an american in canada
So, last October I moved from Virginia, USA to Ottawa in Canada. Our cultures are very similar. In fact, to the glimpsing eye, they would seem identical.
Upon further examination, there are subtle differences which can add up at times. Some are more pervasive than others, but so far, it hasn't been too difficult to adjust. Except for one thing.
You might think it's a pain to try to convert Fahrenheit temps to Celcius after 28 years of using Fahrenheit.
Kilos:pounds ----- 1:2.2
Maybe it's difficult to remember that an MP in Canada is not Military Police, it's Member of Parliament.
No more Congress, now it's Parliament. House of Commons and Senate.
No fixed election years/dates. They call them whenever they want! And only have** I think it's about 3 months to campaign. This part is nice because one need not suffer through the years-long custody battles that are US elections.
Maybe you have difficulty with the notion that you thought that all these years you understood the meaning of the term "wind chill." You didn't. Some days, in late January, you can get frostbite just by looking out of the window.
Don't have to pay a cent for a broken arm, eh?
Nope, these things have required minimal adjustment on my part. The one thing I can't get my head around is the way Canadians package their milk. There are cardboard cartons for two liter containers. No problem. No gallons here. Not only the measurement- they have 4 liter containers, not gallons, although they are close.
The problem is that, here in Canada, the plastic gallon jug is unheard of in the realm of dairy farming. They use plastic bags. Yes, BAGS, to contain their milk. Please refer to the following website for further information.
http://home.cogeco.ca/~husky66/Milk/
posted by Traci at 12:59 PM
3 Comments:
Note to unself – bagged milk is best chilled in the fridge !!!
certainly not the cabinet!
That’s funny. I had no idea that Canada was the only place that sold milk in bags.
You should travel to Newfoundland where they have this backwards bargaining. The Customer tries to work the price up, say how good the merchandise is. The Seller, on the other hand tries to bring the price down, saying things like “oh no I’m not happy how this one turned out, it’s worth nothing”. You still end up with the same price that you would have normally paid, but both parties end up feeling good about the deal. The customer feels good because the Seller was trying to give them a good price. The Seller feels good because the customer raved about their goods. I don’t know how common this is, I think it’s just a tradition, but I think it’s cultural things like this that keep the Newfoundland violent crime rate one of the lowest in the free world.
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