Light anecdote for your Thursday

Hello everyone,

I was going through an old, old blog of mine that I used to keep several years back. I had mainly run it during my time in Canada, to document that experience of moving to another country (seems like a running theme with me is blogging when I move to another country... but anyway!).

It has a lot of junk on it that isn't relevant anymore (probably never was, if the truth be told!), but I did find one entry that made me laugh.

I found Canadians to be very different to what I had expected. I had anticipated that they would be much like their American counterparts south of the border. How wrong I was!
Canada is a very different place, as are her people.

This entry is from Sunday 23rd December, 2007. I had been in Canada about 5 weeks at this point.

"Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the town, not a creature was stirring - but for one house...

So here I sit in my room. It is the 23rd December, but unofficially in this house it is Christmas Eve. Why? Because R has to work all through the holiday and he wont be able to see the kids open presents otherwise. So tomorrow evening we will do the opening of gifts. But not ones from Santa of course - he still has to come Christmas Eve and leave the stockings and whatever else...

The upstairs bathroom is still being rebuilt, so there are currently 7 people (B has gone to his parents for the holiday) using one bathroom downstairs. Not good when for 3 days at least 5 of us have been very sick with some "24 hour" bug.

Things I have learned here in Canada so far:

You can drive in a van to a place called Dominion, grab a cart from the corral and go foffing...

Canadians sound nothing like Americans once you get used to it

Everything is so slow!

Technology is about 50 years behind

Pay 'n' Go is an alien concept yet to be discovered

Boy does it snow!

Customer service needs to be, well, exist...

It's cold

Flipping your house doesn't literally mean what it sounds like...

On the other hand flipping the laundry is what it sounds like...

CV's are resumes

A loonie isn't someone who belongs in an asylum

Not saying "you're welcome" after someone has thanked YOU can be considered rude!

The British either have funny accents or are hippies (thanks M, nice... real nice!)

Everything (nearly) is "plus tax"

Travel can be expensive and slow

A toque and a parka aren't items of stationary

Canadians are generally more intelligent than the Americans

Mince meat is hamburger. Hamburger is hamburger

Pasta can be called anything from noodles to spaghetti, regardless or whether it is shaped like a noodle or not... ("Pass me the noodles", "there aren't any", "you're looking right at them", "these? These are sheets of pasta for lasagna")

Lasagne is spelled lasagna

William Shatner is Canadian, and is just as annoying on TV here as anywhere else

Dx"


I can't speak for my opinions back then, and have no defence if anyone is offended by any of the above. It is what it is. I've become more rounded in 5 years.
In the 5 years I have been going back and forward from the US visiting Jon, I have come up against some quirks between American and British English, and culture, too.

I definitely look forward to having these similar sorts of experiences once I live in the US full time!

Dan.

BUNAC - where would you like to go?

Hello everyone,

In my first, very long post, where I introduced myself and my story, I mentioned something called BUNAC, without really talking about what it is.

BUNAC stands for British Universities of North America Club. They are an organisation that can arrange gap years, working holidays and other visas to young people around the world. Despite its name, the 'club' does offer programmes to places outside of North America also, such as Australia and New Zealand.

As I mentioned in my first post, I used their services to move to Canada, where I lived and worked in Toronto, before I met Jon.

If you love travel like me, or are looking to maybe even eventually settle in another country further down the line, a working holiday/gap year is a fantastic way to get to know a country.
And who knows, you might meet your life partner, like I did!

Give them a try, you never know where you'll end up!

Dan.