Canada - First Impressions

Canada is one of the biggest and most developed countries in the world, and the neighbor of our current residence, the USA. Still, sometimes we feel that going beyond the stereotypes (ice hockey, mounted police etc.) we know so little about it. Our friend, Toma, has recently arrived at this beautiful place and shares some of his first impressions about the True North.

By Toma Eisenbech

When I told my friends that I am going to study in Canada, virtually all reacted: “OMG, you’re gonna freeze to death!” Okay, okay, I don’t really believe in stereotypes, and my landing in Victoria BC proved that I was right. I came from Denmark which is the surface of the Venus compared to the sunny weather shone into my eyes at the onset of the year. Long story short: the Vancouver Island is the Florida of Canada. I never thought the snowfall could shock this nation, but it truly happened: the schools had been closed due to a negligible amount of few centimeter of snow coverage on the roads, the buses barely drove around the beautiful city of Victoria and people everywhere just kept talking about the surprise. This climatic remark gives place for organisms you would not expect in a country like Canada: for instance, the island is a home for an endemic hummingbird with growing population. People grow olives (yes, olives in Canada!) and walking in shorts in the middle of January. 

But I don’t want to talk too much about the weather, you know living abroad, the first question you always receive during a phone call from your family is how is the weather. Followed by “what did you eat?” So now let’s get to the food. Something like Canadian cuisine does not really exist. Canada is clearly a multi-cultural country, and the food reflects it. Lines of Asian restaurants, American fast food chains, Turkish kebab stalls and pizza slices. You may not know that for instance the Hawaiian pizza was invented in Canada. If I have to name one unique Canadian dish, I would mention the poutine. Okay, it is nothing really special. Basically, it is French fries poured with gravy and sprinkled with cheese curds. And the other is the“beaver tail”. I should clarify before you stop reading and running away, it is a pastry, and no furry animals have been sacrificed to make it.

But there is one stereotype which is certainly true about Canada, and that is the politeness. I’ve been living in Denmark for three years, and I always thought that Danes are super-polite but honestly, they dwarf to Canadian people or Canucks as they call themselves. I was really close to laughing when I first faced the situation when people get off the bus shouting to the driver: “Thank you!” It becomes so funny by a frequent bus stop where dozens of passengers leave the bus at the same time and “thank you-ing” in almost a melodic repetition. Signs on shops say “Sorry, we’re closed.” And when you accidentally elbow somebody, they will say sorry for sure. When Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister unwittingly elbowed one of the members of the parliament, he apologized 4 times (!!) during each subsequent plenary session.

 

The Vancouver Island is a beautiful area with large forest coverage and rivers with flourishing nature, but there is one thing which is a bit frightening, and this is called the Big One. Shortly, there is a small tectonic plate next to the Vancouver Island called the Juan de Fuca plate that is pushed by the massive Pacific plate, forcing it to subdue under the North American plate. There is some joints which repress the movement of the Juan de Fuca, but due to the increasing pressure, the joints will eventually break. And when it happens the Big One will come. It will be a mega-earthquake, seismologists predict that this will be much bigger than the earthquake which shocked Indonesia in 2004. And the forecast is not so hopeful: there is a 30 percent chance that it will happen during the next 50 years. Victoria tries to prepare for it: I read in the news yesterday that the British Columbian army participates in a specialized training to prepare for the earthquake and the Mayor of Victoria posted on the Facebook that the municipality has started working on new protection plans.

I’ll keep you updating about living in Canada, hopefully, the Big One won’t come until my next post :) 

The photos are made by the author