The whole month/day/year vs. day/month/year things is a bit of a pain. When I went to have my Ontario DL switched over to a Texas one years ago they just copied the info from the card rather than having me fill out anything. And, of course, they issued my Texas DL with a birthdate of August 11th when in reality I was born on November 8th.

I used to always tease my American friends/family about asking for the "check" at restaurants. It just didn't make any logical sense... a cheque is something you use to pay OUT money so if you owe the restaurant, why would THEY be giving the money to YOU?

I just got an email from a Canadian friend and it made me think about this linguistic difference between Canada and US: She mentioned she went out to eat EAST Indian food. My fiance says that too ... EAST Indian. Here in the US, I have only heard : Indian food (not specifying the EAST).

BTW, I vary between saying "bill" and "check" in restaurants, just depends what comes out of my mouth in that moment.

I had to go to a clinic during my first visit in Canada to see my fiancee (at the time, she was my girlfriend) and when they read my Texas DL, they completely got my birthdate wrong. I had to correct them. I found it somewhat amusing.

As far as asking for "the check" or "the bill" in restaurants, it depends on where I am at the moment. If I'm in the U.S., I'll ask for "the check," since that's what is expected; likewise, if I'm in Canada, I'll ask for "the bill," since that's what is expected. Although my fiancee had to inform of the difference the first time I was there, since when we went out to a restaurant and I asked for "the check," she politely told me that in Canada, it's customary to ask for "the bill." It didn't really matter though -- obviously that restaurant had served enough American to understand what I meant.

I've noticed lately that I've been thinking and saying "zee" more easily that when I first got here. I'm not quite sure I like that

There's another Canadian guy at my work, he's been down here a lot longer than I have, but has somehow managed to keep his accent mostly. I on the other hand, picked up the local accent not long after arriving. And he is a few years older than I am, and from a different part of Ontario, so he says a few things differently. Like "warsh". He said that one day and I almost said to him "your Orillia is showing"

He also says "shedule" rather than "skedule". Which is I believe, an age thing. I remember my parents and grandparents and such saying "shedule" but most people my age or younger are enough Americanised to say "skedule".

Its little things.

I didn't really realize that I "sounded Canadian" until a bunch of people I called during my brief stint as a credit card collections agent asked me what part of Canada I was from. Freaked me out, actually!

LOL, with my husband, I always say "zed" without a second thought. But yesterday, when I was reading the eye chart for my driver's licence test, I corrected myself after saying "zed" and added "zee", just in case

yeah, when I'm talking with my husband, I just talk like I always have, and the last letter of the alphabet is a zed. But when I'm at work or elsewhere with Americans, its a zee, because they have no clue what a zed is!

I had yet another one at work the other day give me this incredulous look when I said that it gets really hot in Ontario in summer time. I don't know why they just can't believe me when I say that!

I suppose they think Siberia is constantly under 6 feet of snow, and that everyone in Australia wrestles crockodiles as well!

Stereotypes are strong things here in the United States, Reba. I live in Texas, right? I've known people from other states to ask me "where are your guns?" and "do you ride a horse to work?" among other nonsensical questions. And remember -- this is within the U.S., not from outside of it! People believe whatever they see on TV; in other words, what Hollywood has shown them to be "true." Since most people associate the "Old West" with Texas, they seem to believe that Texas is still like it was in the 1800's (despite the fact that the "Old West" was also in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, California, etc) and are completely shocked when they visit a city like Houston or Dallas and see it's just like any other large major city. This is especially true for Houston, since it's the fourth largest city in the country, and people are regularly surprised!

So this is probably why many Americans, with few cultural experiences outside of their home state, think Canada is a frozen wasteland and so forth. To be completely fair though, I've known people from other countries to believe a number of nonsensical things about the U.S., so stereotypes aren't confined to these borders. However, I think stereotypes might have a stronger influence here due to the U.S.'s geographic location, as it's certainly more isolated than countries in Europe and it has virtually no ties to those countries in Europe, like Canada does, being a Commonwealth country.

That's my take on the subject, anyway.

So tell me this???

We went to the grocery store the other night and couldn't find an "unwaxed" turnip?
WHY do they WAX turnips?? That's discusting.. What is the deal?? Turnips are one of the most "stable" cold crops.. What could possibly be the reason?? I'm making stew today, and am completely grossed out about this turnip

What's the deal with not having "oven ready" noodles (e.g. lasagna noodles) in the U.S.? My husband looked at me like I was insane when we were in the grocery store and I was commenting about how they didn't have any.

And he still thinks I'm a freak about putting gravy on my fries.

