Paris on Saturdays

Saturdays in Paris are the worst.

As one of the biggest cities in the world, within its 20 districts of this geographically small city, there are 2.5 million residents (accounted for, not including the high number of homeless people all over the place). On top of that, as the French love to tell you, it is the most visited city in the entire WORLDAccording to the city of Paris, there are 27 million visitors a year who don't live here.That means there are, on a very crude average, around 75 thousand visitors per day wandering around the city and not at work.

So write this down, 

Point #1: Paris has a lot of residents

Point #2: Paris has a lot of tourists

Now, a lot of the visitors are European, and are here for short weekend getaways as you can travel almost anywhere in Europe within 2 hours (flight/train/care what have you). So on weekends, Paris has more tourists than the average number. Let's say roughly 25% more so than weekdays. So we are talking approximately 100 thousand tourists on weekends.

Point #3: There are even more tourists on weekends than weekdays.

So let's so, if you were a resident, what would you do? Run your shopping and our errands on weekdays and avoid the crowd on a weekend? Easier said than done! Here is what the average store opening hours are like in Paris: 

Weekdays: 10am to 8pm 

Saturdays: 9am to 6pm

Sundays: CLOSED 

If you are an average working person that's in the office from 9am to 6pm, or even 10am to 7pm, the chances of you doing anything after work is next to impossible. If you are lucky, there might be a express grocery store near you that you buy something quick after work. Generally, you are probably pretty damn tired from the one hour commute squashed between the rat race and 75 thousand tourists who are wandering the narrow metro stations trying to figure out where they are going, or simply taking their time to smell the stench flowers. 

Point #4: It is difficult to run errands and grocery shop on weekdays if you work

Point #5: You cannot run errands and tourists cannot shop on Sundays

And there you have it. Saturdays in Paris are a NIGHTMARE. 100 thousand tourists are wandering the city, many who are trying to get their shopping on on Saturdays while all residents are racing to the grocery stores and malls, hoping to get everything they need to do done by the time the store close.

Saturdays are not for sleeping in or resting your brain from a long week of work! It is even more work....having to navigate between the tourists who don't seem to understand what living in a big city is like. They get on the metro, and instead of gunning as inside as possible so that all the people behind them can get in before the doors close, they step in the door, STOP, then check to see, if there are seats available, which seats they want, and if not, where they would like to stand....in the meanwhile, all you want to do is completely your chores so you can continue to live like human beings (have food, warm clothing, and clean shelter). 

Saturdays in Paris are the worst.

The Meaning of Gifting from Paris

Christmas shopping this year has been really difficult for many reasons, and mainly because I'm shopping for people I no longer see on a regular basis, so I have no idea what they want or what they need. A lot of people might just say, oh come on, you live in Paris, just bring back something Parisian...well here's what I found out over the last year and half i've been here - almost everything you can buy in Paris, you can buy in the US - and for a lot cheaper as well. Yes, even the stuff made in France.

Exhibit A: Nuxe Paris
Nuxe is a very popular skincare brand here and I have to admit, they have some really good stuff - and the smell is just wonderful. As this is a relatively unknown brand in North American (unlike Vichy, L'Occitane, Lancome, Yves Rocher, Sephora, I can go on...), generally this would be a great item to get for the women - "hey guys, this is the most popular moisturiser they use in the land of the glam!!"

Except, apparently you can simply get this stuff online on their US branded site, for CHEAPER.

Here is the body lotion on the US Nuxe website for $23 USD for approximate 400 mL

Here is the same one from the French website for 18.6 EUR for 200 ML - which is about $25 at current exchange rate. WTF would be the correct way to describe this....

Well, what about Macaroons, you ask, everyone LOVES macaroons. Well they don't really eat macaroons here...so i'm not sure what you mean....oh, unless you are talking about MacarOns...yes, people always think France = Eiffel Tower, perfume (I'll get to that later), and the land of the "Macaroons", so bringing back macarons must be easy! Well except there's a slight problem - actual good macarons, like baguettes have a life-expectancy of 3-4 days. So even if I were to run to L'aduree or Lenotre the day I leave the country (which is actually possible as there are l'adurees in the airport if i happen to be in the right terminal), there's still the issue of having to see everyone who wants them as soon as I get off the long-haul flight, which, even if I wanted to (and I might not), is almost impossible. Plus, let me show you:

Exhibit B: L'aduree Macarons around the world:

Yes, they even have stores in China. If you really wanted fresh, good macarons, do you really want them flown here in economy from an 8 hour flight from Paris or do you want fresh made ones that you can get from the various US locations? So as much as I'd love to bring everyone good macarons, it's really not possible. I could bring those ones they sell at the tourist stores that lasts up to a year, but I'd be a horrible friend and person if you are not my friend and I'm somehow obligated to bring you back something.

