Thursday, May 28, 2009

Two Months and Counting

So, I know for the most part Canadians and Americans have more similarities than differences, but still, there are all these little things I'm learning as I'm getting ready for this move that keep surprising me. For instance:

Summer holidays. School is already done for lots of American elementary kids? Weird. We don't finish here until the very end of July. July and August are our holiday months.

Hot lunches? American schools seem to all have hot lunches available with french fries as a staple side item. (Are the other kids going to make fun of my baby for having to eat healthy food?)

And, of course, the weather. No snow till Christmas and summers that hit 40C?- which also explains the equally weird air conditioners in every house. That's some crazy.

College football. People actually come out to watch these games in droves. They cheer, they drink, they care who wins. Imagine!

Sororities. They're real. They're not just in the movies. People actually pay a lot of money to join them and they've got these HUGE fancy pants houses all over the place full of overly-tanned girls with pedicures, and on Friday nights they get all dressed up and walk their bodies around.

Undergrads. It seems like if you are an undergrad in the States you're supposed to spend most of your time in university drunk and not making it to class? No one seems to think undergrads think much here. Oh, and, they don't call it university. They call it college.
College
College
College.

Got it.

10 comments:

Terog said...

Oh you'll kiss that air conditioner with tongue in July and August. Midwest summers can be so so muggy. And football, I loved going shopping during the games when I lived in the Midwest. I felt like I had the stores to myself.

It's always interesting to me what stands out to people viewing us from a different perspective. Even from as close as Canada. I'm so excited for you!

Janna Barber said...

Not all the colleges are that bad. But the state universities are usually filled with partying and all that sorority nonsense. Don't live on campus, and you'll be fine.

cecily said...

Was just thinking about you at tea time tonight (no idea why... and do you call tea dinner or tea?)and wondering when you move and how the plans are going! Thanks for the update. :-)

Unknown said...

I chuckled when I read this. I feel like I've made this trip in reverse.
Enjoy.

Angela said...

ava,
with tongue? i'm good with that.

i was sitting in a coffee shop on saturday and i looked around and counted at least five visibly different countries represented in this one tiny place and i was talking to a friend on the phone from another one. i love that about my country, but it has led to some problems - mainly identity confusion. it's a lot harder for us to agree on who we are as a country when we encourage people to retain all these different cultural versions of who they are. again, i love that we encourage that and i don't want to change it, but it means that canadians are used to feeling identity-less or to identifying more with the country our parents came from than canada, so it's always fun to be able to see that this defined sense of what it is to be canadian really does exist when you travel to other countries - even if it is only in these tiny tiny ways.

janna,
we're not on campus, just a nice walking distance away. i should put up some pictures.

cecily,
i think about you all the time!
nope to tea. we call it supper or dinner. dinner is usually a little fancier, i think.

lisalee,
oh! tell me. what are some funny canadian things?

Amber@theRunaMuck said...

Oh this is so funny. In the South, you would be multiplying all this by 20.

deanna said...

Yes, put up pictures! I haven't engaged a whole lot with the stuff you're sorting through. But when we lived in S.Carolina the air conditioner was definitely our good, good, friend.

Angela said...

amber,
i'm doing it! there ain't no way i'll come so close to the real, live south and not jump in a car with my baby and go see some for myself some time.
p.s. do you know michael ondaatje's poetry? good glory. i'm reading him again and dying all over the place. i think you would love him.

deanna,
it sounds like there may have been nudity involved.

deanna said...

Tsk, tsk, Angela. You think this land's that strange...
Was a floor vent...

(Okay, stopping. Whatever I say, this can't end well for me.)

cecily said...

all the time? that's nice. :-)