Wonders of Canada

I believe it is about time I write about this. I think I have mentioned some of these earlier, but here I combine them into a list form. Yay! for lists!

1. Phone and internet connection:

Unlike in Finland the prices are high. I pay about the same amount for my mobile internet connection as I paid for my land line and mobile connection together. Still it is obvious which one is more expensive. First of all the connection here is measured by how much you use it (I use it a lot) and not by how fast you want to use it. The speed is quite epic all the time, which means that if you are not careful, you have used all the data in few weeks. The phone connection... I might have been able to get a bit cheaper connection if I would have signed up for two to three years. So that really was not an option. So my phone bill is about 330% higher than what is was in Finland. It gets even higher if I call to Finland. This is just because the plans are different. All calls within Canada are included in my plan and also I get discount when calling abroad. In Finland I paid for almost every call and text I made. I could call free for my sister, brother in law, few friends and other family members. 

2. Cars and driving

There's a lot of cars in here! But that is not why I am mentioning them. In Finland we have this culture; Oh no you don't! You really see it when driving. It drives me mad! Well here, where there are more cars in the city area than there is in entire country of Finland (the GTA has close to 5 million people), the drivers are friendly. Don't get me wrong there still are some accidents and people do drive like crazy. Mostly people are friendly, and when you put the blinker on, you _know_ you can transfer to the other lane. It is so weird! Well at start it was, but now that I have driven here, I quite enjoy it. 

3. Stores and taxes

All the stores inform the prices without taxes (like in the US) and the taxes are added at the register. So when you are buying things, just remember to add the 13% to the final amount. One exception there is, if you buy food then there is no tax. I mean proper food and not candy or soda or anything similar to those. If you buy food for a restaurant anywhere else than a grocery store than there will be a tax added.  

4. Tips

The restaurant reminded me, that here you will need to pay a tip if you eat out. Well not in fast food joints, but elsewhere. My friends and I ate at Hard Rock Cafe and they actually have added a hint in the bill. It says that the tip usually here is 18-20 %. I think normally it is around 15%. So basically when you see the tax, you need to pay that amount again and a little bit more. 

5. CV or Resume?

Well here you do not need to think what you are sending, as they all are Resumes. Also you do not need to put your birthday or gender in it. Or nationality! Which in my opinion is a very good idea and we should adopt that in Finland as well!