Minor Successes

Spoiler: most of our problems are solved!

We went back to the Service Canada Centre on Monday and tried one more to get a SIN for Katie. We told the guy at the desk the story of our first SINful misadventure which he thought we a strange series of events. He put Katie's details through again, and out came a SIN! He had no idea what the problem was the first time. Maybe we'd applied too soon? Or perhaps the guy just clicked the wrong buttons.

Next up, we got bank accounts! This was super easy... until it wasn't. More on that in another story. The final result is Canadian chequing and savings accounts, comfortably padded with our savings from New Zealand.

Thinking that we'd earned a holiday by now, we booked a trip to Whistler. We're staying in the only <$300/night hotel in the entire town. After speaking to a few people about our plans, we discovered this is because the weekend we're going over is a long weekend, where BC celebrates Family Day. Luckily, it's only BC who has the holiday this coming Monday. The rest of Canada observes it the following week, and we're told Whistler will be absolutely unbearably packed that weekend. Good outcome, I guess!

We have a car! After a stress-filled few days, we've acquired ourselves a 2007 Volvo XC90 V8. We wrapped up the last loose end this morning (collecting a deposit we paid on a car we didn't buy), so can finally relax on that front. We got stung a bit by unanticipated taxes and insurance costs, but that's all part of the fun. More details in another post!

It has rained almost every day since we've been here. Yesterday was the first time we saw the sun!

Talk soon =]