Canada: a snowy wilderness home most likely to polar bears,
hockey players, and icicles. They are said to live in igloos, wear snowshoes,
and travel by dogsled between destinations. Every sentence ends with “aye” and
grammar is seemingly thrown out the window as neighbor becomes neighbour, color
becomes colour, and labor is somehow labour. The currency is not only green,
but a brilliant blue, bright red, vibrant purple, and dull brown. Who would
ever willingly travel to this ridiculous foreign land?
Well, I’m here to convince you that it’s not as bad as you might
think. Not once have I seen a polar bear and the currency is actually more
durable than ours and aesthetically pleasing. For those who don’t know, I am
actually a quarter Canadian (from my dad’s side) and a Canadian citizen. I
travel to Canada to visit my family almost bi-yearly and to several different
parts: from the big city of Toronto to the beautiful to the temperate (in the
summer) Dickie Lake in Muskoka. While the majority of Canada is absolutely
freezing in the winters and covered in ice, it can actually be quite enjoyable
throughout the year. When it is winter, there is still plenty to do outdoors. I
have actually learned to enjoy skiing (like I mentioned in my last blog post), ice-skating,
and even playing a bit of hockey. In the summers, I actually prefer it to
Illinois, as the cool temperatures even out and consistently remain in the 60s
and 70s throughout the day. Life on the lake is especially enjoyable as any
scorching day can be easily turned around with a cool swim.
Canada has actually introduced me to a great number of
activities and traditions that I have grown to love such as playing hockey,
cricket, skiing, attending Indian weddings, trying home cooked Indian food for
the first time, and believe it or not, my first ever major league baseball
game. The sports and activities are all great but what is most significant for
me is the culture. Despite what one might think, Canada has a large Indian
population. My grandfather (who is 100% Indian) is one of thirteen children and
so my extended family is absolutely enormous. In fact, when I say I was
introduced to Indian weddings, I really mean I was introduced to western weddings
and Indian weddings were the norm.
While Canada is known for its extreme cold, harsh winters,
and snowy landscapes, it also has an equally good reputation for being peaceful
and welcoming to all including immigrants. Canada has great healthcare, a more
tolerant society, and is known for being a neutral and generally having a “kind
population.” Of course these are just generalizations and it has its faults as
well, but like I said, it’s not as bad as you might think. In fact, if you ever
have a chance to travel someplace for vacation or break, I would highly
recommend visiting.
I've actually never been to Canada; partially because it just seems really cold and I hate the cold, but as you've said, it's not really that cold in some places. I'm definitely going to try and visit sometime –I've heard some really great things about Toronto and Vancouver, and I want to visit British Columbia.
ReplyDeleteI've known that Canada is a pretty great place to live, especially socially, but I didn't know that Canada had a large Indian population!
I didn't know anything about Canada's Indian population, which is interesting. I did know about it being cold, however. I also knew about it's reputation for being an extremely nice and welcoming place, although I have heard some stories about people from Canada not being so nice. I'd be interested to hear how Canada can actually be cruel and how so many Indian people came to live there.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that you take a defensive stance on Canada. Maybe it's the echo chamber I live in, but most of my friends and the people I talk to seem to think Canada is pretty swell, especially when compared to the U.S. 'Everyone' on Facebook was talking about moving to Canada if Trump won. I find myself assuming Canada is better in most ways than us, even though I know so little about it. From what little I've heard about it elsewhere and the extra insight you've given in this post, I think I would enjoy living there or at least visiting.
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome, I've always taken Canada as an extremely boring and relatively uniform country, though it's clear from your description it's not. I wish we had accounts like this more often for not only Canada but for any country, individual accounts that demonstrated the really small facets that make up a country but are ultimately overlooked when one analyzes the big picture. I'm curious about one thing. Considering you go there so often and it appears to be a pretty big part of your culture and family life, would you say Canadian culture has influenced you in anyway? Do you find yourself picking up little behaviors?
ReplyDeleteI'm also a Canadian citizen! I really love going to visit my grandparents in Toronto and even though I've only been to Ontario, I agree that the weather there in the summer is much nicer than here. I used to go live with my grandparents every summer for a few weeks in the summer and I remember spending a lot of time on Lake Ontario and shopping in downtown. But I relate to your experience a lot with kinda thinking that the culture that I experienced in Canada was the norm. I talk about it a lot in my most recent essay, but when I was little I assumed that most people spoke Norwegian in Canada and that the Norwegian culture I experienced there wasn't just Norwegian but also Canadian. (Also, really small side note, but I always thought it was spelled "eh" but maybe I'm wrong?)
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