To Live in a Foreign Country

As you can see from the title, no matter how long I live in Canada, it will be a foreign country in a sense although I can call it my second home.

Is it only me as an immingrant? Would it be different if my family were here? Or, is it a stupid insular prejudice against the overseas world that I have and have grown up with.

Anyway, to live in a foreign country is sometimes tough.

Friends of mine are thinking to move to East Asia. When I heard it on the messenger, I shouldn't have been that criticizing, in fact, I just could have said, "good luck."

Maybe, my friend is mad at me, or not.

Before I moved to Canada, I was lucky enough to have a trip to Canada and to know a person who is still a friend of mine. I have been in the States before, so I knew the distance between each city is wide and afar in North America. I tried to gather information about the country as much as I could at bookstores in Japan although this doesn't mean that I have read all the information. In this current time, you can do it with the Internet easily. Back then, I hvae visited Quebec city, Trois-Rivières, Montréal, and Toronto and the surrounding towns. I preferred to be in Montréal because of its more-historical-looking nature of the city.

I chose Toronto to live because of my 6-year of English education in junior and senior high and improving the language. Apparently, Montréal wasn't for me to stay at the time.

After almost 10-year of living in Toronto, it has became my second home, but my first home has been always the city of Higashiosaka, that is just a suburban, satellite city of Osaka. I still miss to see the Mountain that I can see from my parents' house terrace.

Anyway, this is my story and what would be yours?
I hope my friends will reach a decision that won't make them regret.

"Life is too short, so enjoy yourself."

This was the first phrase that made me get used to a life in Toronto.

II fait beau dans l'métro

we had a snow storm in Toronto yesterday.
トロントでは昨日どか雪が降りました。

Montréal is my favourite city in Canada. If I could speak French, I would have lived there.
モントリオール（仏語読みでモレアル）は僕がカナダで一番好きな街です。
仏語喋れたら住んでます。

TTC - Metropass $109 / mo

Is this why you guys raised the subway fare?

Toronto's subway stopped improving itself 20 years ago.

The old structures and facilities of the subway are aging, in contrary to the recent installation of the useless information screens at each station.



On such an old style subway, paper medium is still a key medium to have announcements to the customers and passengers. Tri-folded paper brochures are hanging at a few places on a subway car.

On the other day, I noticed this printed announcement.
I don't usually tear a brochure off from a hanger on the train, but I did it to read the brochure.


"Well, What century is it now?"
"It is the 21st century" – it is a rather sad fact.

It's been 7 years since the new century started,
and it is rather very shocking to see the brochure of
"ESCALATOR SAFETY GUIDE."


At last,
Toronto is one of the most multicultural and multiracial cities in the world.
There are people, such as people who decide to live here, children come with their parents, senior people who come here to live with their son and daughters, refugees who have to move to other countries because of wars and with political or whatever thoughts, beliefs, and religions, etc, etc.

How many people are there still in a land where there is no escalator?
How many people, who don't know what an escalator is, are there still?

I have a question, TTC:
Was there any necessity to make it printed on the paper in English language??

The End of the Frustration with Canada Post

I am happy that I have received my package.

Yes, I was so dissatisfied with the actual postal service (not the customer service).

I know that customer services are trying to do their job, responding to its customers as quickly as possible.

My email:

Dear "Canada Post"

Thank you for your quick answer.
I didn't expect how quick I would get a reply from Canada Post.

I am a little disappointed that you didn't answer my three questions.

Though, I came up with other questions after checking Canadapost.ca
tracking information as of October 19, 2007:

Item Number: XX123123123AB
Product Type: International Parcel
Date of Event Time of Event Location Description Retail Location
Signatory Name

2007/10/19 16:15 MISSISSAUGA, ON Item accepted and entered into

sortation plant
2007/10/07 19:37 MISSISSAUGA, ON Item accepted and entered into
sortation plant

I can see the tracking information is now up-to-date after making 2
calls and sending 1 email.

My questions are:
1) What does this "repeated" tracking information message mean?
2) Was it because my package was lost after entering the sortation
plant on Oct. 7 for 12 days?
3) Does this mean that my package IS still at the Mississauga
sortation plant and in a process to be delivered?

Please answer the above questions pointed as 1, 2, and 3.

Sincerely,

Taro Yamada (It's like John Smith in Japanese)

The customer service's response was impressively quick this time as well:

Hello Mrs. Taro Yamada,

Thank you for your message to Canada Post with regards to your inquiries.

1. Although according to the online tracking systems it seems like the item was scanned twice at the same location, this is not the case. The parcel was scanned once in 2 different sortation plants.

2. The reason why there was no tracking information between October 7th and October 19th is not provided to us. To get this information an inquiry would have to be opened and this can only be done by the United States Postal Service since this is their parcel.

3. As of October 19th your parcel was still in one the sortation plants in Mississauga. As of today, our tracking system indicates that your parcel is out for delivery and should be delivered to your address shortly.

I hope I have answered all your questions.


Regards,

Customer Service
Canada Post Corporation

Yes, this was what I wanted to hear for the first time reply.

When I talk to any customer services, I wonder what happens if I never speak and complain to the customer services about expected and reliable services. In this case, would I still be able to receive my package like I did today?

I am a patient customer. I have waited for more than a week since I saw the first "package is accepted and entered into the sortation plant" tracking message.

I mentioned about technologies when I started talking about my frustration and this correspondence with Canada Post.

