hi titi...please what cargo company did you use for your stuffs.... congrats on ur successful landing..I hope you're settlingin gradually. thanks n have a great day titiclassy:
LANDING GIST (LANDED 2 WEEKS AGO)
ALL THE THANKS TO GOD
We booked LUFTHANSA flight for 14th February (yes oo..that was the VAL gift for the family). We went to Lufthansa office in VI so it was cheaper.My hubby doenst joke with his comfort , so he paid for extra leg room, especially because we are flying with a baby and a toddler. Prior to our leaving, when people ask me how i feel about the relocation..I just say hopeful! even when family and friends were super excited on my behalf, me I just dey hopeful o not anxcious, not sad, but hopeful!..hahaha. I stopped work a week and half before trip. I was given a surprise sendforth party at work which encouraged me a great deal and made me rethink leaving known for unknown..but the retink didnt last formore than a minute...  In preparation for the winter I had gon to Yaba to gt some gears. was fortunate to meet a merchant that had very nice things...so i made 3 different trips to his place and ended up buying more than i planned (my luggage allowance paid for it but I am enjoying the nice wears now)
I started packing our luggages ..7 checked in luggaages (5 for clothes, shoes, books, alums,household stuff, 2 for some nija food stuff...)thank God for the list that was shared here... i forgot my broom and shea butter sha.. The digital hand scale helped but i still did strong head over packed some bags (especially hand luggaes). I had a special hand luggage dedicated for beans and poundo..it was weighing about 15kg..but when nairaland people told me not to try it...i repsected myslef , found a way to distribute te beans and poundo into checked in luggage while i tranfered shoes and boots into hand luggage. lest I forget I also had..3 hand luggages, 3 back packs, one diaper bag ( i smuggeled my entire heavy jeweries and beads into teh diaper bag..heheheh.. when only jewelry and beads were weighing 5kg (pls facefront o).
Fast forward to the d-day..parents and inlaws saw us off to teh airport, we took some pictures and said bye bye..that was around 3pm...5hours before check in commenced.
we paid 4k for the 2 bags that contained foodstuff. All of a suddden I started fidgetting, feeling guity that my bags will not pass due to over-weight. So i approached one of teh airline officials and reported myself to him that I have over-weight bags and that he should pls help me when the time comes for check-in (my hubby got so pissed at me). that was how teh guy started exploiting my fear...he took teh bags and went to weigh them, he told us we were overshooting our allowance by 22kg or so and mentioned that teh only solution was to pay for an extra 23kg which costs $300 there about...i started widing my husband to allow us beg him to collect 50k.na so the guy do shakara for us and left us. At once my husband told me in 'Yoruba' 'u better start offloading all the off-loadables. That was how I jejely put my baby in his stroller and started off-loading some stuff- removd 2 pack of beans out of 3, 2 kegs of plam oit out of 4, 2 of my heavy shoes, 1 family picture frame out of 2, 2 semolina out of 3,one one heavy butfine hand bag that my sister has been craving to collect..that was how all teh luggages came into teh 23.5-24 kg range and teh hand luggages 8kg. I packed all those extra into a GMG i bought at the airport , I begged one of the customer service ladies to keep it till a friend come to get it that evening. We were given priority check -in due because of my baby..infact having an infant travelling realy paves the way. we were given priority for all queues.
My family was a sight to behold during secuity checking and proceeding for boarding due to our plenty load, (7 cabin bags o...with babay stroller and car seat) i cant try that kind of cabin load again moving with kids. Just before boarding they announced that those with more than 1 cabin bags should come and checkin the extras..we were so happy..my husband took 3 of our 'buddens' to add to our check-in to eb collected at final destination-toronto
Our first trip was very comfortable cos of the extra leg room seats, food was just there.My kids were given toys, coloring book and crayons, snacks too. We all slept for most part of the flight.We landed at frankurt airport and here we had to trek an dtrek before we located our boarding gate. Anyways we experienced a little bit of racism by one of the Air canada officials..they called for priority boarding for anyone with infant and i and my family proceeded to the fornt but she was shocked we were blacks and said we shld hold on (for no explainable reason o)but her coleague interupted and said some words in German and ended it with 'its not fair'..so that was how we sha proceeded into ths bus that took s to the plane. Lest i forget our air Canada flight from Frankfurt to Toronto was delyed for 2 hours..all ths people jst they look us..and We were the only blacks in this flight. I just told my husband that my Nairaland people too like cheap...Ethiopian and Egypt air. Seriously...i was looking for just 1 of u guys..common! 
