Canada Quirks

I'm sorry if i didn't manage to read any of your links for this one month. I will do that when i return to good old Singapore but right now, the temperature outside is too good right now and i don't feel like doing anything except to skip outside and play. Please bear with my non-updated status about your well-being and i trust that if there is any important that i should know, please email me :)

So coming back to Canada and more Canada.

I realise Canadians are funny people. The first few days i arrived at my apartment in Kitchener, the landlady told me repeatedly that Canadians are very honest people. I could drop a wad of money outside the corridor and nobody would do a finders' keeper (i'm not about to try that though). On the second occasion, she dragged me and my flatmate from our 11th storey apartment to visit another apartment on the 8th floor. When i took out my key intending to lock the apartment, she pushed me away and told me not to worry, all Canadians are very honest and no one would go into our apartment. Then she literally shoved me into the lift.

I realised the service apartments i live currently must be some kind of retirement area. There is an obscene amount of old folks going in and out and only two relatively young people. We're talking about two younger folks out of the thirty people i've seen since i moved in two weeks ago.

I was desperate to get hold of a copy of Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince that i went to Chapters (their equivalent of a Kinokuniya). I did not get a copy in the end. It would cost me a bloody 41 Canadian dollars! Instead i got a hardcover copy of Nicholas Sparks' "The Guardian" at 6.99 which is really damn cheap.

Food here has a lot of variety. When i say "variety", i do not mean there are many kinds of food to choose from. In the first place, this place is infested by burger joints which sell pizzas, chicken wings, spagetti and steak or infested by a pizza joint which sells burgers, chicken wings, spagetti and steak or a pasta joint which sells burgers, pizzas, chicken wings and steak and of course, a steak joint which sells burgers, pizzas, chicken wings and spagetti. Anyway when i say "variety", this is what i meant.

Waitress: May i have your order please?
Me: Can i have a veal chop please?
Waitress: White bread or brown?
Me: White.
Waitress: Toasted or not?
Me: Toasted.
Waitress: Garlic, apple cinnamon, marmalade, strawberry or butter spread?
Me: Butter.
Waitress: Baked potato, Mashed potato or fries?
Me: Mashed.
Waitress: Caesar salad or garden salad?
Me: Caesar.
Waitress: French, cajun, ketchup, something-i-dont-know, another-thing-i-dont-know, thousand island or vignette?
Me: No sauce please. *starts to get confused*
Waitress: Clam Chowder or soup of the day which is spinach and mushroom soup or minestrone?
Me: Clam chowder.
Waitress: Pepper or cheese?
Me: Pepper please.
Waitress: Okay, drinks next. Coke, sprite, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry or banana milkshake, ice tea, fruitopia or root beer?
Me: Iced tea.
Waitress: Okay, order taken. Next please *turns to my colleague and vicious cycle repeats*

I hate the roads at Kitchener-Waterloo too. Someone local once told me the reason why we have crappy roads here was because the town planner must have gotten drunk, stood in front of the dartboard and threw spagetti at it. Whichever strand of spagetti sticks on the dartboard, they will build a road there. Anyway, the roads isn't half as bad as the naming. There is Kings Street North which is nowhere near Kings Street South (they are supposed to be in opposite direction, ain't they? but noooo, they made it far far away) and there are Kings Street East which is nowhere near Kings Street West.

And the shopping malls here are great! Because they are mostly only one-level. The mall would take up a huge area but it would only have one level. You just have to keep walking straight. No elevators, no lifts at all. And it's quite a shiok feeling to jump from shop to shop to shop without thinking which level would what be on. But the bad point is that if i walk into Shop A then walk on to B then to C and blah blah blah, by the time i reach Shop Z and i want to return to Shop A, i could never get back to where i started out again because it is a long long walk.

The sun right now sets at about nine-thirty pm. So after dinner, the sun could still be shining and then you look at your watch and you go 'Holy Marcaroni' because you realise it's already 9pm. Awfully useful for travellers because when i went to Niagara Falls outlet (about 2 hours away from where i live), i could go and shop till 9 before we set on the roads for home as there is still sunlight and the roads are still visible.

I get lots of coins here. There are 2 dollar coins which they call a 'toony' and 1 dollar coins which they call 'loony'. Then there is 25 cents coins, 5 cents coins, 1 cents coins and the weirdest is the 10 cents coins which are the smallest out of all the coins.

I gotta run now (because i'm in training) and i'll update with more when i have the time.