I Moved From BC To Ontario Right Before The Pandemic Hit & Here's What I Learned In Lockdown
Why is grocery shopping so intense here?!
I knew that moving between Ontario and B.C. was never going to be easy, but it definitely wasn't made easier by moving in February 2020.
Just a few weeks after my partner and I landed in Toronto from Victoria, B.C., the entire province and country shut down for the first of many times, closing restaurants, tourist attractions and a whole host of things that might have made settling a little bit easier.
But that first year of being stuck in my one-room apartment did end up teaching me a lot about Ontario — lessons which I'm excited to apply now that the city is really back!
AC is a must
Everyone warned me about Toronto winters but Toronto summers? That's another whole level of intense. I'll always remember the first time I left my apartment and literally felt a wall of humidity waiting for me — it's not something you forget.
With that in mind, I'm forever grateful our apartment had AC in it because I'm sure there is no way I would've managed that summer without it.
It's important to take advantage of Toronto's parks
Toronto is the king of finding a patch of grass and claiming it as a park (what on earth is a parkette?) but I was truly glad for all the green spaces I could find in a year of mostly staying inside. Living so close to High Park was a plus, too, because it made the constant pandemic walks that much more fun.
Getting a pet is a good idea
My partner and I moved here with two cats, and they truly kept us going through most of the pandemic (if you accept that talking to your pets more than your partner is normal). We also adopted a dog at one point, too, turning our apartment into something akin to the High Park Zoo.
But owning a pet in Ontario is great, not least because we're away from the ultra-restrictive renting rules in B.C. that make it so hard to keep animals in your home. We (hopefully) won't get a fourth pet, but I recommend that you get your first!
Grocery shopping is a lot more intense
It's true that my grocery experience in Ontario has taken place pretty much entirely throughout the pandemic, in which panic buying and rising prices have been a problem. But even without that, Ontario's grocery stores are way more intense than B.C.'s stores are.
The double checkout lane thing is intimidating, and it took me forever to figure out I'm the one who needs to keep the conveyor belt moving. Add that to the oddity that is bagged milk and it's a recipe for disaster.
You actually get to experience seasons
Time was a pretty nebulous construct throughout all of 2020 and 2021, so living in a place with four defined seasons has been a definite plus. B.C. has two seasons — dry and wet – whereas spring and fall in Ontario are my favourite times of the year!
Even the season I was warned most about wasn't as bad as I thought it would be...
Winter is not as bad as people make it out to be
As I mentioned before, I heard so many warnings about . As it turns out, it barely left a mark on me! Sure, I did have the luxury of working from home and being literally mandated to stay inside most of the time, and I'm positive that I'll have a different experience this time, but I think most Torontonians would agree that winter isn't all that bad.
You'll deal with your fair share of stuck street cars, snow drifts and freezing weather, but in B.C. it just gets even colder and even rainier. I'll take a bright, crisp winter any day of the week!
It's worth sticking it out
Even if it was a brutal year and a half, moving to Ontario was one of the best things I've ever done. I miss the ocean, warm drizzly days and the constant sight of mountains, but I'm happy to trade it all in for a bustling, exciting city and all the benefits therein.
I'll be here for a while longer, that's for sure!
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.