I’m not all that far from home. Literally, only a seven-hour drive. There are people at my university who are fourteen-hour plane rides away from home. However, just being a Canadian in the U.S., there are some significant differences. I've been surprised about some:
1. Smarties are NOT smarties!
2. There are no ketchup chips here. Or coffee crisps. Or Aero bars. And some people have never even heard of all dressed chips. I know. Scarring.
3. Everyone says restroom or bathroom. Never washroom.
4. You actually kind of do say ‘aboot,’ instead of about, and ‘sorey’ instead of sorry.
5. Most people don't know who the Prime Minister of Canada is, or any Canadian history, for that matter.
6. Some people actually wonder if French is Canada’s main language.
7. The typical response after saying “I’m Canadian!” is “oh, it must be so cold there!”
8. You’ll start to tell people that you ride to school on your pet polar bear (but that can always be interchanged with the moose you wrangle first).
9. You’ll begin to notice how everything, no matter what history class you take, relates back to the U.S.
10. Cutlery is often referred to as silverware.
11. Pop is generally called soda.
12. You tell people that maple syrup is your staple food. May as well, right?
13. No one has really heard of the Canadian national anthem- usually all they know is the ‘O Canada!’ part.
14. Some have never heard of Canadian Thanksgiving. Sometimes they know that we don’t have Thanksgiving in November, but then they think we don't have Thanksgiving at all. Or just have no clue when it is.
15. Americans tend to not know any Canadian provinces- and if they do, they know very few, like BC or Ontario. Some think that Canada is like a European country, where a person can just drive across the entirety of the country in a day or so.
16. You say ‘I’m from Canada’ because you get sick of saying I’m from [insert hometown here or major city close to hometown] and no one knowing where that is.
17. You hear “You’re Canadian? You must love hockey!!!!” all of the time.
18. If you learn about World War One in a class, for the first time in your life Vimy Ridge doesn’t come up right away.
19. Some people are unsure of what side of the road Canadians drive on.
20. Almost no one at college says "prof" for professor.
21. The spelling is different.... I knew this already, but getting used to it is hard. It's not my favoUrite.
22. It's really fun to be an international student from Canada in the States- it's got all it's got all the perks of being international without having to worry about too much of a culture shock. Going to school in a different country was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
