With the help of our latest guests, a quick and fun look at what is so different, frustrating and downright wonderful about our new home…
Awesome: the most overworked word in Canada;
Bears: not just in the woods, but on the lawn and in the compost bin;
And in the pool...
Chinese food: not found a good one yet… but we’ll keep trying!
Dumpster divers: not just tramps, but an important recycling service;
Eh: the most overworked exclamation in Canada;
Flag ladies: employed to direct traffic around roadworks; upset them at your peril!
Guns: not too visible, but there are plenty around;
Hockey: is Ice Hockey and it’s the National Sport – get into it!
Inukshuk: if we didn’t know what it was before the Olympics, we all know now – look it up.
Knickers: I still cannot get used to calling trousers pants without giggling, and my friends and colleagues can’t hear me say trousers without giggling.
Lube jobs: Jiffy Lube is still the funniest company name, even if our neighbours don’t get the joke.
Math: Sorry, I know it’s annoying but there is no S at the end.
Nanaimo: just one of the many place names we found impossible to pronounce. Coquihalla, Ucluelet and Coquitlam also stumped us.
Oo: used in words like aboot, hoose and, obviously, moose.
Plugs: silly low voltage, flimsy 2-pin plugs and not enough sockets.
Rick Hansen: The Man In Motion, National Hero and Treasure, motivational speaker – why is this man not Prime Minister?
Skunks: the most terrifying of all the wildlife we have met so far.
Tim Hortons: National chain of coffee and donut shops – try the Timbits.
Washroom: not the loo, the toilet, the WC or the bathroom.
Zed: Not Zee like those chappies over the border.
Chinese – try Yan’s Garden off North Rd and Lougheed. We go there and have been going there for years! It was the original home of “Wok with Yan”.
Ooh, thanks Barb – we’ll give it a go! Good to get recommendations from a real foodie!
Really? Canadians say “zed”?
Indeed – according to the wonderful beat poet Shane Koyczan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsq68qRexFc). There seems to be a mix of Zees and Zeds, but you never know if you are talking to a true Canadian, an expat American, or any other of the mixing pot residents of this crazy place!