#triptocanada

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, on Sunday, departed Nigeria for a three-day official visit to Canada.

Laolu Akande, his spokesman, in a statement on Sunday, described the trip as “the first high-level visit from Nigeria since 2000 when former President Obasanjo visited the North American country”.

Akande said the visit will deepen diplomatic ties between Nigeria and Canada.

The vice-president is expected to meet Chrystia Freeland, Canadian deputy prime minister, and other top parliamentarians and members of the Canadian government in Ottawa, on Monday.

During the visit, issues and events around educational collaboration, technology, the creative industry and climate justice, among others, will also be discussed.

“For instance, the Vice President will give a public lecture at the Queen’s University in Kingston on Wednesday. Established in 1841, Queen’s University is one of Canada’s leading research-intensive academic institutions and is famous for its role in advancing the goals of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development,” the statement reads.

Osinbajo is also expected to give a public lecture at the Queen’s University in Kingston on Wednesday.

Before the lecture, Osinbajo will be received at the Ontario-based Carleton University, “which has significant engagements and collaborations with some educational institutions in Nigeria, with ongoing efforts to deepen the mutual relationships around issues including research and curriculum development”.

Akande said Osinbajo will also meet with the leadership of the Nigerian community, including Nollywood actors and notable Canadian government officials with Nigerian origins.

He will also meet with representatives of the Canadian business community and investors, especially from the creative industry and technology sector.

Everything started with the idea to do something new, something exciting. Me and my boyfriend Patrick made already a couple of winterseasons, working as ski-instructors, in Saas Fee, Switzerland. Now we are ready for something different. We thought about going to Japan or Canada for a winter and we decided to go to CANADA. In this blog entry I want to tell you what you need to organize when you want to work a winterseason in Canada and about the experiences I made.

STEP 1: The Working Visa:

Because I’m German I had to apply for the working holiday visa to be able to work in oversea. I did this in October 2016. You get into a pool of applications. In several round of invitations they pick out applicants wich receive a invitation for the working holiday visa. As soon you receive this invitations you have 20 days time to send all requiered documents to the canadian government. When everything is fine you get the work permit. I was lucky and received the letter of inviation already after the first round of inviation. This was in January 2017. My boyfriend Patrick is Swiss, so he is not able to receive a working holiday visa. But because he made the swiss patent as a ski instructor he would be able to receive a sponsored visa. The problem is, not many ski resorts offer sponsered visas. And he would need a job offer to get a visa. So for the moment the plan is that he will come with me to Canada and maybe returns back to Switzerland already earlier than me.

STEP 2: Applying for work

A Canadian application includes a cover letter, CV and letter of references. The only thing wich is a little bit different to the German application is the CV. A picture, date of birth and the marital status do not belong into the canadian CV. Everything else is more or less the same. For me as a german I had hard work to do the cover letter, but I was very happy with my result. After finishing my Application we chose ski resorts where we wanted to stay for a winterseason and work as ski instructors. Because we both want to ski amazing powder we decided to go to a powderparadise wich is located at the powderhighway in British Columbia (BC). Our number one ski resorts were Revelstoke and Fernie. But of course we had to apply in much more ski resorts to be sure that we or at least me gets a job. I started to sent out applications in August 2017. In mid of September I still didn’t had any job or even interviews and I started to panic. Also because I received a job cancellation of Revelstoke. They had 180 applications for 6 positions. I sent out even more applications. But end of September things started to roll. I finally had a skype interview and that was even Fernie, our number one ski resort. And luckily I got the job. After this interview I received even more invitations for an interview. So if you plan to work in Canada, you have to be very patient. They start planning the winterseason quit late in the year. This is not like in the structured, organized and always on time country Germany. :)

STEP 3: The flight

We booked the flight already before I had the job in Fernie, BC. But the most resorts we applied are closer to Calgary than to Vancouver. So we were looking for flights from Stuttgart or Zürich to Calgary. From Stuttgart you can fly already from around 650€ to Calgary. But because we weren’t 100% sure if we find a job we figured out if there is any opportunities of oneway tickets or open return tickets. Like this we don’t need to book a fixed flight back home. From the Work & Traveller Company we became a flight offer from Frankfurt to Calgary. We have already a fixed flight back home, but we are able to change the flight once without an extra fee. For this we had to pay 850€. Not to bad.

STEP 4: Accommodation

I can just tell you how it is to find Accommodation in Fernie, BC. This is very difficult. There are several facebook groups like “Fernie BC Renters” or “Moving to Fernie in 2017/2018″. Also on ourfernie.com and other homepages are accommodations online. The easiest way is to find something via the facebook groups. But there are not many rooms available in Fernie. If anyone makes a post that he is renting a room or a place, there are 20 comments below. We found something where they rent out old hotel rooms for a complete winterseason. This is not too expensive and at least we don’t have to sleep on the streets. And its a way to find new social contacts very fast and easy.