Going to Canada

[Nina182B]

My company is sending me to Toronto, Canada for three days training next week.. I am actually feeling bummed about the whole thing I've never been to Canada and I guess I should be pretty excited. I would be if I knew I could go sightseeing and stuff but I will be flying there Tuesday night and leaving Friday night. The only good thing I can think of is that I can probably go to sushi restaurants for 3 days straight and bill my company :p I am also a bit worried that I might not get back into the U.S. I lost my greencard couple of months ago, and had to get my passport stamped for work authorization and supposedly "to get in and out of the country" But with the whole security thing at airports, I hope they don't think I'm a terrorist and deny me access back home. That would suck.

[kakoi_sugoi_yama]

I'm sure that eveything will work out just fine. Try to have some fun while you are there.

[Japschin]

Nina, immigration didn't give you the new green card yet? Did they send you a letter that it will be replaced or do you have the documentations? If you have those, bring them with you, just in case. Eh...you don't have a driver's license, do you?
Not to scare you but just last year, my classmate went to Canada w/o green card for a short vacation. Lost his driver's license but had the temporary paper. However, he was detained at the border for almost 5 hours. He kept explaining but the officers did not take his explanations. Fortunately, one of the senior officers who came for his shift decided to take my friend's word and checked the records.

Since yours is of work nature, you should be fine. Have as much sushi as you can, since your company would be paying for it. Get the expensive ones at the sushi bars. Enjoy! :p

[Zagatto]

Nina... just so you know... there is a new law here in Toronto that requires sushi chefs to freeze their fish for 7 days prior to preparing it to kill off parasites. It's a good idea but there are some fish that change drastically when frozen. Most fish have undetectable changes and all the sushi bars are fighting the code.

It's only been in place since the beginning of last month and not going to be enforced for another month yet. I'll do what I can to find out which are the good sushi bars that haven't started freezing the fish yet.

For the record, there isn't a single case of a person contracting a parasite from sushi in Canada... ever... this is merely a preventative measure that has been imposed only in Ontario.

If you're interested in checking out all sorts of Asian goodness I'll be happy to give you directions or even come up to show you around on Thursday night. I'm less than an hour south of Toronto.

[Nina182B]

I'm glad you told me about your friend! I am going to take as much proof as possible. I don't have a driver's license Never got one.. I was going to but the DMV said they needed my green card, which I don't have. Immigration told me it'll take a year to get my green card back, plus with the whole terrorist crap, probably two years. Stupid terrorists. If I do get detained, my flight will leave without me Geez, I hope nothing bad happens. I told my boss I didn't want to go and that they should pick somebody else for this project... well, I will try to stay positive about this whole thing.

[Zagatto]

Nina,

I wouldn't worry too much. Just keep your head about you and don't try to make up any stories. The worst you'll probably suffer would be a few hours of questioning and a bit of a delay. And even that is highly unlikely unless they've got some sort of question about you regarding a recent trip to the middle east. It would be an inconvenience but that's about the worst to expect.

Bring a fair amount of ID with you and a letter from your employer explaining what your trip is about and you should be fine.

[-spike-]

I dont think it will be that big of a deal, when my family and I went through Canada this summer all they did was look at out ID and ask a few question. Than they let us through. My parants had out birth certificates ready and everything, but they didnt even ask for them. It may be diffrent for you, but I dont think there would be any problems.

[JingRoyale]

Good luck in Canada and have a good trip. If you get a chance, you should check out this cool looking anime store in Toronto.

Here is a link to thier site:

http://www.kikiwai.com/about.php

[Gemini]

Have fun, I was up in Toronto a couple of years back and it was fun. But I also got to go to Montreal and that was even cooler... hahaha. You know how in Montreal, most people speak french, well I got to learn one word up there, reading the stop sign (arret).

[rav96]

Cool Canada! have fun! Toronto is Ace ive got 2 friends over there.

[Nina182B]

Well everything is permanent now. I got my flight itinerary and hotel booking. I feel better knowing there's an anime store near there. Maybe I will visit it. Thanks JinRoyale

Zagatto, it sounds like the sushi won't be as good if they freeze it for that long but I don't know.. at least it's only in that one city. Thanks for offering to show me around but I would feel bad making you drive all the way over there. Now that I know I'm definately going, I have to look up how to exchange money and temperature in Toronto.

[Gemini]

Sushi is great but also try some dim sum, definately gotta go for that.

[Zagatto]

I don't consider any drive under an hour to be a waste of my time.
Next weekend I'll be meeting Peter face to face while I'm up in Montreal. I think it's cool to meet other IA forum members in real life.
The money is pretty easy to figure out the exchange for. Too bad the US dollar is doing so poorly lately. You've lost a lot of the advantage of the exchange rate lately. Currently, our dollar is worth about $0.80 US and when you figure in the 15% sales tax here it's pretty much a straight up exchange. The best thing to do is use a credit card to make most of your purchases and get a bit of cash just for basics.
The temperature here is actually quite similar to New Jersy. We just use Celcius instead of Farenheight on our thermometers. What you're used to as 70 degrees in the US (room temperature) is about 20 degrees here. Bring a light jacket for the evenings and morning and plan on long sleeved shirts during the day. If this current weather continues you might be able to wear short sleeves during the day.

Let me know if you change your mind about the guided tour. I know my way around Little India, Greektown, and some of the Asian areas in Toronto. I head into TO about once per month.

[Robojack]

A few of us should all get together, and go for all-you-can-eat Japanese sushi (and other Japanese cuisine items) in Toronto.

[Zagatto]

Robojack... you live in Markham (a suburb of Toronto for people reading this who aren't familiar with the area). I love going to the Pacific Mall for food, toys, and other asian stuff. I've heard that there are better places in the area for just about anything a person could want. Is this true or do you find the best selection at the Pacific Mall?

Also, do you know any sushi resteraunts that haven't started freezing their fish yet? I know there are a number of them that are refusing to comply with the new by-law but I have no way to find out which ones those are.

I'm good for Tuesday or Thursday nights next week if we are having an evening get together while Nina is in town. Any other time will probably work for me after that if I have enough notice.