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!
Does it not feel good to be Canadian when people react this way? I love it :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I tell my students how cold it gets in Edmonton they all look at me with total horror. It is usually followed by the comment, "I'd die!"
ReplyDeleteThat's how I used to feel in Edmonton too, but the cold there is much different from the cold here. Where I live in Japan it is a damp cold. We are near the mountains so we have tons of snow in winter. It doesn't get as cold here as it does back home, but the houses aren't built as well, so it's cold inside.
I tend to exaggerate the length of winters in Canada, but often forget to mention the long lovely light evenings in Spring and Summer because of daylight savings, and how glorious an Alberta summer can be. I'll have to work on that!
Interesting topic!