Over the winter break my family and I went to Vancouver, Canada. I was very curious beforehand on how similar Canada would be to the USA since Vancouver is pretty much on the US-Canadian border, so while I was there I annotated the differences I noticed. The first thing I noticed as I arrived is that instead of policemen walking around the streets and patrolling the area, there are 3rd party security men. Even at the British Columbian Parliament, a government building, there was an independent security firm instead of policemen. The next thing that was different and impressed me a lot was the public transportation system. Their public transit, called TransLink, made it easy to efficiently get across Vancouver. For example, we were able to take a bus to the light rail, and from their we could take a ferry to another bus to get to where we wanted, all on one inexpensive ticket (~$2.50). Their buses also work the same overhead electrical as the light rail, so it is very energy efficient. But the thing about the TransLink that surprised me the most was the cleanliness. Having ridden the CTA many a time, I was stunned that the seats were not stain encrusted and the poles weren't as greasy as a fresh batch of fries. (And you could actually hear what the conductor said over the PA!)
Here's a shocker, completely following the stereotype Canadians are some of the nicest people I've met. They are genuinely happy to talk to you and welcome you to their country. Even when your in the heart of Vancouver, the people are enthused to help you find your way around and share their favorite restaurants. While they do follow that stereotype, I was shocked when there where very little Canadians who said "Eh." I thought that they used it habitually but I only heard maybe 2 people say it. Supposedly it is frequently used by rural Canadians. As I was there over Christmas, I got to experience Boxing Day. Boxing Day is a national holiday the day after Christmas where shoppers flee to stores at unearthly hours in the morning to get good deals on leftover merchandise. Its sort of their version of Black Friday, except after Christmas.
Now I'll just rattle off some miscellaneous differences. Canadian bacon is called back bacon (weird huh?), normal bacon is also called bacon. McDonald's serves up double Big Macs, placing 2 patties wherever there are normally one, not even offering a normal Big Mac. The candy Smartees is called Rockettes because Nestle had already trademarked their M&M competitor named Smartees in Canada before Necco brought the American Smartee to Canada. I still don't know what the flashing left turn signal on the traffic lights mean. All the hotels I stayed at (3 different ones) had a dog that resided in the lobby. Sales tax is ridiculously high (~16%). They had weird Pepsi products such as Melon Pineapple Powerade and Gingerale infused with tea. American corporations like to put the maple leaf in their logos of their Canadian branches. SportsCenter, the ESPN news program airs on The Sports Network, or TSN, which is ESPN's Canadian counterpart. They spell their news program SportsCentre. They LOVE hockey. While I was there, the front page story of the national newspaper was the World Junior Hockey Championships 5 of the 10 days. The NBA is second in popularity but even minor league hockey is more popular. College sports aren't really followed by the public or media there. And possibly the most annoying thing is that all of the light switches are on the outside of the room they control, which took a long time to get used to.
While Canada was very quirky, it was a very fun time and I would highly recommend taking a trip, I know my family can't wait for our return.
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