If a technology makes people's life more difficult and frustrating, we don't need it.
Instead of investing in technologies, replace its unsuitable labour force that didn't do his/her job well.

Postal services are such a huge corporation and many people have to be involved. It must be very hard to keep its workers and customers happy, but that's a duty of a big company.

Canada Post should be fully privatised and should start to really compete with UPS and FedEx (not as fake as airline industries).

Better or Worse.

Oh, by the way, I am MRS. Taro Yamada. I don't usually use Mr., Ms., or Mrs., when I can't figure out the gender of people's names.

Good Job, and I will take your humour :)

Canada Post Delivery Issues, Continued ...

I am rather disappointed with services of our Canadian national corporation, Canada Post.
After all, it's Canadian.

It is nonsense to compare Canada Post with other postal services in other countries, though I miss Japan Post (used to be Ministry of Postal Services of Japan, then turned into a national corporation like Canada Post for a short period of time, and now, it is totally privatised now.) They do/did their job in Japan no matter whether it was privatised or not.

Off track.

During 13 days of not up-to-date tracking information on Canadapost.ca and with my everyday-getting-bigger-and-bigger frustration, I made two calls to the customer service of Canada Post and I sent an email this early morning (while I was working overnight).

Against my assumption that it would take longer to reply to my email, they did reply today.

It was a "template" email that didn't answer directly to the questions I pointed out:

I wrote (with a copy of tracking information, it's not posted here):

As you can see, my package has been stuck at Canada Post's Mississauga Sortation Plant for 12 days now. I am in Toronto and Mississauga is just next to us.

I have talked to a Canada Post representatative and I did what I was told to do by him (i.e. talking to the store in the US to start an investigation through USPS.)

I would like to inquire you the following:

1) I would like to know where my package is.
2) I would like to know why it's taking too long at the sortation plant.
3) I would like to know why Canada Post doesn't update the information on the package.

Please answer the entire above questions.

Canada Post replied:

Thank you for your message to Canada Post.

In order to trace a parcel, the sender must contact his local post office as the originating country is responsible for tracing and processing claims on their own items regardless of where the item was last scanned.

They ignored a point of my email and my questions weren't answered.
– great customer service!

Later, I checked the tracking information again.

2007/10/19	16:15	MISSISSAUGA, ON	Item accepted and entered into sortation plant
2007/10/07	19:37	MISSISSAUGA, ON	Item accepted and entered into sortation plant
2007/10/04	17:26		Item was released from Customs and is now with Canada Post for sortation

"Item" has been accepted twice after 12 days at Mississauga sortation plant.
Was my package off a shelf or on the floor out of a box for 12 days at the sortation plant?

Since my questions are not answered, I am getting confused of this whole process.
I believe that making customers confused is not a great customer service or support.

O Canada (Post), where did you lose your professionalism.
Some would say, "we don't have such a thing as professionalism from the beggining."

So, this thing is continued for a while.

Canada Post Delivery – Daily Tracking – Day10

Day 10 – (am assuming that) my package is in Mississauga.
The information stays the same:

Date of Event	Time of Event	Location	Description	Retail Location	Signatory Name
2007/10/07	19:37	MISSISSAUGA, ON	Item accepted and entered into sortation plant
2007/10/04	17:26		Item was released from Customs and is now with Canada Post for sortation
2007/09/26	23:08		International shipment has arrived in Canada
2007/09/24	06:14		International item has left the origin country and is en route to Canada
2007/09/23	20:53		International shipment has left the origin country and is en route to Canada
2007/09/21	13:14		International item has been posted in origin country

Technologies and Postal Services

So... Where is my package that I ordered online in a U.S. store?

Thanks for the technologies, so I have been tracking the package:

Stamps.com (USPS)

October 04, 2007	5:26 pm	MONTREAL,	Out of Foreign Customs
September 26, 2007	11:08 pm	MONTREAL,	Arrived Abroad
September 24, 2007	6:14 am	NJI,	International Dispatch
September 21, 2007	1:14 pm	NEW YORK, NY 10012	Electronic Shipping Info Received

Canada Post

2007/10/07	19:37	MISSISSAUGA, ON	Item accepted and entered into sortation plant
2007/10/04	17:26		Item was released from Customs and is now with Canada Post for sortation
2007/09/26	23:08		International shipment has arrived in Canada
2007/09/24	06:14		International item has left the origin country and is en route to Canada
2007/09/23	20:53		International shipment has left the origin country and is en route to Canada
2007/09/21	13:14		International item has been posted in origin country

According to Canada Post, my package is at a sortation plant in Mississauga for 8 days now.

I called Canada Post.
"I am expecting a package from the U.S. that I purchased online. According to the website's tracking, it's been 8 days since the package entered the Mississuga sortation plant. Can you tell me why it's taking longer?" I asked.

A guy on the phone said, "Whereabout do you live?"
I said, "Toronto, west of downtown."
A guy on the phone said, "That's weird."

(Yes, that's why I am calling you.)

and he said, "we can release information only to the shipper (in the U.S.), so I suggest you to contact the shipper and shipper can open an investigation..."

(Oh well...) so, I sent an email to the online store with knowing that they can't do much...

Later, I googled "Canada Post Sortation Plant 2007," and I got plenty results of people's complaints on their blogs and bbs.

Listen, Canada Post:
Stop making us unnecessarily frustrated.
Use/update your technologies to inform us with detailed information.

Technologies will never make our life easier.