Moving to a new country is an adjustment—even just going from the US to Canada. I have great respect for immigrants who have to learn an entirely new language, when here I am getting annoyed in the grocery aisle when I have to turn a product over to get to the English label instead of the French.

I’m one year into my Canadian adventure, complete with a healthcare card, social insurance number, and bona fide permanent residency. Even though I haven’t yet tried poutine and don’t really know where Manitoba is, I’ve observed enough fun quirks about Canada and Toronto to share.

Driving: Toronto highways get up to six lanes wide in some places and are always jammed. There are so many drivers here that it’s simply expected that you will be cut off and have to cut off others, so being aggressive is necessary and encouraged. When I tried to use the same cutting-off strategy in a recent visit to my mom’s rural town, I got honked at and experienced an existential crisis, wondering if I’ve truly become a rude big-city person.

Linguistics: The Canadian accent is subtle yet delightful.  A Canadian who pronounced “about” like “a-boat” once commented on my Wisconsin way of talking. But I’m already starting to assimilate. You can’t last six months here without starting to tack “eh?” onto the end of your sentences. “Pasta” and “Mazda” are pronounced with a short “a”. A further linguistic Easter egg I’ve noticed is the elimination of the preposition in phrases like, “Are you done work?” How fun!

Toronto is a wonderfully diverse city with residents from anywhere in the world you could imagine. Authentic cuisine is available from a plethora of cultures. The only challenge to my avowed appreciation for diversity is when I struggle to understand what the post office clerk is saying through her accent, through her mask, through a plexiglass barrier. Internally I remind myself that Toronto is a beautiful mosaic of people, while shamefacedly saying “Sorry?” (pronounced “sore-y”) for the fourth time.

Numbers: Aside from weather (Celsius) and speed limits (kilometers), the imperial system refuses to disappear from the Canadian consciousness. Weight? Sometimes measured in pounds, sometimes kilos. Oven temperature? Fahrenheit, obviously. Cooking ingredients by weight are measured in grams, but by volume are measured in cups and spoons. Old habits die hard. 

Regarding currency, the Canadian dollar is worth slightly more than Monopoly money. Converting your U.S. savings into Canadian dollars is like winning the lottery—but you can never do the reverse unless you want to feel very sad. Then again, a two-bedroom shed in Toronto sells for about $1.8 million, so Canada is the place where your home ownership dreams go to die.

Shopping: If you hate constantly being asked by U.S. store clerks if you have a Kroger Plus Card or Walgreens Balance Rewards, you will hate it here. The rewards systems here span across stores to the point where you’ll be asked about your PC Optimum points whether you’re at the drug store, Mobil gas station, or Canadian Tire (which is actually just a gritty WalMart). On the other hand, if you save up your rewards points for about fifteen years like our friend from church, you could cash them in for the latest gaming console.  

Politics: All I know about the liberal prime minister is that he is handsome and was once seen emerging from a cave shirtless in my dreams real life. And apparently the housing crisis is his fault. Canada’s Bernie Sanders is a sharp-dressed Sikh guy whose face is currently plastered all over billboards and buses. The conservative party here actually believes in universal healthcare and climate change, which is an all-around upgrade from what I’m used to down south. The lead-up to a Canadian election lasts all of two months, and Justin Trudeau just called for an election because…the vibes felt good? Nobody is really sure, but the politics here are refreshingly nuanced. Any incidents in Canada involving rude politicians or bad-behaving constituents are blamed on “American-style political polarization.” 

Wildlife: Every city has raccoons, but Toronto raccoons are next level. The city provides locking compost bins to every household to prevent trash-panda ravaging. The raccoon problem here is so bad it even got its own Jeopardy question. Fearless Toronto raccoons will climb cranes, ride buses, steal your bachelorette candies, and stare you dead in the eyes while eating all the bread in your kitchen. They also sometimes die on the sidewalk, which makes for an excellent opportunity for local comedy as bystanders wait for the notoriously slow city services to take away the fuzzy corpse.  

The national animal, the beaver, also makes appearances here from time to time, whether it’s in my backyard or a downtown subway station. 

Canada is truly a magical place. This concludes our tour from your friendly neighbor up north. Come visit anytime—the border is open!

Laura Sheppard Song

Laura graduated from Calvin in 2015 with a degree in art and writing. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, with her husband Josh and dog Rainy. She works as an IT support analyst and enjoys painting, rock climbing, and exploring the city.