Does this make me look American?

A couple of weeks ago my partner commented that I still seem to suffer from culture shock far more then he ever did (I wouldn't know, he came to Canada from India the year before I came here - but from the stories i've heard from his friends, his adjustment was much harder in the beginning then he remembers now). Yes, it is true that I still hit culture snags from time to time. And at this point they mostly affect me when I am intentionally looking for something comfortingly familiar so I think they hit even harder.

For example, I don't usually eat cold cereal here but I have been craving Grape Nuts for about a month now and last week I finally gave in. I went to the "Adult Cereal" section of the grocery store (Cultural Side note - besides all the "plain" and granola-y cereals the Adult Cereal section seems to be the home of all the chocolate flavored cereals as well, so Canada probably has some actual rules about marketing unhealthy/misleading foods to children) and there was no Grape Nuts. Undeterred I went to another grocery store and again, no Grape Nuts!! Suddenly I wanted Grape Nuts even more then I ever have before . . .

Anyway, my partner knows that mainstream Canada doesn't have what he wants when it comes to things like food culture-wise, so he frequents "ethnic" and specialty stores and is overjoyed when he finds things in a mainstream store. Perhaps it is a matter of perspective - maybe I just need to lower my expectations . . . but that can still be hard when I get utterly blindsided by subtle differences.

This week I made a christmas cookie (treat? chocolate?) that we make every year in my family. There are pretty much three ingredients: chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and lightly salted peanuts. Seems easy right? In the grocery store I struggled mostly with the peanuts - apparently "seasoned" is how people like to eat their peanuts - or no one worries about their sodium intake. There wasn't even a place on the shelf for "lightly salted." So I got unsalted peanuts to play it safe. I went home, I made them . . . everything went fine . . . . until they didn't quite set up. My first thoughts were absurd - 'It must be the altitude!' 'It must be warmer then I think in this apartment.' And then I tasted them, and it became clear that butterscotch chips here taste distinctly different. Likely they have a different composition and are the reason for the texture/setting difference. There was only one type of butterscotch chips at the store (which seems to ring true to my memories of the states too) so I never even thought to look at the ingredients or taste them before using. (Chocolate chips are the same!)

Ah well, now my partner and I joke that I need to find the online product comparison between the US and Canada likely started by a transplant as bothered as I am by these subtleties.

Hello all, a quiet summer let my blogging peter out, but a Fall full of more amusing Canadian situations and circumstances has led me to blog again. I will be typing up some of these stories in the coming weeks, but this post will just be a brief update on the changes in my life since my last post.

Top 10 (C-A related) things that have changed in my life in the last 6 months:

10. I sat in on a class on Canadian - American foreign relations (post to come)
9. I discovered you cannot get oyster crackers in Canada :( :(
8. I got my Ontario drivers license and joined the local car share
7. I have been reading about other parts of Canada and desperately want to travel the country even more now
6. I have decided to reside in Canada for the foreseeable future. Both because I like it and because it is the easiest residential option for my bi-country bi-culture relationship. (perhaps a post on that to come . . . who goes to Canada - a country with millions of potential people - only to fall in love with an Indian? Yeah, that's right, me!)
5. American elections still suck when you are outside of the country - fewer political ads though . . . but I have never had as many people ask me if I voted as I did here.
4. I still don't really appreciate Tim Hortons as much as I should, but since I now work at (sort of) one, I consume a lot of their products now.
3. Having a Santa Claus parade to ring in the holiday season has become normal to me now
2. The local Canadian Tire sells artificial Christmas PALM trees . . .why?
1. I now find myself humming/muttering both the Canadian and American anthems under my breath from time to time - so I must still be utterly preoccupied with this

So i've been trying to secure a summer job, because I need the $$ and also because I need the structure - academia is so unstructured that my ADD nature is having a field day and taking the rest of me with it.

My areas of interest are still non-profits, but also governmental too . . . and therein lies the problem. If only I could be content in the for-profit corporate world!

Most non-profits here seem to be funded by the government, and if you remember my problems with most of academia being funded by the government you will remember the government earmarks their money to only go to citizens and permanent residents. Not that I blame them, because clearly they should get first dibs, but the government permeates everything here so I am finding it hard to find something that I can actually qualify for. It certainly doesn't help that I am not required to tell them I'm not a citizen or permanent resident, and they likewise don't usually disclose the limitations on the position's funding. This means I get quite far in the process before the connections are made and I am shown not to qualify.

To add to this, the federal government here has announced (unsurprisingly) significant cutbacks, and the details are still shaking out. This means so many positions are tentative or announced last minute. Not that the job market sucking is news, it is just making my position on a low rung in society that much more evident.

