Does this make me look American?

Hello all, a quiet summer let my blogging peter out, but a Fall full of more amusing Canadian situations and circumstances has led me to blog again. I will be typing up some of these stories in the coming weeks, but this post will just be a brief update on the changes in my life since my last post.

Top 10 (C-A related) things that have changed in my life in the last 6 months:

10. I sat in on a class on Canadian - American foreign relations (post to come)
9. I discovered you cannot get oyster crackers in Canada :( :(
8. I got my Ontario drivers license and joined the local car share
7. I have been reading about other parts of Canada and desperately want to travel the country even more now
6. I have decided to reside in Canada for the foreseeable future. Both because I like it and because it is the easiest residential option for my bi-country bi-culture relationship. (perhaps a post on that to come . . . who goes to Canada - a country with millions of potential people - only to fall in love with an Indian? Yeah, that's right, me!)
5. American elections still suck when you are outside of the country - fewer political ads though . . . but I have never had as many people ask me if I voted as I did here.
4. I still don't really appreciate Tim Hortons as much as I should, but since I now work at (sort of) one, I consume a lot of their products now.
3. Having a Santa Claus parade to ring in the holiday season has become normal to me now
2. The local Canadian Tire sells artificial Christmas PALM trees . . .why?
1. I now find myself humming/muttering both the Canadian and American anthems under my breath from time to time - so I must still be utterly preoccupied with this

So i've been trying to secure a summer job, because I need the $$ and also because I need the structure - academia is so unstructured that my ADD nature is having a field day and taking the rest of me with it.

My areas of interest are still non-profits, but also governmental too . . . and therein lies the problem. If only I could be content in the for-profit corporate world!

Most non-profits here seem to be funded by the government, and if you remember my problems with most of academia being funded by the government you will remember the government earmarks their money to only go to citizens and permanent residents. Not that I blame them, because clearly they should get first dibs, but the government permeates everything here so I am finding it hard to find something that I can actually qualify for. It certainly doesn't help that I am not required to tell them I'm not a citizen or permanent resident, and they likewise don't usually disclose the limitations on the position's funding. This means I get quite far in the process before the connections are made and I am shown not to qualify.

To add to this, the federal government here has announced (unsurprisingly) significant cutbacks, and the details are still shaking out. This means so many positions are tentative or announced last minute. Not that the job market sucking is news, it is just making my position on a low rung in society that much more evident.

Which leaves me in a precarious position - if I'm not making the connections in the field now through part time and summer jobs . . . how am I going to get something full-time when I graduate? I will be on an even lower rung then and much more of a risk to employ (though they don't have to sponsor me like most American work related visas). Concerning to say the least, especially since the job market clearly won't turn around in the next year to that extent.

Something to worry about while I am not being productive at school I suppose. :)

Let me preface by saying I have not yet completed my Canadian taxes. It could yet be a horrible experience that will color my current thoughts. But right now my thoughts are so positive that I want to share!!!

To begin with, as a resident of Canada I get all the tax benefits of a citizen. ALL of them. Which, with the social net as it is, is a lot. Including a quarterly GST/HST tax check!! But there are two places where they really make you feel welcome and encourage you to stay in the country longer then your schooling through taxes:

1. The first time you do your taxes you get special consideration. First off, the guy leading the tax session was an actual employee of the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA). He obviously knew a ton about taxes and about how it relates to international students in general. Clearly super helpful. They also gave us all our forms and an extra booklet made just for international students. Additionally, the first year we do taxes in Canada we have to send them to a special office that is designed to process provincial and federal forms for those who have just entered the country. They do this because the first year you do your forms, they check it for you and give you feedback. You do not get any sort of penalization if you do them wrong - and you actually get told if you are doing it right. How helpful is that?!?! Why did the US never do that when I started doing it on my own? There is also a direct line to their office to call about questions specific to people like me - you are actually encouraged to call (not email!) and ask about how the tax treaty for your country affects your taxes and such!

2. Tax credits for tuition and living expenses while in school are significantly higher then in the US and they ROLL OVER into future years. He literally said "You all are international students, so you pay a high amount of tuition. Thus, you should never have to pay taxes here while in school and possibly for a few years afterward, until you use up the accumulated credit." As long as you keep filing your taxes, this credit doesn't expire. You also get to apply non-roll over tax credits first, and then that after if there is more to apply it to . . . if not, it rolls over! Crazy. Seriously.

I am seriously looking forward to tackling these taxes this weekend and figuring out how much credit I have already!