Interview with a Canadian

Vanessa and I met online in a Facebook writers group quite a long time ago, probably more than a year, and have become pretty good friends. Since she lives in Canada and this is rapidly transforming into World Week on the blog, I interviewed her about her home country.

Have you always lived in Canada?

Yep.

What's good about it?

That's a really broad question, you know. There are the obvious things like free healthcare, or the stereotypes (super nice, maple syrup, poutine, "eh") or the crazy bipolar seasons. It's kind of a combo of them all. It's just where I live and I like it.

So you don't mind the stereotypes?

I have literally walked past a scary looking gangster type only for him to say "Good morning!" in the most pleasant tone ever. It is a very nice stereotype. As for maple syrup and poutine, they're tasty.

Can you explain poutine to me?

Fries with cheese (usually cheese curds but sometimes actual cheese) and gravy.

That's adorable. And yeah, I suppose other countries have much worse stereotypes. Another broad question: what do you dislike?

Winter. I know I said the seasons are a good thing, and I like them in theory (I love fall) but winter sucks. Ice. Blizzards. Yuck. I've walked half an hour to school in -30 temperatures.

I remember once I was waiting for a traffic light to change and thought to myself "This isn't so bad." Then I poked my leg and realized it was numb. So that was fun. 

I then told her how the coldest I've ever experienced is -10 C and she laughed. 

Our schools close down when it snows. 

We had a snow day this year because we had about 10 feet of snow.

How do you leave your house?! Ours close down when there's ice on the roads or like an inch of snow.

Close down? Completely? That's ... sad. Well we have to leave the house to shovel. I remember there was a snowstorm last year. My brother and I had to shovel every hour on the hour for like 8 hours and each time the snow was at like 8 feet. 

Jesus. Ready for more gross generalizations?

You know it.

How do Canadians generally feel about America(ns)?

Well, everyone makes jokes about obese Americans, but really we're practically the same except less guns and cheaper (free) healthcare. Wouldn't want to live there because crime rates, but we all go there to buy cheaper food in bulk so... We have nothing against them. 

Interesting. I think that's what we in the Republic of Ireland do, we go up the North to buy cheaper stuff. Have you been to other countries and what differences have you noticed?

I visited Florina, in the U.S., once for a week and that's the only other place I've been. I had the flu the whole time, so I had my head in the toilet too much to notice differences except palm trees and I saw a dolphin once. 

And finally, because I'm obviously biased, what do you think about Ireland?

I love the accent. I'm part Scottish, have relatives there, so the whole Celtic thing is cool to me. A while back, I was walking to Tim Hortons (worshipped Canadian coffee shop) and a little old man was shuffling up. I held the door for him and he said "Oh thank you dearie" in the BEST Irish accent I've ever heard and held the door for me after, and it made my whole day. I love accents. 

Thanks, Ness!