The very astute Lone Primate expressed it perfectly here.
You know, in a weird way, I bet you'd have a more concrete sense of it if you were moving to a country like Japan or India, instead of to what amounts to some Twilight Zone version of the US where the American Revolution never happened and the Queen is still on the money (dun-dun-DUHHHH!!!). Let's face it, you're making the least-profound international move possible for an American. :) There'll be some changes when you're actually here, but I speculate that the similarity of culture and daily life is going to drag out the process of it really setting in for a long time.That's very true. Leaving New York City is strange. Exchanging my very urban life of apartment and public transportation for a suburban house and car is strange. Of course, there are cultural differences, as we talk about here all the time. But it's not that different, looking at cultures globally. We're not moving to Lagos or Sao Paolo or even Marseilles.
In casual conversation, I've taken to using this compressed version of Why I'm Leaving: I'd rather my taxes support health care for all than foreign wars. This is a huge difference. But is it a difference I'll feel when I get up in the morning, walk my dogs, make my coffee?
Mollie from the now-defunct Greener Pastures described a great relief after crossing the border, at not being part of this insanity any more. I am anticipating that relief - yet it will be an abstraction.
Meanwhile, life is surreal.
24 comments:
The change will come from little things, reading the paper, watching the news, talking with our neighbors.
The different perspective on the US will seem somewhat shocking, even though we actually have that perspective inside.
During one of our scouting trips, we watched the CBC (?) news and were nearly slack-jawed at the blunt honesty of the anchor.
Getting out of the US corporate-media bubble -- its preverse version of reality -- will be eye-opening and wonderful. ... Like breathing clean air.
It felt surreal for me, too, coming the other way nearly 10 years ago now.
Of course, sometimes it still feels surreal...
Like breathing clean air.
Oo nice, I like that. It was the CBC, by the way. We loved it.
Teflonjedi, I'd love to know more about that. Do you blog about those feelings at all?
We have CBC available on cable in Seattle. I've been wathcing regularly the past month or so. A few observations: 1) the anchor of one of the news shows was a very dark-skinned person of (I think) ethnic heritage in the Indian sub-continent -- not a face I would ever see as an anchor in the U.S. 2) When the news was listing what countries' leaders attended a foreign leader's funeral, they listed Canada THIRD. In the U.S., U.S.A. is not only always first, we're lucky if they mention the existence of other nations. 3) The commentary on the news satire shows (like Royal Canadian Air Farce and This Hour Has 22 Minutes) is incredibly sharp and biting; they go places that I don't see/hear on U.S. TV. It's pretty cool.
Hi Daniel wbc, welcome to the blogosphere! I believe I recognize you. Don't forget to keep us posted on your progress.
>the anchor of one of the news shows was a very dark-skinned person of (I think) ethnic heritage in the Indian sub-continent
That'll be Ian Handsomemanthing. Er, I mean Hanomansing. With luck the CBC strike will be resolved soon and we can all get back to normal.
Personally, I find Air Farce pretty lame, but 22 Minutes is good and Rick Mercer is a god.
A long time ago one of you (maybe Kyle From Ottawa?) told me about a TV show that takes place on a GO train? Whoever it was said people are obsessed with it. What was that?
You're talking about Train 48, which was set on a GO Train ("GO" stands for "Government of Ontario", since it's run by the province) traveling between downtown and the suburbs. I never watched the show myself but I was aware of it.
Ian Hanomansing... national treasure (great article about him here). I'm just about certain the MotherCorp's grooming him to eventually succeed Peter Mansbridge as anchor of The National, just as they groomed Mansbridge to assume the position after the venerable Knowlton Nash. The CBC's been blessed over the years with top-quality journalists who've somehow managed to resist the siren song of the south... to coin a phrase. :)
You're talking about Train 48
Thanks! It looks dreadful. But now I know what GO stands for. I would have guessed Greater Ontario.
Do I blog about those moments of surreality? Well, I don't think I have yet, I just tend to blog about what's on my mind at the moment, and the surreality hasn't struck a lot recently, is all. At some point, I'll be ripping my hair out about the metric system again, never fear...
It will be interesting to read about how your life pans out in Canada. How thick is your regional accent if you have one? It seems like here in California, Canadians can blend in more easily than people from the East Coast and South because their speech patterns don't stand out as much. That seems to be the case at least with the Canadian transpants I've come across.
One thing you should do, Laura (yes, take it from someone who moved across the Pacific at age 15) - you should write meticulous journals documenting observations from day one. Write those journals before you become desensitized to the new surroundings.
