So I’m back on “home” ground for now, after spending a lovely 4.5 days in Ireland and Scotland. Stories of those voyages are soon to come (as are the other recounting my Eastern Europe trip, which are long overdue). After an extended weekend of blustery winds, low temperatures, and incessant on-and-off rain, I was greeted by the intense French Riviera sun and azure Mediterranean sea upon my return to Nice. I swear that Nice has the best weather/climate of any place I have ever lived. Just precious. Sun nearly EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR. Mild winters and hot summers. Perfect spring and fall weather to boot. Simply incredible.
But enough with all the sentence fragments about Southern France weather. The point of this post was actually to relay to you why I love being a Canadian who travels. Naturally because I feel as though foreigners generally love Canadians as we are the friendly, hokey, kinda “country” northern neighbours of the oft-controversial economic and political powerhouse known as the U S of A.
So here are, in no particular order, the reasons why I love being a Canadian who travels:
-People automatically assume that I am nice, non-confrontational, and well-educated, LOL!
-People ALWAYS ask me just how cold it gets “all the way up there” and just how much snow we get, which is when I regale them with stories of having to shovel the massive amounts of snow that we were hit with this past winter…sigh!
-People ask me about hockey and maple syrup (is that REALLY all we’re known for)?
-Inevitably, people always have a friend/relative/acquaintance/friend of friend who has visited/lived in/thought about going to Canada and they always have good things to say about the place (it’s always nice to know that Canada is well liked by foreigners)!
-People always talk/ask about the abundance of job opportunities and the possibility of immigration to Canada, generally because they have heard such good things about the place.
-Inevitably, most people will make some of joke about the Canadian accent (though in most cases it is pretty slight- we do NOT say “oot and aboot”!!! That’s a stereotype! It’s “out and about”, people)!
-Most people will immediately call me out when I say “eh”. Indeed, most Canadians do tag the word “eh” at the end of their sentences and I don’t deny that I say it all the time!
-It follows that I can usually spot my fellow Canadian travellers from a mile away, typically by their accent, especially those from my hometown of Toronto. Because I find that most travellers are from Europe or, funnily enough, Australia, I am always happy to run into a fellow Canadian. Usually conversations about Tim Hortons (you Canadians know what I’m talking about!) ensue.
-Most Americans automatically think I’m American, which I find kind of funny. They are always so surprised when they realize I’m from Canada. I’ve been told by a number of Americans that they think I’m from California, because of the way I talk. That is, until I randomly tack an “eh” to the end of my sentences.
-Foreigners always think I’m American until I tell them otherwise, which is an obvious assumption since I speak English but without a British/Australian/South African/Irish/Scottish accent. Most of the time I just go with the flow and correct them until I am asked outright what country I am from, because it really doesn’t bother me. However, when they do find out that I’m Canadian, they apologize PROFUSELY for their error and are super scared that they have offended me!! Unfortunately, it would appear that American tourists have a bad reputation…And I find that anti-American sentiments still abound in a number of places in Europe and Latin America. Yikes!
LONG LIVE CANADA (known as CANADIA to many, lol), MY HOME AND NATIVE LAND!
41 Comments
Girl, I am going to have to call you out about "aboot"… We actually DO say it. After living in the US for a few months I started to notice the slight difference and when I came back for a holiday break it was abundantly clear!! I need to try extra hard to round it out!! lolzz.. Holla at ur girl.
Joy
The only way I can tell the difference between a Canadian and an American is when it comes to the pronunciation of /ou/ and Canadians' use of 'mum' instead of 'mom'.
I had to laugh though. I thought I was the only one who intentionally mispronounced Canada.
I'm ashamed of our bad reputation as travellers. I think I blogged about it once. No matter. It's rare that I'm taken for an American when traveling in Europe. It is assumed that I am French or Ethiopian until I speak. When I admit I'm American, nothing changes. Of course, the gushing doesn't ensue as much as it has in the past. After being chastised for allowing GB to win twice, it's a sweet relief that Barack Obama has them gushing again.
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