After one week in Canada
I mentioned earlier that I was going to move to Canada. I’ve been here in southern Ontario for a week and it’s been good so far. Needless to say, Canada is really similar to the U.S.A. Perhaps a bit too similar for my liking, but it’s been an easy transition so far. Sure I had to get a new cell phone, open a new bank account, and endure hearing frequent use of “eh?”, but fundamentally, this move hasn’t felt like moving to another country per say. It’s more like moving to another state in the U.S.
Sure, the English dialect here is a bit different, but it’s 98% the same; my accent doesn’t even seem out of place here as Canadians seem to be adopting the “standard” U.S. accent (most likely due to T.V. which is why regional accents in the U.S. are dying as well); and hey, I can already do a decent Canadian accent, though I’m not exactly adept at using “eh” just yet. Give it a month, eh?
Cars are, as with the U.S., a way of life here. I’m living in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, which is denser than most similarly-sized U.S. cities, but not anywhere near as dense as a typical European town. Politics are more progressive in Canada, people are quite friendly so far—even to a Yank, and Waterloo is a diverse place. Perhaps my perspective is skewed because Waterloo’s a college town, but there really is a lot of diversity in Canada (especially in big cities since Canada has a really high immigration rate, I’m sure small towns have little diversity).
So now, I guess it’s time to see how school will be. I came here for the school, as it’s one the best places to do computer science in North America, so that will surely occupy most of my time. With any luck, I’ll get out of here in four or so years and will start my “real” life!
I made my first visit to Canada back in May. I really liked it there too. Can't say enough good about Tim Hortons. I'm very interested in hearing about your political impressions and experiences there. Everything I've ever heard about Canada suggests it is more progressive, but I've often wondered if that's just the news we get. Anyway, keep us posted. Good luck in Canada!
I'll definitely be posting thoughts on Canadian life, including politics and the like. So far, I can't say too much about it... although I can say that Canada is more progressive, ie. same-sex marriage is legal here.
As far as Tim Hortons, I haven't been yet, but there's one downstairs from my office, so it's only a matter of time...
Glad to hear your first impressions of this land are positive! I'd just like to say that it is very natural to feel that southern Ontario is like another U.S. state. We in the rest of Canada see Kitchener in this way too. If you'd like a different experience I encourage you to explore some other places in the country. You may find the Maritimes, Newfoundland, the prairies and the mountains very different from what you're used to.
Maybe not as different as between Detroit and Prague, but at least as much as Tallahassee and Seattle.
oh, and p.s. watch out for Tim Horton’s. Our FDA may be stricter with preservatives and artificial flavours, but we're looser with the caffeine and nicotine content of our coffee!
Garrett: I think my perspective on Ontario culture is perhaps skewed because it's similar to Colorado's culture. Not exactly the same, like Colorado people are probably more outdoorsy and Southern Ontario has more diversity, but they are much closer in culture to each other than say Wyoming and Colorado. In many ways moving from Wyoming to Colorado seems as much like moving to another country as did the move between Colorado and Ontario. Exacerbating the similarities, the populations of Fort Collins, Colorado and Waterloo, Ontario are about 120,000 and 98,000 respectively. So, they're similar in size as well.
Anyhow, I hope to travel this vast country. I haven't done nearly enough yet, like I haven't made it to Toronto yet!