Thursday, August 11, 2005
These boots were made for walking
You'd think that, moving to a country that also speaks English, I'd have no communication problems in Canada. And, pretty much, I don't. But when I do have them, they drive me nuts. Take the last couple of days, for example. Yesterday I was working on the door at the shelter, taking everyone's names as they walked in. When I asked for their surname, though, there was puzzled silence. Apparently Canadians don't use the word 'surname' any more. It's old-fashioned. I kept having to remind myself to use 'last name' instead. So doing the door took twice as long.
Today, I was on the bus and rang the bell to get off at the next stop. I was halfway down the bus, and the driver yelled at me, "The next stop isn't for 3 blocks [a long way]. Didn't you know?" Errr...no, I'm not intimately acquainted with the bus routes of Hamilton. I believe that means I have a life. Sorry about that.
Stuff like this hardly ever happens, so it's no big deal, but I still get frustrated by it. Especially as Joe doesn't experience it (being Canadian) so has no idea what I'm on about when I try and tell him. Doubly frustrating.
Oh well - looking on the bright side, I did buy my brand spanking new hiking boots today! Yay! Apparently they take 2 weeks to break in. I have a week and a half. Uh-oh.
Today, I was on the bus and rang the bell to get off at the next stop. I was halfway down the bus, and the driver yelled at me, "The next stop isn't for 3 blocks [a long way]. Didn't you know?" Errr...no, I'm not intimately acquainted with the bus routes of Hamilton. I believe that means I have a life. Sorry about that.
Stuff like this hardly ever happens, so it's no big deal, but I still get frustrated by it. Especially as Joe doesn't experience it (being Canadian) so has no idea what I'm on about when I try and tell him. Doubly frustrating.
Oh well - looking on the bright side, I did buy my brand spanking new hiking boots today! Yay! Apparently they take 2 weeks to break in. I have a week and a half. Uh-oh.
[Left: My hiking boots. Shiny and new!!]
There was all sorts of other paraphernalia in the camping shop, which I found fascinating but utterly useless. There were ludicrously expensive hiking socks with manly straplines like "Rugged. Canadian. Original." Um - Canadian socks are original? There were snakebite kits with "easy-to-use lymph constrictors" and other scarily mind-boggling features. There were absolutely disgusting dehydrated meals, including chocolate fudge cake and something called 'Tex-Mex' which was apparently spicy scrambled egg (probably more useful for inducing vomiting in the event of a snake bite). Finally, and my personal favourite, was a tiny tiny all-in-one espresso maker which made just enough coffee for one person. Although, to be honest, if you need espresso that badly when you're out hiking, maybe you shouldn't be going out into the wilderness for seven days straight. Especially not on your own.
