{"id":777,"date":"2008-07-05T11:04:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-05T16:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2008\/jim-on-canada.html"},"modified":"2008-07-05T11:04:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-05T16:04:00","slug":"jim-on-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2008\/jim-on-canada.html","title":{"rendered":"Jim on Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a little while since my trip (and as I actually write this <i>I still have no internet access<\/i>), but I promised I would write a bit about my trip to Canada.&nbsp; And a promise is a promise. &nbsp;I&#8217;m going to follow the tradition of Shari when she came back from Canada and write about some of the differences I noticed between Canada and Mexico. &nbsp;So here goes.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Here&#8217;s one odd thing that confused me no end. &nbsp;When you go into a store, what in the world do you say to the cashier? &nbsp;Or when you go to pay, <b>how do you greet the person at the counter<\/b>? &nbsp;In Mexico, it&#8217;s quite simple &#8211; usually a &quot;Good morning&quot; or &quot;Good afternoon&quot;. &nbsp;I tried that in English but it didn&#8217;t sound right. &nbsp;I have a feeling you usually say <i>nothing<\/i> until you actually go to pay, but then what? &nbsp;Hello? &nbsp;Hey? &nbsp;Anyway, that was some unexpected confusion.<\/li>\n<li>Singing <b>worship songs in English on Sunday morning<\/b> was trippy. &nbsp;Can I use the word &quot;trippy&quot; for something like that?&nbsp; Anyway, it was good &#8211; naturally I can understand more of the subtleties in English.<\/li>\n<li>People are <b>rich<\/b> in Canada. &nbsp;Wow.<\/li>\n<li><b>Driving was quite different.<\/b> &nbsp;People really stick to the rules, but I think they&#8217;re more likely to get mad at you if you do something wrong, even if it&#8217;s minor. &nbsp;I found I had to really concentrate hard to make sure I was following all the rules of the road.<\/li>\n<li>I hate to say something so negative, but I know many people in Canada will agree with me. &nbsp;<b>Customer service<\/b> was <i>horrendous<\/i>. &nbsp;Seriously, people are so polite here in Mexico. &nbsp;They smile, and they try to help. &nbsp;They go out of their way to help. &nbsp;But in Calgary &#8230; well, I was going to give an example, but I&#8217;ll be kind. &nbsp;Needless to say, things happened in Calgary that I can&#8217;t imagine happening in Mexico.<\/li>\n<li>You can eat very healthy in Mexico. &nbsp;But it helps if you can cook, and know what to buy, and where, and how. &nbsp;One thing I noticed in Canada was that it&#8217;s a lot easier to find <b>healthy snacks<\/b> &#8211; quick food &#8211; than it is in Mexico. &nbsp;You know, like things that say they&#8217;re &quot;whole grain&quot; and don&#8217;t list <i>refined flour<\/i> as the first ingredient. &nbsp;Quick, yet healthy, snacks. &nbsp;Yum.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s quite a sense of power to be able to actually <b>understand what people around you are saying<\/b> (even if you aren&#8217;t a part of the conversation).<\/li>\n<li>On a related note, however, the <b>multi-culturalism<\/b> of Calgary was quite a change. &nbsp;Mexico City is somewhat multi-cultural, but generally people are from native Mexican, Spanish, or mixed blood. &nbsp;People generally speak Spanish, and there are only a few cultures you&#8217;re likely to see. &nbsp;In Calgary, in my few days there I&#8217;m sure I heard <i>many<\/i> languages, and saw people from many different cultures. &nbsp;Even more so than in the States (at the airport in Houston &#8211; not a lot of exposure there, but still, it <i>is<\/i> an airport!). &nbsp;Calgary, and Canada at large, is really a rich mix of cultures.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a little while since my trip (and as I actually write this I still have no internet access), but I promised I would write a bit about my trip to Canada.&nbsp; And a promise is a promise. &nbsp;I&#8217;m going to follow the tradition of Shari when she came back from Canada and write [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[51],"class_list":["post-777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc","tag-canada","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jim on Canada - Finding direction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2008\/jim-on-canada.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jim on Canada - Finding direction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#8217;s been a little while since my trip (and as I actually write this I still have no internet access), but I promised I would write a bit about my trip to Canada.&nbsp; 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