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In a few weeks, I'm off to Canada on my own, and seeing as I haven't been before, and don't really know much about it, what is it like? Specifically, are there any customs I should be aware of, what are the people like, what is the predominant music taste how's the weather this time of year, that sort of thing.
That's all a bit vague, so if I think of any detailed questions I'll post them later.
Thanks

Hi , Canadian here.

Its hard to answer those questions , so first , where will you be staying?

Woops, forgot that, sorry. I'm staying in Ottawa with my Godmother.

WOo i dunno about the weather in ottawa , but its a lively multicultural city just like Vancouver.

Enjoy the food i guess atleast!

Are there many bears near there? I would love to see me some bear.
And is it a french speaking area?

Shinigami wrote:Are there many bears near there? I would love to see me some bear.
And is it a french speaking area?

Its a buisness area , with quebec near by im sure some can speak french.
But english is main language . Bears? i dont think so... Canada is very different then what americans stereotype us on south park. ( w/e floats their boat to make themselves feel better! )

Wow, this just shows my ignorance. Thanks though. All I had to go on before were 30 year old army excercise stories about my Dad's friend driving over the only tree for miles around in a tank, and the only Canadians I've met were french speaking nuns, who were inexplicably up a mountain in Malawi.

Nono its ok , i dont know much about other provinces either !

If i may suggest something ( not sure if England sell these )

Tapioca Pearl Milk Tea! You must have one if you never tried one!

Those tapioca drinks are pretty good, but the large tapioca makes me gag slightly. I like the mini pearls, and their used to be a bunch around here but they stopped being popular after about a year.

My cousin works for Starbucks, and a while ago she tried the Tapioca drinks while she was in town. She was in drink development or whatever it was called, I think a coffee version would be great, they may even have it already. Starbucks is pretty meh though, nothing like peet's coffee!

I can't remember seeing those when I have been in England, although I am sure some one tried.

Wrexasaur wrote:Those tapioca drinks are pretty good, but the large tapioca makes me gag slightly.

You chew them :x

Cool, those sound great. Any ather must-try Canadian experiences?

I've never seen the tapioca tea in the UK.

They have it at coffee shops in Japan, where it is called pearl tea.

Tim Hortons.

A right proper hockey game.

Tip.
Don't call it Canadia... especially to border customs officials.
They don't like that.

"Sorry Ma'am, I don't know the laws here in Canadia."
*facepalm*

Poutine - French Fries (or chips, as you Brits call 'em) and gravy.


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Going to Canada to stay or to visit?

Also. Canada, is huge. People sometimes forget just how big the country really is, and how different the area's are.
Alot of times it seems the sterotypical canadian image comes from the Yukon area, or Quebec (for the french bit). And the Yukon isn't so much different from Alaska.
Same tall skinny half dead looking pine trees and swampland, same critters.
Did I mention I miss Alaska? *sigh*

Have fun and spend some loonies on poutine for me!

LunaHound wrote:

Wrexasaur wrote:Those tapioca drinks are pretty good, but the large tapioca makes me gag slightly.

You chew them :x

Chewing them makes me gag slightly... sorry .

I'm just visiting for a couple of weeks, so I'll be staying in and around Ottawa. Thanks for all the suggestions so far!

Don't compare Canadians to Americans unless it's favorable to the Canadians.

Other than that you're going to the Anglo part of Canada, so just act natural. We were British for a long, long, time. We didn't get our own flag 'till the '60s, and we didn't get our constitution back from England 'till the '80s, and we still have your queen as our head of state. She's on our cash still, and she dissolved parliament late last year (albeit via the governor general and our sneaky Prime Minister)

ottawa is a nice little town. A lots of museum. It's in ontario, so everyone will speak English, and very close to Quebec, so many will speak french.

You won't be able to see a decent game of hockey. (it's summer) You can move a bit east to get in Quebec, try poutine and be unable to communicate. (unless you go to montreal, where everyone speak english a bit)

By the way, montreal have a lot of festival during the summer.

Ok, this all sounds awesome. What sort of festival? Music? I'll try and check them out.


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Wait, I just looked on the forecast channel map (Surfing on my Wii) and Ottawa is about as near to Quebec as London is to Anglesey. That's not what I would call close!

Rofl, you just noticed another thing we canadians are used to. Traveling far to get anywhere else.


For example it takes over a week of driving to cross the country. I can cross the US in about 24 hours. Also Toronto isn't to far from Ottawa (4 - 5 hours) and has a lot of fun things to do as well. And then if you are on your way, you could always stop by and visit me in St. Catharines(another hour from north Toronto), which is just 20 minutes away from Niagra Falls. The falls are neat to see and have casinos, and all kinds of crazy attractions. Its like Canada's las vegas, but with less prositutes and more water.

You can? Thats news to us. Not to mention that drive to Hawaii is a real bear.

I said cross your country not visit each of your states. And yes I can and have done so for a Game convention, but don't recommend it. Even faster I can go from your northern boarder to your southern point of florida in under 20 hours. That drive is a better drive, accept the I79 which was filled with potholes and road side phonebooths for all the people with flat tires. That part was horrible. Although let me adjust my cross country statement, because I didn't technically cross at the widest points, so it definately can take longer than that to cross the US and plus when driving through new mexico and some parts of arizoona and texas my speeds were a lot higher than normal to make the Con in time .

Wow, here 4-5 hours isn't considered worth it for one day, except for special occasions. We all laughed when Dad's American cousin suggested popping to Glasgow for lunch when he was staying in Guildford, but in such big countries I suppose long drives are necessary. How's the scenery in Ontario?

Jin wrote:Poutine - French Fries (or chips, as you Brits call 'em) and gravy.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Going to Canada to stay or to visit?

We have chips and gravy in Britain.

Chips are different to French Fries. Chips are thicker and less crispy.

Samish to parts of england. Although as a whole Ottawa probably will be a lot less rainy. I had friends whose grandparents came over from Scotland and thought they would take an afternoon drive from Toronto, ON to Victory, BC because they heard it was nice out there. They said they would be home for dinner we were gonna let them try it, but figured it was best to inform them before they left the house that it would take them a week or so just to get there. Haha. I was in Ireland once and we went to a tourist booth to pick up a map from Dublin to Shannon and the guy working there was like "Woah, thats a long drive. You sure you want to do that?" My dad just replied "We're from Canada." The guys reponse. "Ah, nevermind then. Here's the map."


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Kilkrazy wrote:

Jin wrote:Poutine - French Fries (or chips, as you Brits call 'em) and gravy.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Going to Canada to stay or to visit?

We have chips and gravy in Britain.

Chips are different to French Fries. Chips are thicker and less crispy.

Actually he missed one important ingrediant. CHEESE! Its suppose to be fries, gravy and cheese.

Chips are just lazy french fries that didn't get around to the second and third cuts.

Canadian bacon is excellent. Canadian bars are excellent. Canadian temperatures are excellent right about now.

Strimen wrote:Actually he missed one important ingrediant. CHEESE! Its suppose to be fries, gravy and cheese.

Cheese curds

I've lived in Canada for my whole life (well... Except the last year), and I've never, ever, heard anything called "Canadian Bacon". Though I live in Vancouver, which is a colony of California. I imagine Canadian Bacon is a thing you Eastern Canadians invented to isolate us further, and confuse the Americans.