>OK. Maybe I shouldn't be so high and mighty.

Mike, FWIW when we moved to Canada we brought some money, but not much, only 50% more than the required minimum (I think the minimum was 10K Cnd and we brought 12K U$s, and at that time 12K U$s was about 18K Cnd, so closer to 80% more) but after taking a couple of months for vacation (my parents came to visit 15 days after we arrived here, we came in the same plane that they first toured the east, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Boston)... sorry I am losing my line of thought here... the thing is that we knew the money was not enough so my wife started with the first job she was offered: as attendant in a fast food shop in a mall earning minimum wage, then when I've got my job she looked for something better, which it wasn't that much better either: (I forgot the proper name but she prepared the tables in an hotel's conference room before the conference started), then to another hotel as receptionist, so it took her a couple of years to get a job she liked: As a national coordinator for a MS research study on the University of British Columbia. In short, we believe that any job is good when you take it with pride and always looking at it as a stepping stone for your next one.