That's funny, they have oven ready lasagna noodles in Kentucky. I always figure if we have it here they must have it everywhere else

I am pretty sure i have seen some down here in Los Angeles too....

although here is a good tip if you can't find any and have to use the other ones....

make the lasagna like you normally would using the uncooked, non-oven ready noodles.... just make sure you have enough sauce and leave in fridge for a few hours or overnight..... and then cook it like you normally would....

my mom always does this...

Well you'd think they'd have it in Los Angeles, after all it's Canada's third largest city by population ha ha.

Now with the letter Z, I guess I never grew up ever saying it as Zed. I learned from Seaseme Street and it was always Zee, so I always said it that way. It wasn't until I was getting out of highschool that people were saying it a lot more and trying to change how they said it. It was around then that the CRTC started putting their version of kids shows over the US shows to have more Canadian Content. I stuided this in my communications degree in college, so even the kids shows would be edited to put Canaidan stuff over the US content which of course in things like Sesame Street, was the letter Zed rather then Z.

Now everytime I go to Canada to visit, everyone that used to say it Z now says it as Zed. Good thing I never need to adapt, that would be confusing as most people wouldn't know what a Zed is. I still think it sounds really weird...

When I first moved down here I had to have a medical (including an eye exam)... well, I said ZED and the nurse looked back and forth between me and the chart several times before I realized she didn't know what I was saying... she thought I was trying to read the chart like the letters made words! lol

lol I did the same for the drivers test eye exam!! "zed" I meaan "zee"

Maybe they just don't have it in VA? Couldn't find it anywhere... I ended up just cooking the noodles 1/2 way and then using them.

in Canada, the zee vs. zed is mainly in the West I think. I remember when I was a kid (loooooooooong time ago) there was a Canadian version of Sesame Street, and they said zed. And they spoke french! check Wiki here

However, I've noticed more in the West of Canada they say zed, and US spellings in newspapers and whatnot, more often than in the Eastern half. Though I did notice some US spellings in newspapers when I visited Nova Scotia once or twice. Its a space issue, take out all the us and there's just sooooooooo much more room!

Joel says "zed" and "zee". Here at home it's zed though. We were messing around in the kitchen (literally) and decided to try and make our own poutine. OH YEAH! Now, granted it's not the same without the cheese curds, but it's a good substitute. We used brown gravy and shredded mozz. Joel puts ketchup on his poutine...I can't quite get myself to try that. However, I LOVE poutine! Rappie Pie, now that's something I really really miss! *sigh*

Gonna have to look for the coffee crisp bars...I don't think I've ever had one....

I say zed and always use superfluous "u"s and generally use other British spelling like using "s" instead of "z" in words like utilise. My grade 6 teacher here in Toronto was from England so he hammered all of that into our heads.

What's funny is whenever I see "Checks cashed here" it always looks wrong to me and I always mentally think, "man, they don't know how to spell cheques".

Sometimes I have to catch myself when I write on the board at school, that I don't spell things with a "u". My kids think it's funny when I do 'cause they know my husband is from Canada. Incidentally, that usually leads to the infamous question: Mrs. Pothier, can you speak Canadian???"

I found a problem with asking someone where the washroom was.

We were on a bike trip and I just HAD to go, we ran into a Hotel and I asked for the washroom, the girl just looked at me and told me the dryer was broken. While I stood there in disbelief wondering what the hell the dryer had to do with it , my SO spoke up and asked where the restroom was

I had to laugh at the touqe and tobaggon post, my SO has a tobaggon he just loves!!!!!Wearing on his head!!!!!! I really do worry about him.

lol, that stil lhappens to me!! i ask for the washroom and they have no clue what I'm asking for!!

Yeah, me too (VBG)!

I was watching a documentary on Elvis the other day ( I have no idea why, I don't even like him) , anyway, the guy was talking about Elvis when he was in the Army and that he had to go to Germany. How Germany was so hard for him because he had never been to another foreign country before, except Canada but thats not a foreign country! What!!!!? Canada isn't a foreign country???

I couldn't believe that!

I've been here almost 2 yrs in June and I am still trying to adjust to this place. It is so unfriendly. I haven't made a single friend here. I live in a prodominetly Mormon town much smaller then what I'm used to. ( grew up in Vancouver, BC) Unless you're Mormon, people won't give you the time of day.

I get teased constantly at work. Always with the Canada "EH" crap. So much so, that I'm almost ready to quit my job and go home. I am not liking this place at all.

Im sorry raphael

I'm sorry to hear that too.

in the US, the washroom is where the laundry machines are. I figured that out when we went house shopping one time. It was funny.

I totally understand raphael, I felt the same way for the longest time here. Do a Yahoo search for groups in your area who are not Mormon. There's gotta be someone! Even if you have to go for a bit of a drive.

Or move. We still want to, or at least I do. I'd like to be a lot closer to the border and my family. We have no family here other than James' brother, and even though he lives across the street, we never see him.

