Hi all, as Expat mentioned in her intro for me - I'm a recovering expat, lived in Richmond, VA - U.S for almost 5 years and then Dresden, Germany for 2 years. During those years, I had also spent a significant amount of time in China, Portugal, Austria and Malaysia (and a few other places too...). In all that time, in all those places and all the people I met - once I told them that I was Canadian - there were two very common reactions from almost everyone of them...
1. They seemed happier/more relaxed with me - because I was not American. (most assume that since you're speaking english, without a british accent, that you're american...)
- and -
2. The first thing to come out of their mouth is 'Isn't it COLD there?'.
Number 2 is the reason why I write
my other blog. There's really very little convincing you can do when talking to people about it - so now that I'm no longer an expat, but living back home again, I'm trying to tell them AND show them - that Canada is not the North Pole (exclusively). It's not always winter. There isn't a wall of snow at the U.S/Canada border. I did not have to trade in my dogsled for a car...My furs for shorts...My snowshoes for sneakers. I don't live in the wilderness. There aren't polar bears wandering around my house and no my house is not an igloo!
I really found it quite amusing that people had such stereotypical views of Canada (and no - this definitely not just about the U.S!)
Since this is my first post here, I'll keep it short, but I'm curious to hear about everyone else's experiences - and if you have had similar conversations with the locals where you are. So just drop a quick comment about where you are, or where you've been and what kind of reaction you get when you tell people you're from Canada.
Thanks!
Labels: COLD?
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