So what else...what else...?
Chocolate? Yea, I brought everyone chocolate last year...so I can't give chocolate every year. Perfume? I can bring perfume right? Sure, if you can't buy them in departments stores in North America already, then the fancy custom ones cost 50-200 EUR a bottle. I'm not made of money....Handbags and fashion accessories? Same story. Oh La Creuset! Same story, except also they are CAST IRON pots and pans so I'm afraid they might not meet flight restrictions. Fois Gras? Illegal, not to mention not very many people i know want to eat those things.

Look, besides the type of tourist garbage that no one wants to import from France (and even those you can get on ebay), thanks to our wonderful global village, nothing in France is special anymore.

I will bring back any of the above under special requests from people (I have had a friend that asked for cough syrup that had codeine in them), but I can't bring it back for everyone I need to buy something for.
Did I mention also that everything here is so goddamn expensive in comparison to Canada and the US? If I wanted to buy something not French, I am better off doing my christmas shopping onsite and not here, but also brings back the entire dilemma of not knowing what to buy for people you haven't seen for a long time...or have never met at all, in this case, Caleb's family in Nevada.

I went Christmas shopping yesterday and that was my divination based on my sore back and exhausted state of being. Perhaps I just need to realize that Christmas gifts are not about getting people what they WANT or NEED, but just buying something to show them that I bought something for you cuz I care?

I like the gifts I give to be meaningful and meaningful is harder and harder these days, with the world becoming one village. It's both a good and a bad thing. The bad thing is that buying something from afar or from somewhere "exotic" no longer counts as being meaningful, but the good thing from that I guess, is that for something to be meaningful, you would have to really know and care for the person, which is what it should be in the first place, no? I need to start calling people regularly on the phone to know their lives - that's what meaningful is - caring about them regularly and not just once a year.

Survival

I've seen in movies people who have been ravaged by war and hardship seek refuge in cities with food and humane conditions. I've read in books about people coming from poor areas going into big cities hoping to find a job and a better life. I've heard stories of people with nothing, migrate to places with something, only to find, still, nothing. But they were always stories from another time or another place, sometimes both, far far away from my reality. The very very limited number of beggars, homeless indivduals, and dumpster excavators I have seen, I've been told to stay away. There's no empathy - there's hardly sympathy.  It's not because I'm superior or haughty; it's because I've never understood and was never asked to understand. These people, by my education and by my instinct, are from a different universe, one impossible for me to relate to.

Moving to Paris has started to make me realized how privileged I am. No, not because I get to live in Paris. The grandma on the street looking through the garbage bin got to move to Paris too, but as a refugee from a war-torn country and living in a squalor home provided by the French government. She hasn't had the education to allow her to find a job. The only thing she knows how to do is to scavenge through the junk and debris in order to find something she understands to be useful and could help her family, even though her family no longer needs to do that. The near middle-aged woman who lives in the metro station with a baby in her hand begging for change or ticket restaurant was privileged enough to stumble across Europe to Paris too, but she doesn't know how to look for a job and she doesn't understand why anyone would need a job if there are people on the street who can give her money. You can't even tell if that baby is hers or even real. The young man whose ancestors have been colonized and exploited by the French Colonial Empire speaks French in a thick accent has managed to illegally but luckily sneak his way into the city of lights and glamour. But he has been shunned to the suburbs of Paris looking for odd-end jobs to tie him over until he falls into the economy of crime. Yet, they are still privileged in relations to what might have been otherwise if they didn't come here. This is not the privilege I talk about.

Where I grew up, the couple of beggars at the train station seems physically disabled and you wonder who's taking care of them; that one homeless teen who lives next to the beer store in the neighbourhood plaza is considered lazy; and few trash digger you sometimes see downtown are probably crazy. I understood that if you work hard, you will succeed. And anything outside, beyond what is comprehensible, is therefore flawed. Except none of this is true - or maybe some of it might be. But it doesn't matter, does it? As long as you stay away from the crazies, far enough that they can't steal, rob, or hurt you and you study hard and you work hard, you will be someone and even something; everyone else is simply not putting in enough effort.

The privilege I am talking about, is the privilege to have ever thought this way and that I can, if I choose to, continue to think this way.  Everyone is born with tabula rasa and despite that we all somehow ended up in Paris, there are those who grew up with less than nothing and their goal in Paris is to survive, while mine is to live magnificently. This city is full of people who are here to survive. And it makes those of us who has never had to fight for survival unbearably hard to breathe. And that, in and of itself, is a privilege. I get it now.

Grammar and Manner

It is okay to say:
"What is your background?"
"What is your heritage/race/ethnicity/ancestry/lineage?"

