Lifestyle
Kristy Tickel is a freelance writer who moved to Sudbury last year.
The gal from oz tells all!
KRISTY TICKEL
Summer 2009 |
My partner and I chose Sudbury because it is a city with more facilities than we could hope for in an equivalent Australian mining town. It is not far from a major city, and I am significantly closer to Europe and the United States than I was six months ago.
The transition has been up and down. The first thing I bought when I arrived was a coat, followed by some waterproof boots, ear muffs and thermal underwear. You get the picture.
They (I am not sure who) say Canadians are much like Australians in their friendly, law-abiding manner (except for driving), and I tend to agree. Of course, I have had some communication issues.
My first day here I complained of being cold to my landlord. I said it was likely because I was only wearing thongs and I should change. I meant my shoes, flip-flops to you all, not my underwear.
On my second trip to Tim Hortons, I was determined to be understood, after having to repeat myself several times on my first trip. Practising my speech in the car on the way, I thought I was fine. Nope, asking for a plain toasted bagel with cream cheese is apparently harder than I thought. I had to repeat myself several times again.
Communications issues aside, food is something else. Cheddar cheese in Canada is bright orange! Cheese should not be orange, and I am not sure why it is. At home, it is a pale creamy yellow, closer to Canadian mozzarella. The volume of cheese on everything is also new to me.
I thought I was being very Canadian the first time I bought milk in a bag, when I discovered it’s an Ontario thing, the rest of Canada doesn’t do it apparently.
The differences between my home city and Sudbury are vast. Perth is sunny; there are long, clean beaches, a big river snaking through it up to a small mountain range. There is a forest four hours south and a desert seven hours east.
I was shocked to realize how little people knew about Australia when I arrived here, so it’s time dispel a few myths.
We don’t ride kangaroos to school, and people can’t fit in their pouches. Koalas are cute, but generally grumpy and we tend to stay away.
We don’t all wrestle crocodiles. In fact, there was only really one guy who did that and most Aussies thought he was a few snags short of a barbie (a few sausages short of a good barbecue – interpretation, not quite sane).
Not until I moved here and discovered the distinct lack of little creatures did I consider the significant number of them at home. I called my friends in Perth to tell them about the Canadian I met who had never seen a cockroach.
Ah, what it would be to enjoy such blissful ignorance. We do have lots of spiders, bugs, snakes and cockroaches at home that like hanging out with humans.
Noticing the penchant for speeding some Canadians have also sparked my interest. At home the government (at both state and federal levels) seems to encourage people more to obey the law. There are more speed cameras than I care to number, road blocks every long weekend to check for drunken or drugged drivers, and expensive advertising campaigns that look like more an episode of CSI. Not that it is unwarranted, there are many road deaths due to fatigue, speeding and drinking.
Canada is very different in this respect. I have yet to see a speed camera, or a road block, in fact – I have never seen anyone being pulled over, and the TV reminders not to drink and drive look like rug sale ads next to the ones at home. It’s new for me to learn people can still be law-abiding peaceful citizens without reminders to obey the law. Canadians seem be more responsible for their citizenship.
I could be misunderstanding Canadians, but they all seem to have trouble understanding me, so I suppose that makes us even.
