Canadianisms:
There are signs everywhere. Mostly because someone, somewhere was sued for something or they think they could be sued for something. Case in point is the helpful reminder ‘Caution your hot drink/pie/dog is hot’! Road sides are littered with as much information for those using the roads as possible. Parking a car takes a good ten minutes of deciphering the available times at each prospective spot, it takes a team of nuclear scientists to avoid parking tickets in this city. Along the highway there are constantly signs informing you of which takeaway options are available at the next exit and there are so many!
I am not sure if I am biased but it seems that things have strange names here. Often people name things after their own first name.
“Christine's Fitness.”
“Jim's Mattress World”
“Beatrice Milk.”
That last one could be named after a famous cow I guess. In NZ most of us wouldn’t presume to name something after ourselves, it is a bit show offy is it not? This North American habit is in a similar vein to those ad’s you see referenced on sitcoms where the guy who owns the store does his best ‘I am really excited about this crazy sale’ bit and the ad is comically low budget. Those really do exist and get shown on primetime here. Creepy comb over dudes wanting you to exchange your gold for cash on some strip mall store on an abandoned highway. Jim always wants to personally invite you to his very own world of mattresses, with the ad filmed inside that same store and at the same time showing of those mattresses.
The paper sizes are quite strange. I guess once you are used to them you can prefer letter and legal sizes, I for one do not. The beauty of the A system with each successive number being half the size of the number before, why would you not switch to that? It is too international for them perhaps? Those Americans have a stranglehold in common sense in some areas, for a country that escaped imperial England they cling to the imperial measures. Here in Canada the store owners use these ye olde measures too, for fear of fierce repercussions from those resistant to common sense.
Politeness is a rule here. Orderly lines and pleases and thank yous. People almost always ask how you are and expect you to reciprocate whole heartedly. To end on a happy note, people here quite often say ‘take care’ instead of goodbye. O lovely. I think they mean it too; I particularly like it for the variety.
Take Care Y'all!
This made me laugh, and smile, and think of home...A few things to note...If you think Canadians have a lot of redundant signage, take a trip across the border, the USA can make Canada look tame. Seriously, I've seen a made in the USA toilet bowl brush that said not to be used for food preparation! Really, did we need to be told that?
ReplyDeleteToronto and other major cities are a pain to park in, but other places aren't so bad. Being someone that doesn't own a car, it tends to work in my favour, as it adds something to the list of benefits of public transit/cycling/walking - no need to try to find a parking spot...
I too prefer the A system of paper measurements. I haven't quite figured out where Canada stands on the metric/imperial bandwagon. We claim to be metric, and yet there are many things that we haven't made the switch for, such as paper. The only reason I can think of is a guess that it's cheaper for manufacturers to make only system of paper sizes and that the US has the bigger market so their system wins...
Yes we do usually actually want an answer when we ask how you're doing. And, yes, when we say take care instead of goodbye we do actually mean it.
I would find it interesting to hear what you notice more about NZ when you come home.
Have you noticed that there is no consistent method for writing the date if using only numbers...02/04/11 could be the 2nd of April 2011 or the 4th of February 2011, that is incredibly frustrating. I really appreciate that NZ is always day/month/year.
gosh those creepy comb-over dudes are everywhere.
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