hill, Portobello Road and we are not avoiding the famous Speakers corner of Hyde Park until our bus bringing us to the airport.

To sum up ! I really loved London and to go there over a weekend is better to see the different facets of this city, I would say that to live or work in that town attracted me more than Paris, I would try one day !

Pictures :

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New projects and new Blog

Jeudi 20 août 2009

As I said earlier, I officially launch this new blog, which takes over the former: « Erasmus Bratislava ». All articles about this time in Slovakia and my travels are available on this blog (in french), it would have been stupid to remove all !

The purpose of this blog is to talk about my travels and experiences abroad. I always enjoyed reading blogs of people traveling and discovering new countries, so why not me! In addition, it is an easy way to give news being far from home.

So, after nearly 5 months in Slovakia and have discovered a big part of Eastern Europe, now I’m going to North America! In fact, I decided to live for at least 8 months in Canada, especially in Toronto. Of course being on another continent lead to new opportunities to travel, including in my case the United States!

New : This blog is now bilingual ! I mean I will translate my articles in English. 2 main reasons, firstly make this blog understandable by the people who do not speak french and then simply to write in English and improve my writing. For now the translations are below the french part but then I will do something better with a part of the blog only in English.

Let’s go !

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