I might already be a half-Canadian: wearing rubber boots when it rains, going to vegan restaurants and saying “thank you” to the bus driver, but still there are many things that keep on surprising me or make me giggle on this side of the world... here is a list!
- Dogs also get to wear rain protection when it rains here! In the form of a dog-raincoat!
- People assume that everything that comes out of Europe is necessarily better.
- Driving rules are crazy: people can just cross roads whenever there are no other cars coming, which results in cars blocking pedestrian and bike lanes when they are waiting for their turn.
- Bikers think they go faster when they wear flashy and very very tight bike wear, not by getting a better bike.
- Bike helmets are mandatory but bike lights are not.
- Hipsters here are real hipsters, wearing vintage, tight jeans and mustaches with pride. Oh and they ride bikes with NO brakes! (and obviously no helmet either)
- Canada uses kilometers to indicate speed, but use inches for measurements, feet for height and ounces for weight. But then again they use Celsius for temperatures… just stick with or the European or US standard!
- Houses are not numbered even or uneven but people can just pick a number as long as it is their block (say from 400 to 500) and follows the one before.
- Having a tattoo is almost as common as having your ears pierced.
- I guess about 25% of all Vancouverites goes to yoga (or at least claims/pretends they do).
- A one dollar coin is called a Loonie, and as you might have guessed, a 2 dollar coin is indeed a Toonie.
- When you talk about an address you always have to mention the intersecting street as some streets can be about 15kms long :o.
- Houses on the West side of the city almost costs twice as much as those on the East side, even if they might only be a block apart.
- Together with the first sunshine, along come the shorts and even flip flops. It does not matter if it is February and it is still a mere 6 degrees.
- With online banking you can only send money to others with the same bank or businesses.. not to people at other banks. So what’s the point?
- Probably it is for that reason that people in Canada (still) use cheques, or checks as they call them here. The only time in the Netherlands that I ever got a cheque was from my grandparents! And by now even they use online banking!
- There are 2 liter ice cream containers available in the supermarket. (A regular size is around 475cl)
- A warm wooly hat is called a toque. Pronounce as “took”.
- It is absolutely normal to tell strangers you like what they’re wearing/having and to ask where they got it and how much they paid for it.