Which leaves me in a precarious position - if I'm not making the connections in the field now through part time and summer jobs . . . how am I going to get something full-time when I graduate? I will be on an even lower rung then and much more of a risk to employ (though they don't have to sponsor me like most American work related visas). Concerning to say the least, especially since the job market clearly won't turn around in the next year to that extent.

Something to worry about while I am not being productive at school I suppose. :)

So it has been a long time since my last post, mostly because the term has been intense. But now I am down to only thesis work (yay!). More relevant to this post is that I will be unemployed come Thursday.

I have been attempting to find a job for the summer, but my off campus work permit is making it very difficult. I might rather live on ramen and spend as little as possible then make the job work out. The trick is the restrictions placed on the work permit itself.

Unlike an undergrad, I remain enrolled in a shadow class for the summer to "work on my thesis" and more importantly, pay them more tuition dollars. Thus, since school is in session for me over the summer, I can only work a maximum of 20 hrs a week off campus. This rules out most jobs except for retail . . . and if you know anything about me you know I am crap at retail. I also can't work in child care, k-12 education, or elder/health care. So definitely not picking up a nanny gig or working at a summer camp.

What I am trying to get is a full time on campus job, because that is allowed, there just aren't many of them available. and i'm not looking forward to working on campus all summer, and working on my thesis on campus all summer . . . . too much campus!

Wish me luck!

Let me preface by saying I have not yet completed my Canadian taxes. It could yet be a horrible experience that will color my current thoughts. But right now my thoughts are so positive that I want to share!!!

To begin with, as a resident of Canada I get all the tax benefits of a citizen. ALL of them. Which, with the social net as it is, is a lot. Including a quarterly GST/HST tax check!! But there are two places where they really make you feel welcome and encourage you to stay in the country longer then your schooling through taxes:

1. The first time you do your taxes you get special consideration. First off, the guy leading the tax session was an actual employee of the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA). He obviously knew a ton about taxes and about how it relates to international students in general. Clearly super helpful. They also gave us all our forms and an extra booklet made just for international students. Additionally, the first year we do taxes in Canada we have to send them to a special office that is designed to process provincial and federal forms for those who have just entered the country. They do this because the first year you do your forms, they check it for you and give you feedback. You do not get any sort of penalization if you do them wrong - and you actually get told if you are doing it right. How helpful is that?!?! Why did the US never do that when I started doing it on my own? There is also a direct line to their office to call about questions specific to people like me - you are actually encouraged to call (not email!) and ask about how the tax treaty for your country affects your taxes and such!

2. Tax credits for tuition and living expenses while in school are significantly higher then in the US and they ROLL OVER into future years. He literally said "You all are international students, so you pay a high amount of tuition. Thus, you should never have to pay taxes here while in school and possibly for a few years afterward, until you use up the accumulated credit." As long as you keep filing your taxes, this credit doesn't expire. You also get to apply non-roll over tax credits first, and then that after if there is more to apply it to . . . if not, it rolls over! Crazy. Seriously.

I am seriously looking forward to tackling these taxes this weekend and figuring out how much credit I have already!

I've spent reading week (aka spring break) in Washington DC visiting people and playing at being a tourist. I have some interesting reflections on Canadians that I will share when not sitting on the same bus as them. In the meantime . . . .


I put an effort into reading a good selection of Canadian, us, and European based news online on a regular basis and i'm sure everyone who does likewise has noticed the increased hostilities with Iran. I had been hoping there wasn't more to it then what I was seeing from outside . . . but I found that not to be the case. the media (at least the print, I didn't absorb many other venues while here) is clearly slowly poisoning the American public to Iran. i wish I had saved some of the articles and comments I encountered.

I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed. It seems clear now we will have some sort of skirmish with Iran before the year is out. You would think I wouldn't care as much as I have decided to try and stay for a while in Canada after graduating, but if anything, it bothers me more. Someone needs to fight this, and I know it isn't my turn yet . . . but what difference can I make if i'm in Canada.

I'm liking being an American more these days, no country will ever be perfect or inoffensive, but I have a good enough grounding in history (thanks public school system!) that I can defend things, and understand why we choose to do what we do. Since I am called upon to explain random events and governance actions I have also been becoming more aware of what I am proud of in this country and how I want to explain what it is to be American. More to come on this I am sure.

I am currently on a bus on I-95 just outside of B'more. We are about to turn NW towards PA and head straight on 'til morning - within twelve hours I will be in Canada again. I have been gone from Canada less then seven days, but I already cannot wait to be back. 

Hello all,

So term has started, and it is going to be a doozy. Some of the things I have on my plate include: 4 classes, writing my thesis proposal, building back up my fitness/ankle functionality, and taxes for two countries.

So clearly my dear readers, my posts will be few and far between, and more likely to be quick anecdotes then long thought out and/or photograph filled posts. I apologize in advance!