The flight to Toronto was just there..we seat felt cramped..ot that they were bad but we had enjoyed space in teh previous flight..my baby and toddler wer emre active and demanding..but honestly..they behaved better than i had imagened..we imagened the worst..it was their first flght. Good movies We landed Pearson airport at around 3:50pm. We proceeded to immigration. they scanned our passports, minuted on our declaration card and then showed us to take the elevator downstairs to luggage claim. We got our luggages gt one of the luggage movers to move the luggages for $15 or so. We took our bags to customs, they didnt check our bags, she just asked me if we had anythng chicken..and i siad NO, God forbid (in my naija head i was like...chai i shld av smuggled some knorr chicken oo..see as this people no chekc anything..lol)
That was we left customs and proceeded to exit ..yes o EXIT...We missed out teh boarder service part o!..i totally forgot all the steps Nairaland and other Seniors had mentioned. Our famility friends were outside with their cars waiting for us..we came out of teh airport and lo and behold the cold welcomed us no be for here oooo..you cant imagen...i was almost crying for my baby in teh stroller..because the guy frowned face o.. it was colder than my freezer in lagos o..i mean it.
We drove to our airbnb in South mississauga..very lovely apartment ..our friends brougt plenty jollof rice, naija style chicken, efo riri and friends stew... 3 big bottles of jice..some snacks..We gisted a bit..then ate some jollof and we all went to sleep...Our sleep and wake up schedule was 'wakked' for teh next 4-5 days o..it seems we were always eating in the midnight (naija morning time). It was while I was gisting with a landed senior that I confirmed that we had missed a major step of COPR signing and Visa stamping..I also double checked with my Indian coleagues on whatsapp group (lol). Guess what.some people feel we wld be told to return to naija and re-enter. My slef ad my husband cld not relax well on sunday o .... Thank God Monday 18th was family holiday in Canada..so we begged our family friend to come pick us back to teh airport. it snowwed heavily tht morning but we didnot even mind..My prayers was that they shld do our landing proper for us. We located Boarder service and teh guy iniially shakara us that we will have to re-eter Canada. I almost started crying o. I started speaking all the british english i could told him nobody directed us to sign COPR..that we are not awrae of were to go next after immmigration or customs.. so that was how he directed us to anotehr of his coleague and that one now had mercy on us. Na back door (staff lobby) we take enter the COPR area o. We signed COPR, landing date was taken as that day MOnday instaed of the previous Friday. We also got our SIN. We ot back to airbnb feeling releived. made poundo with our efo riro and drank juice and slept.
Fast forward to current situation..we opened account with RBC (1 year free charges on transactions, $2000 credit card each), wrote G1and passed (hubby will get a trainer and write G next week), we got mobile phone package from Rogers (2 huawei p2 pro phones, 11 gig shared for $140). We booked appointment with settlement agencies New commer center of Peel, Access employment information session, COSTI . We attended a small church in our area and teh pastrs wife have been giving my chidren things, toys clothes, eve booster seat for my toddler (the uber drivers cld not take us witout this. Moving around with uber has been expensive but we got to do what we have to do ..its only for a while. The House hunting..chai..it has been discouraing.. the apartments have been asking for requirements (job letters, credit history) that we dont have. Even basement owners does not want to take me with babies...2 of them gave excuses of not being comfortable to put small kids in basement. We got a basement in Brampton but we no too like teh basement..we are still searching sha. Our airbnb runs out in few days and we have an option of a 3 months short rent in a furnished aprtment..its a little above our budget but i guess we will just take it .Myself and hubby are both in the IT domain so we dont want to go out of the GTA. We have started looking for jobs too..and we will keep trying out churches and networking events. Because of the children..we might have to take turns going out. However i learnt that government will bear cost of daycare for the first 12 months if I get a job or go to school. Health card will not be ready till after 3 months. That was how my baby was sick for 2 days and I had to maanage it with hot bath, robb, tynenol painkillers and prayers.. I am praying that no one gets ill again o. meanwhile the plenty winter wears have been serving us well o. even our family frinds says they are nice. We have been going to Square One mall every other day to enjoy savory meals and shop groceries in wallmart..may God help our POF..lolzz |
Travel › Re: Living In Canada/Life As A Canadian Immigrant Part 2 by hardhewoonmee(f): 12:23pm On Dec 28, 2020