I just wanted to say that Im sorry to hear that youre having a hard time, I went through the same thing only in reverse when I moved to Canada from Las Vegas 5 years ago.. even at work, they would tease me all the time about my "huhs and uh huhs"...LOL...now its just a joke with all of us because everytime I say Huh and they point it out, I point out everytime someone says "EH" or "You's".and we all laugh about it..LOL..I love my coworkers now and they have all been so supportive of this new journey that we are on to get my husband to the US... and I will miss them so much

I still get incredibly homesick all the time... when I first moved here and was having such a tough time, I asked my family and friends to "mail" me pics, or write me a letter every once in awhile, send me the local paper, not just emails...and that helped alot..its so nice to have real mail, other than bills, in the mailbox!

I agree about the Yahoo groups....theres so many of them...

If you scrapbook I can suggest scrapbook.com...its a very friendly place and you may meet other scrappers there in your area...if you do go there you will have to look me up!

another great place to meet others is if you do any volunteering... when your helping others or even animals people wont care what religion you are...or maybe I should say they shouldnt care..

It took me awhile to make friends too, it was just me and my husband for the first year and a half.. we started doing date nights together...usually dinner and a movie..but to make them interesting we would take a bag and put names of restraunts around town that we had never been to, in it...and would pick one.. did the same with movies we wanted to see...might seem a bit childish but we really had fun doing it and found a couple really great places to eat that we still go to..


again sorry to hear that youre so unhappy....and I hope it gets better for you..

I'm worried that I'm not going to adapt once I move to PA, too. I felt like such a foreigner when I asked a waiter at a restaurant where the washroom was and he said condescendingly, "You mean the bathroom, right?"

I mean, there's a lot of other stuff too, like the recycling around here (non-existent) and the high fructose corn syrup. I read labels to see whether HFCS is in it and it's become a joke around my friends and family. And I can't get used to not seeing the French labels either.

I guess it's just worry about finding a job too, since I only have an associate's degree. I worry that I'm just not going to adjust, but I'm trying to find the good side in everything. (And I really do like the fact that PA sales tax is half as much as BC sales tax, and that things seem to be slightly cheaper over here.)

I had a funny moment here in Canada a few weeks ago. I am working in a Flower Shop right now and had to phone in a Wire Transfer to a Floral shop in Washington. I was spelling out the name of the person the flowers were going to- Suzi. I said" S-U-Z-I", the woman on the phone goes "S-U-S-I-E"? I said no," S-U-Z-I". Then she pauses and asks "What is zed-I?" I realized she knew zee, not zed.

Nini & Bee, what part of PA are you moving to? We're in the Philadelphia area.

My wife was dealing with a bit of home-sickness last week. She knew people from my church before we were married, but she feels she only knows those people on a surface level. As she's gotten to know them more, I think things are getting better. She feels she'll never know anyone like she did in Canada, but she's only been two months.

On a lighter note, my wife went to mail something today and couldn't figure out the mail box. She eventually did. I guess they're different than Canada Post boxes. Someone asked her to babysit in case of jury duty and she never heard of that. I guess you all don't have that north of the border.

Don't forget NO sales tax on clothing in PA!

Yep.. I'm hearing your wife for sure.. It is difficult going from having people who really KNOW you around.. to nothing, you are just "the newbie" or "the Canadian"..

We were walking through the mall the other day and I remarked to my hubby on how i don't even look for people that I know anymore. I wouldn't expect to see anyone that I know or run into anyone cause i know NO one here.. So.. yeah.. that made me a bit sad.. just thinking of how many people I knew back home, how many times I'd run into people on the side of the street etc. It's an adjustment for sure.. You are right.. its' only been 2 2 1/2 months for me as well.. time will help all this I am hoping.

I'm not in the US permanently yet, but I'm on my second 2-month stay, so I'm getting used to it, and I'm gradually finding things I like.

The health food store has a lot of products I like, but it's too far to go to as often as I'd like to. And even it has a poor selection of produce compared to what I'm used to. But you may want to look for health food stores in your area.

I love the prices at the local grocery store. But one time I looked at the ingredients of every type of bread they had, and every one of them had HFCS in it. Fortunately, I've found a bakery nearby that makes delicious bread with only healthy ingredients.

The yogurt in the regular stores doesn't taste like the yogurt I'm used to, but again, I found healthy yogurt in another store -- this time a co-op.

I hope you'll be able to find products you like too.

I've been here almost 2 yrs in June and I am still trying to adjust to this place. It is so unfriendly.
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I just mentioned to my hubby a few days ago how unfriendly I find the people here. The only person that I could get any kind of conversation out of was the nail tech that did my nails last week...... and I think he could relate as he was an immigrant from Vietnam. He asked my why I would ever leave Canada to move to the US........ said he heard it was a better place to live........

