Recently, an unbelievable story made the headlines in France. For three year, a number of internauts supported Noa, a bubbly seventeen-year old blogger, in her fight against cancer. One day, Noa passes away from the illness, announces Salomé, her twin sister. Salomé, a ski champion, starts blogging as well and gathers quite a following among people still distraught by Noa’s tragic death.
Group Coupons: a Bitter or Sweet Deal?
Unless you spent the last few years in a cave, you probably noted the emergence of dozens of “group coupon” websites: Groupon, LivingSocial, Koopon, DealFind and many other are probably already serving your city. Simply type the name of your city plus “deal” and they will pop up in your search results.
I’m not saying I’m always smart but I generally have some kind of common-sense. But hey, we all have occasional embarrassing “duh” moments… well, this is one of these.
These days, I noticed a lot of inviting posters popping up on signposts downtown: “summer job, make $300 a day!”, “last year our employees made $10,000 over the summer” etc. So I set to investigate these “great” summer jobs.
In Ottawa, the gathering takes place today on Parliament Hill and Major Hill. When the clock on the Peace Tower strikes 4:20, bam, light up your spliff and enjoy—just make sure you don’t burn a passing RCMP Officer with your lit joint (guess what, Parliament Hill is not exactly cop-free).
How can you translate something that doesn’t actually exist in your home country? Most French will understand “Halloween” or “Thanksgiving” (thank you Hollywood!) but chances are a lot have never heard of “Boxing Day” or “Tailgates parties”. I know I hadn’t anyway.
Who doesn’t have a bank account these days? A checking account and a credit card are often essential to everyday life but unfortunately, banking comes with a number of scams.
I strongly encourage newcomers to Canada to get familiar with the local banking system, including debit cards, saving accounts, credit cards and credit reports.
It’s spring, flowers are blooming, the grass is green and… nope actually. Sorry, I was dreaming. It’s still cold and the only thing that seems to be growing these days are campaign signs. These big pieces of cardboard, commonly known as “lawn signs”, popped up magically the night after the federal elections were announced and are now spreading across the country. In fact, some signs were even up before the election was called!
When I first got into photography, I had no clue what I was doing. I didn’t read any book, didn’t take any classes. I simply listened to my instinct, trying to capture moments, more or less successfully. Most of what I learned was by trial and error. I trained with a small Kodak Easyshare and eventually allowed myself to graduate to a DSLR when photography became a true passion.
I’m such a lucky girl. Sometimes, I get out-of-the-blue emails from strangers all around the world who want to share their life saving with me, or simply want to give me money.
And look at what I recently received: a job offer! In Canada! I couldn’t resist sharing it with you.After all, I may be the only person in the entire world who received it. Told you I was lucky.
Immigrants I’m in contact with often mention how challenging it is to make new friends in their adoptive country. Sure, we can stay connected with “home” easily through the Internet and social websites made it easier to keep in touch. But meeting new people in real life can be tricky at first. I know. I’ve been there.
You finally landed wherever you dreamed of living, some kind of visa in hand. You tackled all the bureaucratic obstacles on your way and went through an often lengthy immigration process. You adapted to life in a new country, got a job, learned a new language and made friends with locals. You are a new immigrant and you embrace your status.
But were you prepared for these three unexpected consequences of immigration?
Of all the frauds and scams around, identity theft is probably one of the scariest of all. It’s sneaky and the consequences can be huge, not to mention that clearing the whole mess up can be Kafkaesque. How to prove that someone else assumes your identity? How to prove that you are not responsible for your fraudulent alter ego’s actions? The consequences of this crime can be felt for years.