Arthon wrote:What's the reason to move here?
It's a long story (but I'm sure that's true of most people's lives).
Ach, what the heck. At the risk of giving too much away on a public forum: I'll try to at least give you a broad impression of my background and journey that ended in Montréal.
I'm English and have spent most of my life in the UK. In later years, I became disillusioned with my country and decided to move to Melbourne Australia. Before leaving the UK, I'd been dating a Canadian for 6 months. The long distance relationship was hard for us both, but we got on really well. I got offered a job in Melbourne and found an apartment there. He moved from Canada and joined me there in Australia. We lived there for 2 years, where we indulged our shared love of the guitar. We got into buying and selling guitars at the local second hand store and in that way, we got to try out many styles of guitar. It was around that time that I became increasingly obsessed with offset guitars.
We had some good times in Melbourne, but in the end we decided to leave Australia because it wasn't working out for us, for many many reasons, but mainly because Melbourne was crazy expensive, real estate prices were insane and financial ruin loomed large in our futures. Also, neither of us were citizens.
We then moved to the UK. I was offered a job in Manchester, and I've lived in Manchester before, so we went there. We also got married, which is something that we couldn't have done in Australia. We talked about trying out the UK for a while, and that maybe we'd stay, and maybe even attempt to buy a house in England or Scotland if the right opportunity came along. But after a year or so, it became more and more obvious that we wanted to give Canada a try. My partner was missing Canada, and to be frank, British society is mightily f***** up right now, so I wasn't loving UK life either. And whilst I'd been away in Australia, the "affordable" houses had also moved out of reach.
It wasn't all bad, though; there were some great musical experiences to be had in Manchester. For example, we got to see Johnny Marr play in his home town with that glorious Jag of his turned up to the max. What a night!
Over many months I filled out all of the forms necessary to apply for residence in Canada, I paid my fees and then anxiously waited. Shortly before my partner's UK visa ran out and after nearly 2 years in the UK, I was approved for residence. We subsequently landed in Toronto where we stayed with family for a couple of months.
I know what you're thinking: "Wait... what? You left the UK and Australia to escape insane house prices and landed in Toronto!?". Yes, you're right. We couldn't afford to stay there in the long term and we needed to explore other places to live. I'm lucky that I'm currently able to work form any location. We went on many road trips across Ontario and also ventured into the edges of Québec and finally decided that Montréal was for us, even though we are only able to read basic French.
I love the joie de vivre that people have in this city. I love the blend of European and North American cultures. I love the food (especially the bread, cheese & local beer!) and I love that Montréal is stuffed full of art and culture. And it's possible to get around the island without a car; there is a transport network similar to what I'm used to.
We have always said that if we were ever to settle in a city, then that city would have to have large green spaces at its heart. Apart from the fact that there's a very obvious small green mountain at the core of Montréal, it's packed full of parks and green spaces. And yes, Montréal is more affordable than Toronto and the GTA.
Finally, I really enjoy the French culture in Montréal, despite not being able to converse in French myself. I'm at that stage where I'm thoroughly embarrassed to attempt to speak words out loud, and even if I do say French words, I mangle them terribly. However, I've only been here 10 weeks, and much of that time was spent holding down my day job, apartment hunting and buying furniture, as well as registering for health care and all those other things that you have to do if you switch countries. I still have hope that over time I can improve my French.
Update:
I forgot to mention that of all the places we investigated in Ontario and the Western edge of Québec, for some reason, Montréal felt the most like "home".
Arthon wrote:Are you in a band in Montréal?
I'm sorry to disappoint; but no, I'm not! I bet this city is a great place for that sort of thing, though.
I was in a bunch of guitar bands in the UK, many years ago, but I don't do anything like that anymore. My guitar skills have got worse over the years, actually! Not enough practice. Nevertheless, the guitar still brings me a great deal of pleasure. I'm starting to get more into the playing again and I hope to record some simple tracks (just for my own enjoyment) later in the year, once the Winter sets in and I'm spending more time indoors.
Arthon wrote:We could meet if you want some local offset meetup
Would anybody else be interested? Apart from some professional contacts, I don't know anybody else in this city.