It is not okay to say:
"Where are you from?" if you want to ask someone for their ethnicity
"Where are you REALLY from?" after asking "where are you from?" and getting a literal answer
"Why is your English so good?" without asking for a person's background first
"Your English is perfect!" without knowing the person's background, unless you are editing a written piece of work.
"What is your REAL name?" after asking the person for their name.
"Are you Japanese? Are you Korean? Are you Chinese?" if you want to know what their background is. Why are you guessing and making assumptions based on your own silly stereotype????

It is also not okay to:

• Shout random asian languages to me as I'm walking down the street, such as "konnichiwa" or "ni hao"
• Attribute how i am or things i do to my race/ethnicity/ancestry/lineage, no i don't like shopping because I am Chinese, no the pasta im cooking is not chinese, no i don't like the cold even if i'm from canada, and no I don't speak French in Toronto even if I'm from Canada

It's Always in the Last Place You Look

I arrived in Stockholm Monday night and the hotel asked me if i wanted to prepay and I said okay. After i got my credit card back, I held it in my hand, along with my room key.

I get to my room and tried to turn on the light, to no avail, realizing I needed the room card to turn on the electricity, so I slipped it in. Just as I was about to walk away, I recalled a trick Caleb taught me about using a useless card in your wallet instead of your room key - but I also remembered that there are some hotel rooms with contactless smart cards that will not let you do that. I wanted to see whether or not another card would work and was about to put in my credit card and in a split second decided that it was a stupid idea and didn't end up doing it.

Later that night, I went downstairs to meet up with my colleague and offered to pay for the drink, only to find that my credit card was not in my bag. Embarrassed as I was, I said I would pay for the next one. When I got back to my room, I forgot about the missing card and went to bed. The next morning, before I left for work, I searched thoroughly for it but couldn't find it. I left the room in a hurry, taking my Canadian back-up credit card with me.

While staying in Stockholm for the next four days, I searched morning and night for this card. The room is a very Scandinavian room with no cracks for cards to hide so it was really confusing to me as to where this card went. But since in my memory the card HAD to be in the room, I did not cancel it and felt that once I pack all my things, the card HAD to show up somewhere.

By noon today when I was all packed, I admitted defeat. As confusing as the situation was, I decided I'll have to suck it up and call France to get my card replaced. Of course, in regular French fashion, they asked me a million of question and told me that the card will be sent to my branch at work, and then a new PIN code I cannot change will be sent to my house, after a full week. So it looks like I'm out of a payment method until next Friday (anyone wanna come feed me?)

After I got off the phone, I put on my shoes and dragged my suitcase out of my room. As I was getting in the elevator, I felt something slippery in my shoe. In the elevator, I took off the shoe, and there it was.

.....

BOOOOOOO

Taxes

Regardless of how much i researched and thought I was prepared before I left for Paris - I still forgot to do a bunch of things I should have done in the last few months:
1. Pay my remittance for tax witholding
2. Change my address of my bank accounts to Paris
3. Set up automatic banking for my property tax (completely missed the deadline)

Things on the government side that should have happened but did not:
1. driver's license never showed up
2. NR6 Approval for 2013

Things I still need to do:
1. Change my address for all the banks, close some accounts
2. Call about NR6
3. Figure out my Driver license situation
4. Submit NR4 and NR4 summary
5. Change my address for property tax

Things I need to do later:
1. File for my T-1159 when my tax info are around
2. continue to submit my remittance.

Formation Civique Experience

Last month I was at the L'OFII Convocation and they booked my "Formation Civique" or the French Civics Training. After getting my date and location, I made a little note in my Outlook calendar to remind me of my appointment with the location being "20eme arr." and then forgot about it. So at 7pm, the night before my training, i'm on the RER on the way home and i see the reminder on my phone. The first thing that came to my mind was, "crap, i have so much work to do tomorrow!" and then continued my merry way home. By the time i got home, opened the outlook appointment and saw that i didn't write down the address, I realized all my paperwork from l'offi was at work....i had no idea what i needed to bring with me nor where the place is. I tried googling for the information, but nowhere on the websites gave me anything. No address, no what you need to bring, nothing. This meant that I had to travel an hour into the office at 7am past the west end of paris, grab the stuff, and travel to the very very eastern tip of paris. I was miserable. Later, after some investigating, I found out that these types of training are ran in various community centres that are available for booking and not in any set locations so nothing is online.

After I got the stack of paperwork I was running behind on time. I didn't get on the train until almost 8:30am and I saw on the appointment papers that I just needed to bring  a piece of ID and that was it and that I was supposed to arrive at 8:45am. There was no way I would have made it on time and I was a bit concerned that they were not going to let me in on the training and reschedule it for another day despite my efforts of waking at 6am to do this. Nevertheless, when I got there at this community centre at 9:15, the class was nowhere near to getting started, she hasn't taken the attendance nor could she even get the projector started (no power or something). It was a rather informal classroom where you have a trainer at the front with a projector and a laptop running Windows XP. Every time the slide changed, you'd be watching it in slow motion. We got started at around 9:30am: she passed out three pieces of paper for us to sign our name next to the attendance sheet while she came around to collect our appointment form and our ID.

