Thursday Thirteen....

13 differences between living in the states and living in Canada

1. The way milk comes. In the states you purchase milk in plastic gallon jugs, or smaller cartons. Here in Canada the most popular way milk comes is in three 1 litre plastic bags. You can also find gallon jugs, but only in convenience stores.



2. Singing the ABC's. In the states we sing A B C D.......W X Y and Zee. Up here in Canada they sing A B C D.......W X Y and Zed. What the hell is a zed??

3. Everyone knows that an Oreo cookie is made by Nabisco. Not here up in Canada, we can say thanks to Mr. Christie for our Oreo cookies.


4. They add the letter u into words where its not needed. For example color is colour, neighbor is neighbour and check is cheque!! My husband (the Canadian) just says us Americans are lazy and leave it out.

5. Imperial system vs. the metric system. I have to convert the temperature each day from Celsius to Fahrenheit so i know how cold or warm it is. I gave up figuring out the rest though (Km-miles, litres-gallons, cm=inches, kg-lbs)

6. If you are a big fan of the game Monopoly, then Canada is your place to be!! Every denomination of money is a different color. Fives are blue, Tens are purple, Twenties are green, Fifties are red and One Hundreds are Tan. And you know the saying "fistful of dollars" well in canada its really true as our $1 and $2 are coins, aptly called the loonie and toonie. Sure the colors make it easier to distinguish one bill from the next...buts whats' wrong with just having some cool hard green

7. The government here is totally different. I've still yet totally figure out and understand it, and i've lived here 9 yrs. It seems they can call an election almost all the time (well not really but sometimes it seems that way). You don't vote for who you want to be the head of the country, rather you vote for that party. Whichever party holds the most seats at the end of the election, their leader becomes Prime Minister. I like just being able to cast my vote for the actual head honcho like we do in the states (although i abhor the electoral college). And i like knowing that there are set terms for figure heads in the states, it doesn't seem that way here.

8. Foods that are in the states, you can't find them here...almost like they can't cross the border or something. Starkist Tuna, can't find it here. Hormel Chili forget about it. And then even in the foods that we do have, we won't get the same variety as south of the border..its just WEIRD. And the states ALWAYS gets new things before us it seems. I still have to go grocery shopping in the states a few times a year to get my favorites.

9. Coffee....Starbucks is all powerful in the states. Here the lineups take place at Tim Hortons where people order a Large Double Double

10. It's not a winter hat...its a toque. Its' not orange soda but orange pop. It's not the bathroom, its the washroom. For a good portion of the year the national anthem is the theme song to Hockey Night in Canada

11. Holidays...when its a holiday here EVERYTHING shuts down. For example Canada Day is a statutory holiday (our july 4th), don't think you'll go out and hit the sales because the stores are closed.

12. Two official languages up here...so everything has french on it. Products one half is in english the other side in french. Roadsigns are also in french. And politicians...ya you bet they give their speeches in french too.

13. Healthcare plain and simple it rocks up here...which is just like a huge weight off my mind when it comes to like rushing your kid to the ER for stitches or sickness.

I'm proud to call both the states and Canada my home...and proud to be a citizen of each (although i'd gladly give up the canaidan winters LMAO)