site/blog/life-update-2019-05-16.markdown

---
title: "Life Update - Montréal" 
date: "2019-05-16"
for: "Vic"
---

# Life Update - Montréal

I have moved to Canada. The US has been a good place to me, but it is time for me to move on towards my longer term goals in life. One of them has been to move to Canada so I could be closer to my fiancé; and I have now been able to check that off.

This trip has not been without its hardships so far:

I scheduled the flight too close to my apartment check-out, so I wasn't able to do the final walk through with the apartment people. Probably gonna have to pay a bunch. However, as of May 16, they haven't contacted me. I'm probably in the clear. I hope the guy I hired to clean it did a good job. I wish I could give the guy an honest review.

Things didn't work out for me to stay with my fiancé, so I had to get an Airbnb. My Airbnb was cancelled twice after I unwillingly got matched twice with the same person that had a wrong number in Airbnb. I got a hotel now, even though that meant increasing my stress and anxiety levels. Oh well, it happens. I also didn't take action when I needed to (I thought the relocation company was going to expense it and bill me), so I had a worse selection of Airbnb rooms. Oops.

I normally get headaches. Moving stress apparently (as in this is what I have witnessed) makes me have migraines that make me see colors synesthestically. It's not fun having the lights flash but not, but flash, but not. All in sync to the pain waves too. Not fun.

My first hotel room in Sea-Tac had a broken TV. I had to get a new one just after finishing settling in. But the new one worked. That hotel was nice to cool down and prepare for my flight in. 

My Airbnb fell through. Twice. I got a hotel next to work, Hôtel Champ de Mars. This hotel was great for the first week. I extended my stay because we didn't have an apartment yet. This hotel's housekeeping then decided it was a good idea to take a blanket out of my suitcase and fold it onto my bed. This accelerated our plans to get an apartment by a LOT. This hotel then decided to introduce some unwritten policy that I could not opt out of housekeeping. I woke up the next morning and suddenly the policy was no longer an issue and housekeeping ignored my room until the next Monday. Then they folded that blanket and my towels too. I complained to the owners and got an email that basically said "sorry for being offended". I gave my keys back and walked out two days before my stay should have ended.

I have recently realized that I'm the foreigner here. People can have difficulty understanding when I say things over the phone or spell out letters of words. This is a unique thing to experience; and I think more people probably should experience it. This is a bit of a culture shock to me. Before I had moved internationally, I had been living in the city I literally grew up in. Really makes you think.

I needed to get a new phone number and I'm going to have to lose my old one. I thought I could park it or something. I can't. I'm gonna have to let it go. It's a bit stressful because I don't know what else depends on it; but as they say here, c'est la vie (that's life). If anything really important is missed, I'll figure it out.

I don't mean to complain too much, but it's a lot and it's more than I feel I can handle. It's happened, but god it has been a thing.

On the positive end though, I'm going to be living with my fiancé. This is going to be a huge relief. We've been long distance for over 5 years. It's so good to see that turn into a physical relationship, hopefully for good.

I'm reaching a transition period where I'm going to be going for new long term goals. This is kind of exciting as much as it is scary. I've had this move to Canada goal for so long I'm kind of like "now what?". 

One of these long-term goals looks like it's going to be getting married. I don't know when this is going to be fulfilled, but it will happen when it is time. Until then, please stop asking me when it's going to happen. Asking me feels like I need to give a concrete answer in many cases; there is no concrete answer of when other than "when it's time". If this is not good enough for you, I am sorry that I'm unable to conform to your wishes.

This new apartment has been great. Our rent pays for everything, including internet. It's a relief to only really have two bills.

My new job is great too. I had to take a pay cut to go to Montréal, but there is more to life than money.

Something of note is that this is the first time I've moved without having to get out of jury duty. I've managed to avoid it every time so far by unfortunately timed moves.

Things are looking up for me. I'm really happy. My new job is great. The people I work with are great. I'm working towards French fluency (hopefully going to be writing blogposts in French by this time two years from now at most). Everything is looking up from here, and I'm so happy for it.

Can't wait to see what's next!