I Still Call Australia Home: Canada

Well, the time has come to critically review my time in Canada and judge it as a place. I have made a list of differences – good or bad – that I have noticed in Canada compared to Australia, but I’ll probably forget things or have written something and have no idea what it means…

Firstly, there are some small trivial things…

The Light Switches in Canada (and USA) are totally different from the ones in Australia – they flick the other way to turn on the lights and I don’t know how I feel about this. They are also a different shape, which I like, but I don’t like the way you can’t angrily slam on a light because you have to push it up.
This one is a bit weird, but, there is no half-flush on the toilet, which I think is actually uniquely Australian. This does mean that there is a lot of waste of water because the full flush has to be used every time.
Chip flavours in Canada (and USA) are extremely varied and I do like this.
I like the way that no-one in Canada knows what you’re talking about when you use various expressions or words. Some of these include:

“I reckon”
“I’ll see you in a fortnight”
“Beanie”
“Waiter” And of course, there are more and it works in reverse as well – Canadians use expressions and words that Australians don’t know or use.

This is a big positive, I love how friendly Canadians are. I mean they just are, in general, really great.
The Weather in Canada, during the Winter is quite cold and grey – at least what I experienced but despite the fact I am Australian and live in the sub-tropics, I really like that Weather… at least to visit.
Something really different to home are the ads on television. In one way, it’s bad – it seems like Canada is really behind-times in terms of health but in another way it’s plain weird. In Canada, they advertise prescription drugs on television and after they do a happy, smiling ad on how good their product is, a voice-over goes through and lists all the hideous side-affects of their drugs. It’s plain weird, but I suppose it’s good?
This is a bit sort of bias I suppose, but I got my awesome green laptop which allows me to type this in Canada, so thumbs up to Canada.
I love the deciduous trees, not unique to Canada but rather unseen in Australia. I love the bare trees in the Winter, it’s so stark and different.
Do you know what’s difficult? Talking with a numb mouth/tongue. I learnt this when taking a very talkative child up on the chairlift at Whistler and I could hardly reply to him because my mouth was so cold.
I really love that most places I’ve seen in Canada (and the USA actually) are really adaptive and disability friendly. It’s really good – and much better than Australia, I believe.
Canada is really behind-times with health, in my opinion, in terms of diet and exercise. The ads on television and meal portions are just not quite hitting the mark, in terms of health. That’s just my opinion, really.
Canada is really dog-friendly, like in airports and everywhere you see dogs, all through the village. In Australia, they don’t even like service dogs that much – so I don’t know if Canada is overly-friendly, or if Australia is overly-unfriendly.
Canada has Wal-Mart. Enough said.
Last, but certainly not least, Canada is beautiful. I’ve said it before but it’s true. I’ve tried taking photos – and I think I’ve figured out how to put them on my blog! But it’s hard to take a photo and capture it all… if I had one wish, I would’ve wished you all to be there to experience it with me.

I like the Canadian Flag

Lance, Gabi, Mum, Dad and Jonathon. I just want to clear something up – despite the popular misconception, Mum and Gabi are not related – Mum only has one sister, Mandy.