The lessons began with the history of french, starting from the roman period that goes all the way to present and then there was french values and french laws, etc. Although the slides were in bullet points, the woman loved to talk. She did not skimp on any point at all and went deep into every bullet point. It didn't help that the smart alec next to me who thought he didnt need to be there kept interrupting the class with stupid comments or show-offy questions. The training was supposed to have ended at 5pm but because she loved talking, there were stupid interruptions, and we had really really really long breaks, the training went 30 minutes past the mark. We had a break at around 10:30am, and coffee, tea, and water were brought into the room. The break was almost 30 minutes. Lunch was even worse. She gave us 1h30m but she didn't start the class again until 1:45pm and then the same thing happened at 3:30pm when she gave us a break that lasted until almost 4pm (at this point she still had more than 20 slides left). The lady was so slow that i felt like having to sit through her class is the real training, not her content. By 4:45pm, when she realized how late she was, she would click on her computer really fast, so all the bullet points for each slide would appear all at once, which made it seem like she was trying to hurry, but then she would still go through each bullet point for 10 minutes, so her fast clicking really saved us 1 second for each slide.

Since everything was in French, I had a bit of trouble keeping my focus and i literally realized what being bored to tears was. By 3pm, both my phones completely died and i kept yawning and tearing and the girl next to me thought i was crying. Lunch made me realize that if anyone ever had to depend on the government for providing meals, this would be the type of food one would be eating. A tiny portion of food that is ethnic and meant for you to be healthy, but they'll stuff you with starch. It was some sort of tiny portion of curry chicken with a bit of carrot on the side. We were filed into a cafeteria and these boxes were waiting for us. The food didnt taste bad, but there were so much rice and very little chicken. I ate the little chicken that was in there in 2 minutes, grabbed the apple, and went wandering around the area looking for more food to eat. On my tray I still had a heap load of rice left, carrots I ended up having another meal at an Asian Traiteur (fast food). By the time I came back at 1:15, the class room was still locked and the trainer was still having her lunch (she didnt stay in the caf to eat the crappy food).

At the end of the day, while she was handing out the certificates, I found out that they had this course translated in six different languages and I don't know why I had the French version - although i don't remember them asking me what language i wanted, i wouldn't be surprised that it was probably me being stupid and picked the french version because i thought that it would be good to immerse myself with the language.

At any rate, the course was done and I got my last of the four certificate. Hopefully I'll remind myself in time to renew my Visa for next year.

L'OFII Convocation Experience

Not counting my grade 8 graduation, or my high school commencement, I've had two convocations, both of which I have chosen not to attend. Looking back, I'm not sure what I had against convocations, but perhaps the idea of me parading down some aisle to obtain the paper that depicts my "achievement" of finishing courses with no one who really cares being there for me kinda kills the idea. I mean, my parents, never for once, asked me when there is a ceremony for my graduation.

At any rate, I had to attend a convocation today. But this convocation is not a graduation, but merely "a group of people gathered in answer to a summons; assembly." I was summoned by "L'Office d'Immigration et d'Integration," otherwise known as OFII, to:

• Learn about the values of the French
• Get my French skills assessed
• Get my professional skills assessed
• Obtain a medical examination 

Umm...let me restart by providing you with the pleasure of understanding the complex, yet surprisingly effective system of the French immigration system. 

Around June 2012, our HR office in France applied for a working Visa for me. The process was somewhat uncomplicated, due to the fact that it was an interoffice transfer, as opposed to a new hire. Within a month or so, my Visa was approved and I had to wait for an invitation to the French Consulate in Toronto for the process. There was a little bit of complication there, as I had no idea when the invitation was going to come, or by what method. After a couple of weeks, I received an E-mail, in my Gmail address (to this day, I'm still confused as to how they got that address) asking me to arrive in the consulate office at a specific date and time (about two weeks from the email being sent). I will not burden you with the detail of what I had to go through before and while I was there, but the visit was short and I went back again in a week to pick up my passport with the new Visa on there.

Towards the end of August, I arrived in France. I was told that upon my arrival, I needed to mail out my OFII form with a list of document to the Paris OFII office because I need to validate my Visa within 3 months of my arrival, or else my Visa will be invalidated altogether. All right, so I have until December. Thus, the first month of my arrival was filled with things like getting a bank account, finding a place to live, and figuring out the odds and ends of moving to a country in which the culture and language is completely foreign, oh, and, um *cough*, going to Stockholm for a week.

