The high cost of staying each day at the hotel added to the expenses of coming to Canada

Original author: Venkatramana Ramadev Krishnamurthy (he/ him)

Sunrise captured from the town on January 10, 2022. Copyright @art_nouveau___

Hi, I am Venky, that’s what my friends call me. I am a graduate student in the second year of Master of Computer Science program at X. I am from Chennai, a city, famous for one of the best information technology and industrial engagement in India, and this developed my interest in computing and software.

I came to Antigonish last year in November, and I did experience housing issues. To avoid last minute rush of finding an apartment, my friends and I, signed a lease starting from January 2022 and decided to come early to Canada in November 2021. We did have to look for some interim accommodation before that, which was indeed time consuming. Initially, my friends and I stayed in a hotel for the first three days. The high cost of staying each day at the hotel added to the expenses of coming to Canada. So, we decided to reach out to a couple of other students from my program, who were already living in this town and they were kind enough to let us stay at their place till we could move in to our rented apartment, which was made available to us from December 15.

A big suggestion to the incoming students at X, would be to start looking for a place to rent, well in advance, and if it would be possible, try to sign the lease before coming to the town, which would really make the process of housing easy and affordable. Most importantly, reach out to the members of international society or the Internationalization Office at StFX (through email or the Internationals@StFX Facebook group) for any help or guidance.