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Canada: Day 1
Mar. 11th, 2010 08:43 pm( cut for Day 0 )
I spent most of today in training and spending more money on equipment. So far I've been impressed with Calgary, the northernmost mega-city on the North American continent. In a strange way it reminds me of DFW, in that both cities are in the great plains and surrounded my vast rolling grasslands. (For those of you unfamiliar with either city, think, "Dances with Wolves". And if you're unfamiliar with that movie, then WHY ARE WE EVEN FRIENDS?) I didn't manage to take any photos around town (too busy and too much traffic), just one pic I snagged from my car window.
And don't even get me started on the culture clash. Okay, fine, if you insist. Man oh man, I nearly crack up everytime I have to use Canadian cash. In my head I'm giggling, thinking, "Hee hee hee, these people use play-money. It's not real! It's fake! Hee hee!"
And they really do say "eh" all the time. While I was buying my coveralls and boots, the clerk kept saying "eh" at the end of almost every sentence. I really tried to keep a straight face. But I couldn't figure it out. Is "eh" a form of punctuation for them? Is it like the "desu" in japanese? And he would pause everytime he said it, so maybe he meant it as in, "eh?". I didn't know if I was supposed to agree, or "eh" back at him, or what. I dropped a couple of "y'all"s into my replies, hoping he'd figure that I didn't speak his lingo. But he kept firing them at me.
Those are the two biggest conclusions I've reached today. I'm thinking my research on the Canadian subspecies of North American will be very interesting.
I'm not as stressed as I was yesterday. If I can just make it till tomorrow noon without Wells Fargo sending a hit squad after me, I think I'll be okay. Tomorrow I'll be boarding the charter plane and heading north to 'the Fort'. That's when the real adventure begins. (Expect plenty of pictures!)
I spent most of today in training and spending more money on equipment. So far I've been impressed with Calgary, the northernmost mega-city on the North American continent. In a strange way it reminds me of DFW, in that both cities are in the great plains and surrounded my vast rolling grasslands. (For those of you unfamiliar with either city, think, "Dances with Wolves". And if you're unfamiliar with that movie, then WHY ARE WE EVEN FRIENDS?) I didn't manage to take any photos around town (too busy and too much traffic), just one pic I snagged from my car window.
And don't even get me started on the culture clash. Okay, fine, if you insist. Man oh man, I nearly crack up everytime I have to use Canadian cash. In my head I'm giggling, thinking, "Hee hee hee, these people use play-money. It's not real! It's fake! Hee hee!"
And they really do say "eh" all the time. While I was buying my coveralls and boots, the clerk kept saying "eh" at the end of almost every sentence. I really tried to keep a straight face. But I couldn't figure it out. Is "eh" a form of punctuation for them? Is it like the "desu" in japanese? And he would pause everytime he said it, so maybe he meant it as in, "eh?". I didn't know if I was supposed to agree, or "eh" back at him, or what. I dropped a couple of "y'all"s into my replies, hoping he'd figure that I didn't speak his lingo. But he kept firing them at me.
Those are the two biggest conclusions I've reached today. I'm thinking my research on the Canadian subspecies of North American will be very interesting.
I'm not as stressed as I was yesterday. If I can just make it till tomorrow noon without Wells Fargo sending a hit squad after me, I think I'll be okay. Tomorrow I'll be boarding the charter plane and heading north to 'the Fort'. That's when the real adventure begins. (Expect plenty of pictures!)