At around the one month mark after my arrival, right before I was about to go to Singapore for a week and a half, I realized I haven't taken care of the OFII form, and I really should. I start going through the form and researching on the Internet and the form literally told me that I needed to do this AS SOON AS I ARRIVE, because the French administration may take up to months to process your form. Shit. Okay, well, I still have two months, it should be okay, right? Either way, I could only hope for the best. I mail in my form with all the documents required, and then I patiently waited (in Singapore) for the invitation to come.

Two weeks later, I'm back in town - nothing. Another week goes by, nothing. At approximately the four weeks after I sent my info and I was about to head to London for two weeks, I started to look up the information because I'm worried that my invitation is going to come and I'm not even going to be here. Let me tell you this, when it comes to getting information about immigration (as I did this also when I was going to Boston), the internet is the most resourceful place, but it also provides you with the scariest information. Throughout my research, I was told that:

• You need to send the form by registered mail (even though the form doesnt specify this) - i did not.
• It can take longer than three months for OFII to organize your convocation - i'm already two months in!
• The convocation will probably happen the minute you go home for xmas - which happened to a lot of people
• If i don't have a validation on my passport, they might not let me back in Paris from london!

So I started to freak out and tried to call OFII because I read that someone had called and it made their process go faster.  After several phone calls and getting various people to help me, I was told that they did receive my mail and that they are in the middle of processing it, and sending it by registered mail is not necessary (unless you want a peace of mind). At any rate, I headed to London feeling a little bit better, and during my second week in London, I received the OFII invitation by Gmail (seriously...) for my interview to be in two weeks. HURRAH!

I got back to my apartment in Paris, and I actually also received a physical copy, which was nice. I got all my documents they asked for prepared (the list is long, including purchasing a "stamp" for €349), and arrived at the Paris office 15 minutes before my 8:30am appointment.

L'OFII Paris, 48 Rue de la Roquette

At 8:15, the office was not opened and there was a loooong line outside. The door opened a little after 8:30 and the security guard checked each's person's bag before allowing them to enter the door. The reception at the door checks each person's OFII form and students go directly up, and others gets different colour placards. As a salarié (worker), I got a little blue placard and went up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, a woman is there directing you where to go. Everyone with a placard goes to line up outside a room, while the students go to another section. At the door, there is a woman with a checklist for attendance, who also speaks to you briefly, asking if you speak French. If you do not, they give you a printed powerpoint presentation in your language (English, Simplified Chinese, Arabic, etc.), summarizing the events of the day and send you inside the room. Once everyone gathers in the room (about 15 ppl) they ask you what language you speak, and provide you with an audio guide (those things you get in the museum) for the video on French Value, they're about to play. The video is approximately 30 minutes and then a woman comes in to talk to you about the events of the day. First you will see a social worker who will assess your skills to see if you need to take all the three classes for integration:

1. French language
2. Everyday life of France
3. French Civics

The compulsory class you have to take is the French Civics class - full day, 9-5, with lunch provided. At this Civics class, you are supposed to sign an integration contract. At the meeting with the social worker, ,s/he will provide you with a date for the class. Luckily, I was exempted from having to take the first two classes. 

Once the interview is over (depending on the social advisor, it can take anywhere between 15m to an hour), she will take you to the medical area to get your medical examination. Basically almost everyone lined up outside the OFII door in the morning are waiting in this room. You are eventually called up to get your heigh, weight, and eye-sight measured, go into this closet room to take off your top and then from the other end of the room, a woman tells you to come out, takes a quick x-ray of you, and you sit back in the waiting room until a doctor picks up your x-ray to give you an medical interview.

I was literally the last person in the room to be called by the doctor, who was extremely friendly and made a couple of jokes about my lungs being as pretty as me, and asked me to be his wife...He took my blood pressure, asked me some questions on my vaccination and diseases, and passed me. He personally brought me to the reception that's processing the validation stickers, and the lady asked me for most of the documents on the list and put a silver sticker on my passport - et voila! I'm validated! I left the OFII office about quarter after 1pm - so the process (and remember I was the last one out) took about six hours.

That would be my ribcage...

• I got to keep the x-ray of my chest (they're checking for TB)
• Everyone in the office was extremely friendly (surprisingly)
• There was a raucous while I was waiting of a man who kept saying in a heavy accent "Je ne suis pas francais" and something else (drama!)

I got back into the office at around 3pm (OFII is on the East end of Paris, and my office is on the west!), in time to go to my HR, give her my documents and have a chat with her about the process, and then getting some work done. 

I really liked the experience, which surprised me. It almost feels like they actually want you to succeed in living in France and ensuring that everything will work out for you - who knew?

Just Another Day

Friday after work, a coworker of mine and I went to hang out in the La Marais area. After work, we got into her car and drove from Suresnes to the 3rd Arr. On our way, we passed by the Seine, Grand Palais, Champs Elysee, Arc de Triomph, and as we drove across the roundabout of the Arc, sitting in traffic while my coworker complained about the density of Paris, it hit me that I now live here. From now on, every single day, I am going to be passing by these grandiose landmarks people read about in books, see in movies, watch on TV, listen to on the radio, as though they are street lamps or parking metres. "In fact" (the phrase the French love to use), I see the Eiffel Tower from my terrace across my bed, glittering at the hour, and the golden dome of Les Invalides glowing in the dark from the terrace outside of the living room.