Hope things get better for you soon...... it's really hard when you never feel like you're at home.

I haven't moved to the US yet. We are thinking on July but i have visited 4 times and spend 4 weeks in July. In Houston i had a hard time with the whole recycling thing. In Canada its really easy but where Ramos is they don't do it. I did find aschool near by to take newspapers and cardboard but i always feel so bad about throwing things away. That was a major things for me. But yes the paying with credit card thing did take a bit of time to get used to paying and making sure i was giving the right note or bill took adjustment too. But everyone was so nice i only had a few people who were a bit rude. I know it says hk but i am currently working here.

I'm still getting used to the whole "check card" thing... like how it's not really like a debit card (but it is) and not really like a credit card... and getting asked if I want cash back each time.

I know what you mean with the No Tims!! It also took me a bit of time to get use to driving in miles rather than km, and the food sizes are huge!!! We share meals when we go out to eat.

I totally agree with you......You have said what i think. I know it says that i am in hk but i am a Canadian working here. Ramos is in Houston and listening to the talk raido shows, and they make me laugh sometimes at what people choose to share about their lack of knowledge.

Never take Talk Radio at face value. The hosts (in general) are there just to incite strong feelings and get people to call in, thus making the show more entertaining for the listening audience. This isn't to say all Talk Radio is bad; it's not. But most of it is inflammatory and just plain rude.

Fortunately for us all, Talk Radio does not represent the city, state or country. It just shows what a relative few people think.

As for American Cheese... I'm the USC in the relationship, and I used to like it when I was a little kid. Little kids have no taste, so American Cheese was as good as anything else. Now that I'm much older and have experienced other cheeses, I can't say that American Cheese is really appetizing. Although it's still much better than spray cheese. I never understood the attraction to that.

I agree with you on the recycling issue. Louisiana is the same way.

I am amazed at the amount of garbage (including us I am ashamed to say) that we put out- twice a week!

One of the primary reasons my husband is moving to the US is his discovery of Easy Cheese on Fritos Scoops

I have never met a cheese or cheese product I haven't liked!

My fiance (Bee) lives in Devon, near King of Prussia. I'm originally from Vancouver, myself.

What I've been really grateful for is Whole Foods and Trader Joes, which produces both organic foody and a wide selection of cheeses. Funnily enough, the last time I was over here, my fiance and I managed to find this amazingly tasty sharp white cheddar. Turns out that it was from Vermont.

I didn't mean to sound so despondent in my last post, because I am finding things that I like about the area, but it's definitely been a bit of a shock sometimes when I do the usual daily routine. I'll probably never get used to the highway system, though!

Luckily my fiance agrees with the organic/recycling thing, and he's been very happy to support the local farmer's markets. All we really need is to find a recycling depot like they do in Vancouver, and we're a little closer to what it's like for me at home.

We live in Media, which is 15 minutes west of Phila, and probably 20 minutes south of Devon, if we take 252.

There's also a Wegmans in Downington/Exton which isn't close, but not too far either. I've never been there, but they're like TJ's...a lot of original stuff/whole foods, etc.

thats funny!...my husband (Canadian), LOVES Easy Cheese!.. I grew up on it so I love it too, especially on Chicken in a Biscuit! (its the name of a cracker by Nabisco in case anyone was wondering..LOL)

try easy cheese on triscuits! i promise you won't be disappointed! very salty and cheesy - its a very evil addictive snack....

also, on the whole organic, local farmer support, etc - the US is going through a huge transition period where more and more of the trader joe, whole foods stores are popping up, and even in popular grocery stores theres sections organic or locally grown food... I think over the next 10 years we're going to see a big change in this, especially with people being so aware of the earth's problems whether it be health and what you put in your body or taking care of the environment. ive noticed a huge change over the last 2 years (im from chicagoland) and i see things popping up everywhere. the majority of my diet consists of organic/naturally raised foods, and it's very easy and accessible to me more and more each month.

*edit: yes i know easy cheese isn't organic, but there are just some things you can't give up!

Oh I think Ive had Easy Cheese on every cracker ever made!..LOL..Dont know if they are in the US or not but Triscuit has a new flavor in Canada called Cracked Black Pepper...my husband just asked a few days ago when we were eating them if we had anymore Easy Cheese from our stash that we had from our last run over the border to Buffalo...sadly we are out of Easy Cheese

I cant wait to get back to Trader Joes and Wild Oats!

Oh yes, yes they do have them here.....our personal favourites are the roasted garlic ones and the rosemary & olive oil ones. Pop some cheese on those babies and mmmmmmmm!

I STILL don't understand this. What the heck IS this card? Is it a debit card or is it a credit card? Is there some sort of writeup about it online so I can figure out what it is? I just don't get it. Please help. LOL