Canada - 2003 Vacation

This journal represents the emails I sent home on my first trip out of the country to Canada! This seems to be the beginning of a journal-writing career for me and is the first time I did something like this. Apparently, it sparked something in me that has grown with each vacation! So, read at your own risk...

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8/10/03
Hey everybody!

Just writing to give you an update on our vacation. We made it up to Canada just fine for our first trip out of the country.

I never knew that I could speak French! When we crossed the border, I was able to understand everything on the radio just fine! I have also had no problem reading or communicating with others. Wow, listening to my sister Tammy speak French years ago must have really paid off.

Canadians are very friendly! Once we crossed the border, I moved over into the left lane of the two-lane road to begin driving. It seems that everyone was either waving at us or honking at us! They must not see too many people from the States up here.

Everything is so expensive! Jan went into Wendy’s to view the 99 cent value meal and was only offered $1.39 value meal! Everything else seems outrageously priced too - except for gas. Who knew that gas in Canada was so cheap! We found that almost all of the gas stations sold gas for around 73.5 cents per gallon! Our gas mileage hasn’t improved at all because last fillup we ended up putting 40 gallons into our 25 gallon tank! Hmmm, that’s odd...I have enjoyed driving everywhere going 120 mph too!

The temperature up here has been in the 20-30 degree range. I guess I like the cold because I am still wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts.

I almost peed my pants on this trip. It seems that everywhere we go there are not bathrooms - only washrooms. Those Canadians must have HUGE bladders!

I have discovered that most Canadians really do not end all of their sentences with the word “eh”. However, they do spell their country with only three letters...C-eh-N-eh-D-eh.

Things that we have heard or learned:
Mother to her child after leaving Maid of the Mist at Niagra Falls - “We don’t go down the falls, we just go look at it!”
Don’t try to do monetary conversions in your head. You are just wasting your time and making yourself more confused. $1 US = $1.33 CA and $1 CA = $0.75 US
It is much easier to convert kph to mph - simply multiply the speed by .6. 100 kph = 60 mph

We hope that all is going well with you back in the states! We’ll keep track of everything to share with you when we get back. Let us know if you have any requests from Canada.

Love ya,
Skip and Jan

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8/15/03
It’s us again! We still continue to learn a lot from our northern country. We feel it is our responsibility to share this knowledge with as many people as possible. Here’s what we know...

It seems that Americans have been misspelling a lot of words. Center is actually centre! I never knew that words that end with -er are supposed to end with -re. I’ve begun correcting my spelling so I don’t look like a dumb American.

Canadians are very stingy with their electricity! It seems that every Thursday afternoon they cut off the powre to everything in the entire area to save energy. It comes back on at varying times across the country. For us, it happened Friday morning at 11:00. We managed to get through the night just fine - it felt like we were camping since we had the windows open and the drunk people outside yelling.

Canada also seems to have a severe shortage of one dollar bills. They continue to give us one and two dollar coins instead. We think that they are taking advantage of us because we are from the states...I’m going to start giving them Monopoly money if this keeps up.

We have been dying for a good Coke or soda up here. We have had to settle for something called “pop” that they sell. It’s not too bad but nothing beats a good ice cold Coca-Cola!

Anothre odd feature about Canadian drinks - they seem to like their drinks warm and are very stingy with their ice! We have been to about four places where they put in one or two cubes/blocks of ice and it is completely melted once you put the “pop” in. We have asked for extra ice and have received anothre cube...maybe they lost the recipe for making ice! In addition, the straws they give you are very thin! I guess they are worried that someone might suck up the piece of ice in the drink and choke themself!

There are many different road signs up here too. Here’s an odd one I saw near Wasaga Beach -
(Jet ski crossing)
It seems that they are worried about jet skis crossing or running into the road! And speaking of beaches, I am still trying to find the topless beaches! I thought the French people went for the “no tan line” look. So far, I am the only one who has been topless. I am so disappointed...

Despite the fact that nobody goes topless, we have seen many instances of flashres! Unfortunately, the only thing flashing up here are the green lights at intersections. I originally went forward, stopped, forward, and stopped when the friendly Canadian car behind me began honking and waving at me again! I waved back and drove through the intersection. Apparently, instead of giving you a left turn green arrow, the light flashes at you. If the light could talk to you it would be saying “Hurry the hell up and turn already!” It puts a little more pressure on you to move quickly.

Shania Twain is bigtime up here. Her songs are played so often you would think that she owns all of the radio stations!

Canadians appear to have more fashion sense than Americans. It seems that the new look is to wear tank tops and have as much of your bra strap showing as possible. The widre the strap and the difference in colors seem to enhance the look. Maybe I have just been noticing this fashion trend up here more than at home but it apparently is the craze!

Canadian food has been pretty good. Nothing like a good plate of poutine (no - not poontang)! This food item appears to be potatoes that are sliced up thin and fried and are served with gravy and mozarella cheese (vinegar and ketchup is optional). Makes me long for a good ol’ fashioned plate of French fries!

Only one food tip to give you - do not try the Canadian Chinese food. It could have been the restaurant we were at but we found quite a few unusual things - soy sauce syrup, watre with no ice, chicken balls (4 cm breaded balls filled with 1 cm pieces of chicken - like my use of metric?), etc... You get the picture! My fortune cookie read - “Mon shitsu xi” and translated to “Americans suck!” My fortune wasn’t much bettre.

Anothre nice feature about Canadian gas. Even though the prices are so cheap, they provide full service at many stations for the same price! I haven’t tried it because I know there is a hidden catch!

We have seen a lot of wildlife up here in the northern country. We got within 20 feet of a cat on our walk during the blackout last night. Jan was afraid to approach it as I continued to walk towards it saying “Here kitty kitty kitty”. I didn’t get too much closre when I saw the cute white stripes on its back. He didn’t look like he wanted attention and I decided that the kitty didn’t want to be petted. We have also come across cute chipmunks, a nest of baby birds and some African-Canadian squirrels. It seems that everyone has dogs and love to take them everywhere! Our doggies would be so jealous!

That’s about all we know! Hope all is well down south!
Much love to all,
Skippre Tylre