Today, I decided to go to a Korean grocery store in Little Japan. The closest direct stop for me via the metro is 10 minutes at Opéra. Coming out of the Metro and seeing "the most famous opera house in the world" right in front of my face while knowing that not only was it not my destination and just another building i pass by on my way to go grocery shopping, but also that i will be seeing this monumental infrastructure on a regular basis, is quite a disconcerting feeling. 

And so, to mark this monumental moment, from hereon, when i refer to these landmarks, they shall be written with lower case. Bon matin eiffel tower! Bon soir arc de triomph et champs elysee! Douce nuit, les invalides!

Disaster

I need to figure out the right method to do this or else it'll never be done.
What to pack first? Things I absolutely need in France, or things I absolutely don't need in France? Right now I'm packing clothing I think I need in France...and it's definitely not working out for me...

I need a nap.

Middle-Age Honger

My mom enters my apartment unannounced, without knocking. I ran into my room to put more clothes on, already irritated.
She needed to drop off something at my place and she happened to be downtown working. Her co-worker was carpooling with her so she wanted to check out my apartment.

The whole time while my mom were discussing what she was dropping off and her asking me what else she needed out of her grocery bag, the woman kept up her soliloquy in Cantonese:

"WAH! Apartment so small! (WAH GUM SAI, etc.) The bed doesn't even fit the bedroom! WAH! That is the fridge? So tiny, never seen any this tiny! That sink, you can only fit one pot. No counter space. How is this possible a place so small. How is this liveable? That's it to the place? Nothing else? WAH, I can never live here, how does one live here? I would never be able to live here"

This went on for approximately 5-10 minutes, all the while she's sucking her teeth and shaking her head "tse tse tse" I looked at this women a couple of times with my eyebrows raised but didn't say a word the entire time. My mom pretended I didn't understand cantonese and looked at me horrified and giving me a look like, "don't talk back."

Before she left, she says to me in canton-laden mandarin, "your pantry is very pretty."
I gave her a tight-lipped smile, did not say anything, and closed the door behind them.

I was polite enough, considering I have never met her before.

Canadian Non-Resident with Rental Property

Lately I've been trying to figure out the process of renting my place out before I move to Paris. Ironically, finding a tenant is the easy part - the hardest part is actually trying to figure out how the income tax is going to work. After refusing to call Canadian Revenue and searching online, and then finally giving in and being transferred a billion times, I've finally figured it out (I think).

To begin, all Canadian-income generated by a non-resident is subjected to 25% tax withholding from your gross income. That means if you are receiving $1000/month, you must pay $250 of that to Federal Canada every month, regardless of your expenses. At the end of the year, I don't even know if you can claim it back - I'm not really sure how that works, because this entry is not about that, it's about paying taxes just from your Net Income.

Now, if you are poor like me, the alternative to that would be to pay 25% of your NET income. That is, your gross income, minus things like maintenance fee, utilities (if you're paying), things you've fixed in the home, interest from your mortgage, property tax, etc. If all of that totals to $300/month, you only need to pay 25% of $700, which is $175/month. A tiny bit better. Nevertheless, in order to do this, you have several things you must do before you start collecting rent, as listed below.

1. Get an Agent: What's an agent you ask? Basically anyone who is a Canadian resident and has a Non-Resident (NR) Tax account number. Their responsibility is as follows:
• Submit 25% of your net rental income to Canada Revenue every month
• Fill out an NR4 Slip and NR4 Summary and the end of the year (Dec) and submit it to Canada Revenue


2. Agent Open a Non-Resident Account: This must be done by your agent as it will be under his/her account. S/he will need to call 1-855-284-5946 with the following information:
• His/Her name and address
• His/Her SIN
• Non-resident's name and the property rental information 
Once the account has been opened, the agent will receive an NR75, which is a form that specifies all the information with regard to the account. If all the information is correct, the agent does not have to do anything. Along with the NR75 are remittance vouchers - these can be used to pay for the monthly taxes at a financial institution. If you are paying on behalf of the agent online, you will not need those vouchers.


3. File an NR6: The NR6 is known as the "Undertaking to File an Income Tax Return by a Non-Resident Receiving Rent from Real Property or Receiving a Timber Royalty." This must be done at the beginning of every year (before your first rental income received of the year). This is an optional form that would only be filed if you want to do 25% of your net income instead of gross. On this form you must specify:
• Your information
• You rental property information
• Your Agent information, including the NR account number.
• A statement that details your gross rental income, and the deductions that lead to the Net income.
Once you filed the NR6, you must wait for it to get approved.