I still remember the "peculiar" things I noticed as a new comer to this country. Then I had a tendency to notice one thing and automatically assume that it characterized America as a whole. For example, a beautiful woman gave me a huge smile. So I thought, wow women here are beautiful and very friendly. I found out later that she was a hooker.
You know what? I should really blog about this. But you get my point.
Aha, so your point is that in California, hookers are beautiful and very friendly. :)
Anyway, yes, you'll find you've entered a parallel universe--and in a sense you have, as after all, Canada is what America (or parts of it) could have been. Not so hard to imagine--what if one or two of the original 13 colonies had stayed with the Northern 4, fer instance?
psst...nobody mention the CBC Strike...
Anyway, yes, you'll find you've entered a parallel universe--and in a sense you have, as after all, Canada is what America (or parts of it) could have been. Not so hard to imagine--what if one or two of the original 13 colonies had stayed with the Northern 4, fer instance?
Richard Dreyfuss and Harry Turtledove wrote an interesting novel along this line called The Two Georges (reference to a priceless painting of the meeting of George Washington and King George III, beloved by the people in the story). It's set in the modern day in an alternate timeline in which the issues raised by the Intolerable Acts were settled by negotiation rather than war. British North America (both what are for us Canada and the US) eventually became the North American Union, a country within a more federal British Empire. It's an interesting concept, told from the perspective of a Royal American Mounted Police detective and his partner. They get a little silly in having historical personages like Martin Luther King, Jr. (governor-general of the NAU) and a thinly-veiled Richard Nixon (used car dealer with a soapbox), but they explore some of the ways things might have been different. They postulate that technology would not be as advanced... at the end of the 20th century, people drive kerosene-driven cars that need time to warm up, cross the continent in days on blimps, and single-winged prop fighters are just making their debut. On the other hand, they suppose that there is far more racial equality, and Natives have entire states of their own within the NAU. All in all, an interesting exercise in "what if".
Teflonjedi: I was really wondering if you blog about your feelings about living in the US as compared to living in Canada, from a Canadian's perspective. I'd be interested in reading it, although that doesn't seem to be your blogging M.O.
David Cho: I don't think I have a very strong regional accent - although certain words must carry it, because Allan never fails to imitate me after I say one. (Chocolate, for example, pronounced chalk-lit...) But I certainly don't sound Canadian.
I don't think I'll keep meticulous notes about my impressions. Despite how much I love blogging, I have never been a journal-keeper. Whatever makes it into the blog will be saved for posterity... anything else will be lost to time. And that's fine. But expect lots of blogging, that's for sure!
Lone Primate: Do you know if that book is still in print?
psst...nobody mention the CBC Strike...
LOL "Whatever you do, don't mention the war. I did, and I think I got away with it..." Basil Fawlty, of course.
Lone Primate: Do you know if that book is still in print?
I think so... it's only a few years old, I think... mid-to-late 90s.
The Two Georges
It'll come out from time to time, but it's not something I'm deliberately seeking to write about.
I've been gone a long time now (almost 10 years), and I'd also be afraid that I'd be writing more about the Canada-that-was, rather than the Canada-that-is-today. They've changed the country in my absence! As an example... I was home at Christmas, and managed to catch a new TV program that I'd never seen before: a naked cooking show. I almost blew Coke (good sweet-tasting Canadian Coca-Cola) right out of my nose. Not that I was objecting, mind you, but when did that happen?
Thanks LP :)
They've changed the country in my absence!
Mm, that'll happen. :)
Naked cooking show? Hmm. I to find kitchens and cooking very sexy. This is interesting...
What will be MOST surreal is the lack of patriotism in Canada, as noted by a recent visitor from NY:
Chick #1: They're so unpatriotic.
Chick #2: What do you mean?
Chick #1: I, like, went to visit a friend of mine in Canada for the 4th of July weekend and nobody was celebrating the holiday.
Ha, good one. You know I await the lack of patriotism in Canada.
I think the show might have been called "Barely Cooking", but I'm not sure. Seemed pretty tame, except that they were only wearing aprons...
"Ian Hanomansing... national treasure (great article about him here)." (I wanted to italicize this quote, but I don't know HTML!)
Very good article. The observations about local television news in the States is spot-on. It's absolutely dreadful; I stopped watching at all years ago.
On another topic, I'm going to print Lone Primate's comments about how adjusting to Canada will be different than adjusting to a culture that is more differentiated from the U.S. They ring true and I think they will come in handy if/when we make the big move. Thanks!
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