To stall the withdrawal (that I know you are all frantically trying to alleviate by resorting to other drug like substances as we speak) I want to share with you what I learned this week!

I got an on campus job this week (frankly I am only allowed to get an on campus job on my visa) as a cashier in some of the cafes. There aren't many differences between being a cashier in the states and one in Canada, though technology has gotten better in the intervening years (no punch card - I just swipe my student card using a time logging interface in the register!). the one difference is how to determine counterfeit bills. In America, you generally feel the bill (if it is pure paper, it will definitely feel different), or use one of the built in security features (Canada has pretty much the same ones), but the conclusive way is the pen with color changing ink. Canada doesn't seem to have a pen, and frankly I think the bills feel fake to begin with - they certainly feel like paper (and are soon to feel like plastic). their conclusive way, is to rub the bill on paper - if it is real the color (remember, they are all colored differently and brightly!) will come off . . . . which kind of makes me wonder if the inside of my wallet will be multicolored after a while.

Well, I'm on my way back to Canada. I've had a good holiday and a relaxing and refreshing vacation but I’m really looking forward to being home and starting classes again. America was not as jarring as I expected, but it also wasn't as inquisitive as I expected either. (I should have remembered, Americans aren't preoccupied with Canada the way Canadians are about Americans) I was also reminded by one of my fantastic readers how much I love poetry and trying to communicate using its structure, so I warn you that there may be some posts in poetic form in the future.

 

I am very glad that I will be out of the country for the 2012 elections. I'm sure it will be frustrating to feel like a spectator (don't worry, I will be exercising my rights and voting absentee) and play the role of interpreter when I don't even feel like I know/understand all the action, but I already found the coverage overwhelming when I was here . . . And I didn't visit Iowa and only briefly visited NH. I assume it will only get worse in the coming months. It's kind of odd how crazy the election season is when it seems like each successive government elected does less and stalls more.

 

Probably more to come in the following days as I finish my trip and decompress.

I wrote a list of things I wanted to post about but hadn't had time to write up yet . . . and promptly left it in Canada. Oops.

I'm in Chicago, and frankly I really like the city of Chicago. This is off topic, but the city is so gritty with very majestic and dominating architecture, and the neighborhoods have such character. I know it is windy, and sprawling, and midwestern (sorry midwesterners but i'm not you), but I would live there. Anyway, so far, i've used my Celsius skills and bought cheap, cheap goods - i'm settling in fine.

Yesterday I learned how to cross the border in the easiest way possible: have someone with a more complex visa situation ahead of you in line. They didn't even look at my student permit or ask what i'm studying - easiest border crossing ever! Also did you know we charge some people $6 to get into this country? I know we are broke, but really! 

This term there has been another American international in town that I was acquainted pretty much purely because we had a nationality in common. It was nice to have someone to chat with that was going through a similar culture shock ("Did they tell you they burned our white house?" "YES! WTF? That was the British!") . . . even though in American culture terms we are very very different (she is very religious,  conservative, from rural Georgia, and still an undergrad). She was only here for a term - so when I go back I will be alone or have to find others that are similar . . . . frankly just having a person to vent to about the unreasonable stereotypes is probably necessary. We previously had focused more about the differences we were experiencing and the culture shock . . . but this last time we got together we talked about Canadians views of Americans and some of the ridiculous things that had been said to us. A lot of it I hadn't realized I was holding in, and having someone to corroborate was therapeutic.  

It probably is partially the larger cultural norm to openly stereotype and say things that would never be acceptable in the US outside of very close friends and family, but the downright horrible things about America and Americans that have been said to both of us that we have had to laugh off is frustrating. I'm assuming they say worse things behind our backs. I can be quite harsh about America myself, but I also can't defend or explain every misconception that is lobbed at me. It's odd, because they seem to accept you as you on some level . . . . but still hold generalized stereotypes of Americans "Where's your gun?" that they try to apply . . . . even though it should be clear that if it doesn't fit for me, it probably doesn't fit for some other Americans too.

The other American spent term hanging out with the international (undergrad) students much more then I did, and found nearly all of them acted in roughly the same way regarding Americans, which isn't really surprising given our international reputation, but is frustrating. The only ones (take note, not all nations were represented and you could hardly argue that the sample was representative) that didn't say horrible things about the Americans were the German students. When asked why, they said something to the effect of "Think of what the world says/thinks about Germany and Germans."

All along I have been mentally comparing our declining empire with the British Empire's decline . . . . but perhaps a more accurate comparison is with Germany?

These sorts of articles always crack me up - I know there is truth in it, but in the end, it just makes me feel like Canada needs a hug.
Hopefully you all can read it - since I can't access some american news articles and such i'm not sure how the access is throttled the other way.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/blackmailed+Canada/5827741/story.html