After steps 1-3 are done, the next thing you must do is ensure that you pay the withholding to the government on-time.

4. Pay the Government Monthly: You must pay 25% of your net income (the amount as approved by the NR6) to Revenue Canada on a monthly basis (this is the actual withholding), within 15 days after receiving your rental income. If you overpay, you'd be able to claim it back when you file your yearly income tax (which you MUST DO or else they will make you pay the tax from the gross income). There are several ways to pay - but the easiest way is of course electronically. I am going to be using My Payment, which will require that you have either a TD, Scotia, RBC, or BMO bank account. All you will need is:
• The NR Account Number
• Your Bank Account Number
• The amount and the period for which you are paying

At the end of the year what you must do is the following:

5. Agent Submit NR4 and NR4 Summary: This process is essentially done by your agent before March 31st. The steps are as follows:
• The agent fills out one NR4 and makes 4 copies of it
• one copy s/he keeps
• two copies s/he provides to the non-resident
• one copy he/she must send to the Canada Revenue Agency along with the NR4 Summary
• The NR4 Summary is almost exactly like the NR4 except that it tells Canada Revenue how many NR4 slips were sent throughout the year.


6. File T-1159: You, or the Non-Resident who owns the property, must file a T-1159 "Income Tax Return for Electing under Section 216" before June 30th of the following year. This is the most important(!!!!!!) part of the process. If you do not file this before June 30th, everything you have done is nullified and the government will charge you tax on your GROSS INCOME TAX and ask you for more money. If you file this on time, you might even get some money back because more tax has been withheld (for example, you had to fix your dishwasher, which can be deducted from your income, or your maintenance fee has increased, etc.) than necessary. If you never filed the NR6 then you have two years to file this form. You will need to also submit:
• A rental statement
• The NR4(s)


You can send the package to:

International Tax Services Office
Post Office Box 9769, Station T
Ottawa ON K1G 3Y4
CANADA 

That's all you have to do. For references, you can check the following:

• Information on Non-Residents 
• Rental Income and Non-Resident Tax
• Information on NR4
• Landlord.net's Summary on Non-Resident Taxes

Phoenix, AZ

I had a rather eventful and fulfilling day today in Phoenix, quite unexpected actually.
My flight was at 8am, which required that I leave my house at 6am, which required that I wake up at around 4:30am, which resulted in me not sleeping at all the night before since I had a lot of things to do before I left. But then I ended up doing so much all day even with the lack of sleep!

• I watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollow Part 2 on the plane, then slept for two hours. 
• Picked up my car rental (I love Jettas!), drove to my hotel and checked in. 
• Changed into a skirt and tank, looked up places to go visit and eat, decided on a schedule, then headed to Wal-Mart.
• At Wal-Mart, I bought sunscreen, tried on a couple of hats and bought a cute one, wandered around for a little bit and then went on my merry way to the Desert Botanical Garden.
• I was at the Garden for maybe an hour before I almost died of heat stroke, despite having done everything the website told me to do before I went. I ended up resting in their Welcome centre for a good 20 minutes before I left the place.
• Drove to Downtown Phoenix and went shopping! First stop was Urban Outfitters and bought a dress and two shirts. Then went to a couple of other stores but didnt buy anything. Bought a drink at Starbucks and went online for a bit.
• Drove to Nobou restaurant, had a fantastic 3-course meal (restaurant week apparently).
• Came back to the hotel, showered, wrote some reviews, did some prep for tomorrow and now i'm ready for bed.

Racquet Ball Court

Recently I've been asked if I was working next to a squash court or a racquet ball court. Why? because during the meeting, all you hear is "bang bang bang bang" in the background."

You see those holes in the middle of the buildings? They're building a bridge to connect the two buildings. It's supposed to look pretty cool. I hope it does, because it's driving me bat$^!7 crazy right now.

A few weeks ago, there were some banging outside that was louder than usual, and I saw this:

Looks like they're starting to build the bridge from the bottom and hoist it up. Okay.....but then the banging got louder and louder and louder, and then it started at approximate 6:45am and lasts until about 4pm. On Saturdays, around 9am it begins. And then as the days go by, it actually gets even LOUDER. One day I finally looked out my window again to see what's going on, and I realized that not only are they bonging steel, they are literally banging outside my window. LITERALLY.

Here's a excerpt:

This was a short version, actually. Sometimes they go on for 5 minutes of banging. And then intermittently for ten minutes. A break for about 15 minutes, and then begins again. There's no say.

So, I had to go and get these babies:

They make my inner ear itch, but now I don't wake up before 7am every morning any more.

This morning, I had a dream about something I can't remember, but towards the end of the dream, someone was banging my head against the wall, going "PONG PONG PONG PONG" and when I woke up from it, I realized it was because one of the plugs fell out of my ear.

