After being in Canada for almost a week now, I thought it would be fun for my boyfriend Yann to take over and write a post about what he thinks of Canada! (As you can see from the photo above, he’s already addicted to Tim Hortons)
Here are his top ten impressions so far!
1. THE FOOD…there’s so much good food of different varieties around the world…and the portions are huge! In Germany, the options are much much less. There’s also lots of “good” fast food chains like Chipotle that are very uncommon in Germany, where you can get something very affordable and on the go, but still tastes great. I think the best food I’ve had so far is this local burrito chain called Burrito Boyz. The chicken and sweet potato burrito is amazing. Canada is food heaven!
2. There’s a surprisingly amount of German beers here but of course when in Canada, drink Canadian beer. The varieties of beer they have here in terms of local microbreweries is amazing. Aisles of craft beer all from Ontario. Way more exciting than in Germany, although I’m not liking the fact that you can’t buy beer at the supermarket. I’ve tried a couple and am excited to try more.
3. The people are also really friendly and open here. They greet you at every store. This one time, me and my girlfriend were looking for a subway stop in Toronto and an employee asked us if we needed help with directions and walked us all the way to the stop which took about 5 minutes! That would never happen in Germany (unless they’re trying to rob you). Overall, people are more fun to party with.
4. I love driving here. The speed limit is slower than in Germany but I love the large wide roads for coasting along. It’s great that you guys have a hip hop radio station as well.
5. There’s so many malls everywhere. Lots of nice ones with sales going on all the time. Lots of people seem to just hang out in them but they also have things to do there other than shop like th big food court and cinema. In Germany, they’re more practical as people (aside from 13 year old girls) only go to malls to buy things they need and not really a place for “fun.”
6. Suburban life. It’s huge and you really need a car to get around because it’s endless.
7. Baseball games. My dad is American and never liked going to baseball games and after going to a Blue Jays game, I can see why! Also $11 for a can of beer? How is anyone going to get drunk?!
8. It’s multicultural here but it’s interesting how well integrated it is as well. Like there’s asian and polish supermarkets but then you go in, there’s people of all ethnicities shopping in there. People seem very invited in a way to try out different cultures, versus in Germany ethnic neighbourhoods seem more “blocked off” to people outside that ethnicity.
9. Canadians are proud of their country. Most Canadian stores have large maple leaves on their buildings, cars decorated with flags are pretty common and Canadians are quick to point out the many great things about Canada and how different (and better) they are from the US. This is a pleasant change from Germany, where being proud of your country is almost unheard of and flags are only allowed during international soccer competitions.
10. It got really cold since I got here so the stereotypes are true. And yet everyone seems to wear shorts. (I’m writing this wearing a toque, a thick Roots sweater and huddled under a thick blanket)
Have you guys been to Canada? What are your impressions of this country?