Getting our Appartment

My first night in Toronto, I stayed at the hotel IBM had provided me. It was farther away then Grant's hotel since his hotel was all booked up.

One of my first tasks was getting my apartment setup, and finishing up the paperwork in regards to that.

The IBM campus is located on Highway 7 and Warden Ave, in Markham, which is north and east of Toronto. Our apartment is at Yonge and Egglinton, which is in Toronto. The trek is anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half, depending on the time of day.

When we reached our apartment building the first time, the office was closed. So we had to make another trip out there.

I think our first few days where mostly taken up be traveling back and forth between our hotel and our apartment.

The second trip out there, the office was open, but there news was not good at first. The first news was that our credit records where not good. That was a little scary because that is the reason that we lost the last apartment. We managed to work things out. In regards to the credit report at least. I may expand on this later, but suffice it to say that Fido is a less then honorable or honest company.

The next problem was with our apartment, which we were told was ready a few days earlier. It wasn't. They still had work to do on the floors. The next couple of minutes were awkward as Grant and I tried to remain calm and level headed.

But things actually turned out for the best. A higher up fixed things up for us so that we could stay in the penthouse while our apartment could be prepared. This was excellent new, especially since we had no furniture at this point, and the penthouse was fully furnished. As a result, we only had to spend a single night sleeping on the floor without furniture in our apartment.

My Continueing Story of Toronto

Soon after my conversation with Grant, I had my first job interview. Not just my first interview with IBM, by my first real job interview. The only other job interviews I have had lasted less then five minutes.
That could be why I did so poorly. Be the end of the interview I was stuttering and stumbling over every word. By the end of the interview I knew I had blown it.

So there was my one chance, gone. It sucked pretty bad to have so much of what I have worked for blown away in such a short time.

I waited for awhile. Hoping that perhaps I was just being harsh on myself. But I gave up all hope when Grant was offered the position, and I hadn't heard a word back.

Then i got an email from a manager in another group, offering another interview. I was surprised to say the least.

I went into this interview a little more prepared, and a lot more relaxed. The interview went very well. In fact, I was offered the position by the end of the interview. Then I got another interview, followed by another offer.

Getting the offers was felt even better after being so certain I had wasted my only chance.

So Grant and I were heading to Toronto.

We quickly decided that if we were both heading to the same place at the same time, it would be a good idea to be roommates.

We soon began looking looking for place in Toronto. We found several places online and quickly, and started filtering through them based on location and other such considerations. We found a place that we liked, and filled out an application. And everything looked like it was taken care of well in advance.

It wasn't until a day or two before we left that we were told that our application was rejected and we had no place to live. Apparently although there were places to rent in Toronto, it wasn't so easy to rent them starting out fresh like we were.

In a frantic panic I jumped online, and searched for apartments in Toronto. I followed the first link that I found. And I called the first number that came up. They had a place for us and so we sent off an application. The apartment was a better price, and a better location then the one we had been turned down for.

I thought that I would have a place to stay all set up by the time I got to Toronto, so i had declined IBM's invitation for a hotel room. I had to quickly get that fixed.

But, as I found out when we got there, it wasn't going to be so easy as that.