I wonder how much longer this will go on.

____________________________________

On a unrelated note, I liked what I did with my hair and makeup last weekend. So some vanity shots. 

Furnishing, Lack of

A couple months ago, maybe two, I walked down Spadina and saw this awesome green canvas sleeper couch on display that had storage underneath. It was perfect for my place--and it was the right price as well. I went in to check it out but for some reason, I thought I should wait before getting it.

Last week, when I went to buy the couch, I was told that the entire line was completely sold out. The last couch in this nasty steel blue colour was fully wrapped and ready to be shipped. I was inconsolable and vowed that I won't give my heart to another couch anymore.  But as fickle as the female heart is, a week has gone by and I have began looking again (this really isn't the first time a couch has disappointed me).

My apartment is still largely furnished with "hand-me-downs" (still eliciting donations--couches, coffee table, shelves, bookcases, flat screen tv, your soul, any crap you don't want) but some how I've managed to live for almost 9 months with the little that I have. Ironically, I'm mostly happy with my set-up. I get a bit embarrassed when people come over and have nowhere to sit, nowhere to eat, and see clutter from lack of storage space (also embarrassed that I don't have a couch for guests to sleep on, and no tv to entertain), but I kinda like living like this. It makes everything a little less scary in some ways because everything feels temporary.  I am starting to realize that I like impermanence--it's freeing.

BUT--note that it's not that I don't plan on furnishing at all, it's just that I've been doing it very slowly. I'll get maybe one piece every couple of months (I've added a lamp and a sidetable with an attached lamp so far), mostly from buying things on Craigslist and then reselling them if it doesn't suit my apartment. Maybe when Christmas is over, stuff will go on sale and I can really furnish. Maybe.

In the meanwhile, I guess I'll be spending Christmas alone in my empty apartment this year.
Life turns in funny ways.

Eyelash

As an Asian, I don't have many eyelashes, so you would think that the probability of the scary scenario of living alone and having an eyelash go into and sting your eye without a person there to blow out for you to happen to me would be pretty low. Alas, that is not the case.

Living alone:1

Lynn: 0

Eyelashes on Lynn's eyes: -1

Cat Diairies

Today for the first time Rumi sat on my lap today for the first time while I worked.

Today for the first time he also pooped on the floor next to the litter box, and for the third time puked out yellow blobs that used to be my hairband which he is always stealthily stealing from me.

I vacuum three times a day to get rid of cat clay and cat hair on my floor.

My couches are also studded with cat claw marks.

I hate having to keep my bathroom and bedroom door closed all the time.

Scooping out cat poop makes me sick.

I don't think i'm ready for kids.

What floor do you live on?

I went downstairs to check my mail and got into the elevator going back up with two girls and guy in there. While hitting the button for my floor, I noticed that higher floor buttons were lit, and assumed that I was going to be the first one getting out of the elevator.

Elevator door opens and I get out of the elevator and so does the guy. I tell him that this is my floor, and he turns around and says..no, this is 3, and as the elevator door closed, the two girls in the elevator also tells me that it's 3. Too late. The guy goes back into his unit happily and i am left to press the up button for the elevator, grumbling to myself about how those girls should have held the elevator door for me.

Luckily, the next elevator comes almost immediately, and as i exited on my floor, I hear giggling coming from my hall way. The two girls that were in the elevator got out on my floor, thinking it was their floor and tried to put their key in my door, as they lived in the same unit but on higher floors.

We had a good laugh.

still learning

apparently the oven racks are supposed to come out when you use self-cleaning mode for the oven.

Prices

This lamp is $79.99 at IKEA Canada. It is 59.99 at IKEA USA.




This make-up strip is $21.99 at Shoppers Drug Mart in Toronto. It is $9.99 at Walmart in the US.


When I was little, I used to hear people drive all the way to Buffalo once or twice a year to shop, and I've always been incredulous...can prices be THAT different in the US? The thing is, it's not even the prices, but also the variety.

Ever since I moved into my own place here in Toronto, I've been looking for household items based on my previous experience home shopping in Boston. I was often online looking for things I thought would complement the house, while finding the cheapest prices. Buying things online were also extremely easy. No shipping fees, no tax, straight to the door, cheaper than actually going to the store.

Now? I have resorted to bringing a rather empty suitcase when I have a business trip to the US; drive down to a Target or a Walmart (and sometimes Sephora and Bath and Body Works) and find things that I can lug back to Toronto in my suitcase. Last time, I bought a bathroom shelf that goes behind the toilet from Target for $25 USD. It came dissembled in a box that just fit my suitcase and I lugged it back. If I were to have bought it at Canadian Tire, it would have cost me at least $60 plus tax.

These are the type of things I miss about living in the US...the convenience, the choices, the price. Yes, it's a country meant for consumers.