general

renting in Canada is "company buys everything up then rents out a room for 1200 a month"

your housing options sound way more expensive than mine ever were

Canada is fucked

I am probably going to end up spending 1800 CAD, and it will cover water and maybe heat but not electricity

that is the average of all the places I was seeing

Yeah, so I looked into this Pika because DC in one of the worst housing areas in the US (top5)

every major Canada metro area is magnitudes worse

Yeah, no, Canada is uniquely fucked in a way I think a lot of you guys do not appreciate unless you've actually looked into it

and your reqs to rent anything, are R E T A R D E D

the fact you have to go through a background check, and get letters of reccomendation

for shitty studio apartments

that's more than what I pay for my 2 bedroom (duplex) house rental + water

Welcome to Canada leg

2 bedroom duplex house rental is probably like 2700-3000 CAD minimum

and that's after my 20% increase

buildings older than 5 years have a 5%/year rent increase cap, doug ford removed it so any building built in the last 5 years (the nice ones) have no cap

I mean, I pay more for the streamer house, but loan rates are bad rn

You also got a massive house

when they come down and I refinance, I'll be less broke

I am sure you'd pay less if you got a shitty shack somewhere

my nice college apartments were $600 and then $800, all utilities included, with appliances

you also have a full time salary though spooky

well, double that, because they were 2BRs and I had a roomate

I have 25200 CAD/year to work with after I subtract tutition costs

I was paying under $900 living alone in undergrad

You can barely find a room for the CAD equivalent of that, if not way more expensive

like I said, housing is megafucked here

DC is bad rn too, but yeah Canada everywhere is worse

it's actually insane

did you only look in canada for PhDs?

I do not want to be particularly far from my family, and if I was going elsewhere it would've been Europe

PIKA come do you PHD here with me, you can have an illiterate prof too

I have zero interest in going to the US

dw we'll come to you

I did look at the netherlands when I was doing my masters, but I missed the deadline for those schools

figured it would be funny to apply to live with Fire

and I was looking at switzerland but they ghosted me until i had already accepted a job offer

To be honest leg, I just applied to the schools my supervisor suggested would be good for me lol

So what ethnic food are you going to become acquainted with Pika?

quebecois

I plan to cook my own food

since I assume whatever slum area you live in will be taken over by some nationality

I know enough basic meals that it is not an issue

I suggest korean

yeah but the grocery stores Pika

you'll be shopping at a K-Town market

or smt

Welcome to Canada, Loblaws is everywhere

they monopolize food distribution more or less

so getting western food will not be an issue

yeah but like, when your Canadian market is 20 minutes by bus away, and there's a Halal market across the street

you'll end up going to Abdulahan's

there is one on the main street that I will be on lol

and no, I will take the bus reusable bag in hand, buy my food, and return home the way god intended

thank you very much

One day Pika, you will live somewhere that doesn't require you to take the bus everywhere

and you'll love life

I like taking the bus

get a bicycle

I have not rode a byclic since I was 10

Get a car

I kind of want one of those meme "lay back" 3 wheel pedal trycicals because I think it would be funny

He's broke rn Polu, I don't think a car is in the cards yet

Nothing hits different like a long drive and a cold beer

(I could afford a car)

do you have a license?

no

we'll Fedex Gent to you to teach you

I am sure gent would have an Aneurysm if we hung out IRL and I tried to get him to eat non smooth food while sitting at the local preschool park

Unironically, have you installed remote access software on your family's computers to help them while you are gone?

No, but I also intend to come back once every month or so

so they can live with whatever issue until then

are you going to have a family computer left at home Pika, you could at the very least setup something lightweight like Google Remote desktop or OpenVPN

so you can connect to it remotely for w/e reason

My family has a family computer. I do not need to do tech help very often

My plan is to get myself a new upgraded PC since my old one is not 6 (7?) years old, leave my old one here at my desk so I do not need to lug a computer back and forth

all my core files are on a 2TB removable SSD because of my harddrive failure, so I am already all set for that

Will you give out your address so I can write you letters?

we'll find him Polu