Whirlwind Tour

Today I bought my ticket for the conference in Ghent. I'm flying in and out of Brussels. I decided to add on an additional 9 days to the trip after the end of the conference, to make a total of 15 days in Europe. What I'm leaning toward now is buying a rail pass and going to Amsterdam, Berlin, Interlaken, and Paris with a day or 2 at each. I'll hammer out the details when I have time over Christmas break.

Thanksgiving, Part Deux

To celebrate American Thanksgiving, a few friends and I went to the Canadian restaurant called Swiss Chalet. Oh the levels of irony.

Then this morning (Black Friday), I went to Wal-mart and it was less busy than any given Saturday.

Fog

For the past 4 or so days, there has been a dense fog over the city. But today it was finally clear again (though the sky was all clouds). The fog was really weird. I've never been in fog so dense that it was only raining under the trees, because the moisture condensed on the surface of them and fell.

Europe!

Today was a super exciting day! I found out that I'll for sure be attending an awesome conference in Ghent, Belgium in February. It should be a great time. There are lots of famous people attending and it will be small and discussion based. More than half of the talks sound interesting, which is much better than most conferences. I should be there for about a week.

I've never been to Europe before. I spent a while today checking out plane tickets. I'm thinking that maybe instead of flying in and out of Brussels, I can fly into London and out of Frankfurt. The flights that way are actually cheaper than Brussels, but the train prices add up to a slightly higher total cost. The best part is that my supervisor Wendy has enough money for travel to cover my costs.

I'll be sure to travel with a Canadian flag on my luggage!

Credit Cards

This story reminded me of an observation that I've made several times. (No, it has nothing to do with guns.) Around here every cashier always checks the signature on the credit card. If you use a credit card (not a debit card), then the cashier must swipe the card for you on the little box. Then they hold onto your card and actually flip it over and compare your signature as they watch you sign the receipt. Yes, this includes the teenage cashiers when I charge something that costs $5 (the American way!).

Really, I should never be making this observation because it should be this situation everywhere. But what I'm used to is people usually swiping their own card, so the cashier can never check it. Even when the cashiers do swipe it, they rarely check the signature. Even after Jonathon gave me the idea of writing "PLEASE CHECK ID" in the signature spot, they still don't even bother to flip over the card to read it. Or when they do read it, they ignore it in most cases. (The card that I use here does not have that written on it.)

Raspberry Lemon Chicken

Tonight after watching 4 hours of the Food Network, I decided to do something different. So I mixed together some lemon juice and raspberry preserves to make a glaze for some chicken. Then I just broiled the chicken breast and put on the glaze. It sure did taste interesting. I think I would have it again, but only if I bought a broiling pan. Using a cookie sheet did not work well as I now have a wad of burnt sauce on the sheet.

Holiday Differences

We just had 2 holidays that were different in their celebrations from what I'm used to in the US. For Halloween, lots of people decide to shoot off fireworks -- not organized professional displays, just people messing around. This leads to me overhearing several stories about "Johnny was shooting off firecrackers and one accidentally hit him in the face. Now his nose is all black." Yet somehow multiple similar stories do not deter this activity. (Nor on the US 4th of July.)

The bigger difference is Veterans'/Remembrance day. Starting at the last Friday of October, the veterans gave out a little fake red poppy flower to be pinned on your lapel whenever you give them a donation. It is a reminder of the blood-red poppy flowers that appeared on the battlefields of WWI. So by Veterans' day, almost everyone in Canada (quite literally) is wearing one. I must say that it really does make me take note of the day more than I had any previous year. I wonder about if I had grown up with this tradition and seen them every year if it would really make me think about the day and all the people that gave their lives defending freedom. (Yes, even a pacifist can appreciate that.)

Did You Know That...

not all Canadians know everything about hockey?!

Now you know!

Being Polite

This story got me thinking about how Canadians are stereotypically polite. One of my manuals, So You Want To Be Canadian states that the correct response to someone bumping into you, spilling your coffee, tripping you, and causing a minor concussion is: "Sorry! Sorry. My fault. Very sorry."

Actually, I haven't noticed any difference between Victoria and South Carolina. But of course 4 South Carolinians will stop at a 4-way stop and simply motion to each other to go for the next 1/2 hour until a New York visitor shows up to honk their way through.

One of my professors is from Italy and repeatedly insists that the Canadians are way too polite. She complains that people don't correct her English mispronunciations, but just figure out what she means and forget about it. Really though, I don't see a difference in the level of politeness. So I don't know how this stereotype came about, nor the related one that Americans are rude. Perhaps there are other part of Canada that are more polite. Or maybe I am just comparing it to one of the most polite parts of the US.

And that reminds me that I had no occasion to wear my Halloween costume. I was going to dress up like an American: a fat, rude, egotistical guy with a Texas accent and a mission to dominate the world. Because, you know, we're all like that.

Trash

As the huge windstorm today was blowing away everyone's recyclables, I was reminded about the ingenious solution that Victoria has for the problem of too much trash. The trash is only collected every other week, but the recyclables are collected every week! You should see how much people recycle!

French

Since Canada cannot decide if it is part of France or England (really it is part of America), I see lots of French every day. Before I continue, I must mention that I have never taken a class on French. My French vocabulary consists entirely of 3 phrases:

• Bonjour
• Sans gras
• Nouveau!

While I think many English words are funny (ex: tatterdemalion), I've come across these two phrases that are humorous to me:

• Pamplemousse
• Blanc gros

The first one sounds funny and the second one sounds disgusting. So, when I am shopping and I see these on the containers, they give me a second thought as to whether or not I really want to buy this stuff. I do anyway.

And then I found 5 dollars.