This week marks my second year of living in the good ol' US of A, and my first anniversary of being a legal permanent resident (with conditions). The occasion begs the question: how have I changed?
In starting this blog more than a year ago, the vision was to explore ways in which the US and Canada differ. I managed to discuss a few of the most obvious things before running out of steam, running out of things to say, and running out of friends.
[P.S. THE most obvious difference? Americans don't have a sense of humour about their country. Canada?
This Hour Has 22 Minutes and
Royal Canadian Air Farce are only two examples Canada's self-deprecating humour. I think this is the thing I miss most about the place I will always call home. The closest we come here is
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and
The Colbert Report - both of which are excellent political humour shows, but both of which lack the levels of ridicule exhibited by Canada's political satires. Afraid of having everyone I know dislike me for being "anti-American", I chose to cease and desist. I guess there are things that, no matter how true, you just can't say as an "outsider".]
When blogging subjects became more scarce, the question nagged at me: why am I running out of things to write about? After a year of living in the US, I was noticing fewer differences between my two countries. Had I just found and discussed them all, or were there differences in
me that were preventing me from seeing them?
So: after one year of being a landed immigrant, a permanent resident (with conditions), where am I now?
I eat out moreIn the whole first summer I spent in Arizona, I was blown away by the frequency with which people eat out. Not just fast food, either - people (in Arizona at least) just don't cook very much. I'm not really sure how it happened to me. I guess the huge numbers of social occasions that call for meeting at a restaurant, the lack of time for grocery shopping and cooking, and just the general climate of consumption I discussed in
this post. And the effects of eating out more? I've shifted some weight from my bank account to my hips. I aim to bring the good ol' home cooked meal back to this household this year.
I buy more crapFirst of all, let me preface this by saying that my husband and I just bought a house, so a certain amount of purchasing of crap is expected. But overall, even taking the home owner factor into account, I buy more crap. Consumable, repurchaseable crap. I feed the green machine of the American Economy just as much as the next guy. This year I vow to opt for reuseable, sustainable products, and to be more selective in my purchases.
I am less aware of political and international affairs, and more aware of pop culture ("I got dumber")I have always been the subject of great ridicule among my peers for my lack of knowledge of anything pop culture. I blame my parents: growing up, they never allowed TV on school days, and as a result I grew up a reader. Shame on them! Because of this bookwormish tendency, I used to know a lot about literature, I read
The Globe and Mail daily, and basically felt like a pretty conscious and conscientious person. Since moving to America I have set out to catch up on years of pop culture neglect. I have watched almost every episode of Dawson's Creek, have watched entire seasons of America's Next Top Model and American Idol (no, I didn't vote). I read
CNN.com every day. I don't remember the last time I read a book. This year I vow to subscribe to a reputable (preferably Canadian) newspaper and to read more books. I also vow to have someone in Canada keep me up to date on new CanLit - any volunteers?
I say "us" and "we" when talking about the USYes. I do. And I'll continue to do so. But don't worry, I still say "we" and "us" when talking of Canada, too.
I'm more scaredI'm dismayed to realize that the culture of fear has gotten to me. Although it is not a fair comparison (Sackville, NB is far from being an urban space), I didn't tend to lock my door to my house or my car when I was in Sackville. Even when I lived places where I did lock my door, like Ottawa, I never felt like I was in danger. In Arizona, the police
caught a serial rapist on the corner of my street. I got so compulsive about locking things that I once locked myself out of my car at a gas station and had to compromise my own safety by walking home through a bad neighborhood in the dark, and breaking into my own house (which was harder than I thought, thankfully). During my walk home I was asked three times if I needed a ride. In most parts of Canada I would not have thought twice - I'd have taken the ride. In the ghetto of Sunnyslope, not so much. Although my small friendly neighbourhood of Ancient Oaks is not a scary place in the least, my safety-sally husband still freaks out if I leave even the shed door unlocked.
I don't talk to strangersThis point kind of hearkens back to the culture of fear thing, but let's approach it from a fresh angle - even in non-fear-evoking situations, I don't talk to people I don't know. I've always complained that as a general rule, Americans just aren't as friendly with each other. Now I'm seeing the same thing happen to me. It's not that we go out of our way to be un-friendly, but we certainly don't extend ourselves to those around us. Recently my mother suggested that I call up a friend of hers sometime if I ever needed a place to stay in New York City, and I couldn't imagine doing that. In Canada I wouldn't have thought twice -
didn't think twice about inviting myself over to friends' in Halifax. Here? Seems weird. I remember how silly I thought my husband was
in this post when he was to have dinner with my parents' friends, but now I kind of see where he's coming from.
I drive more aggressivelyBlame Phoenix for this one! My dad and husband have long bemoaned my aggravatingly slow and steady driving, but the mean fast streets of Phoenix have set me on the road to recovery. I am no longer the courteous driver I once was. Is it that I suddenly think I'm much more rushed than I used to be? Is the traffic worse? Am I more eager to be where I'm going? I don't think so... I think the pace of traffic just moves faster in this country - especially in the West.
I am fluent in American Alas, it's true. I am now fluent in both written and oral American. I can write "favor", "neighbor", and "check" (the kind you write to pay for things) without flinching. I still have occasional slip-ups where I say "grade 4" instead of "4th grade". And I'm catching the accent. *gasp!* I can hear it in my own voice every now and again - but with increasing frequency - the "out" that starts with an "a" sound instead of the prim Canadian out. Yesterday I said "zee", and I couldn't figure out for a second if that was the American or Canadian way of saying it. Every so often I can still surprise my husband with a truly Canadian word or phrase (last week it was "two-four", as in a case of twenty-four beers), but for the most part people can't tell I'm not from 'round these parts. It's always a relief for me when someone I have just met asks me where I'm from - I know I haven't lost my accent entirely. And I will never succumb and eat Mac & Cheese - it will always be Kraft Dinner, or KD for me! Although... I am considering suing Kraft for emotional distress Okay, so I'm probably not actually going to launch a lawsuit, but I am disgusted by the fact that about a month ago (on Christmas eve, no less) I happened to find a mouse foot in my Macaroni and Cheese. But not before chewing on it at least once, of course. No, I pulled the darned thing out of my mouth. I got a nice call from Kraft to do some damage control, but amazingly then have not followed up with me as they had promised. If I were truly American, this would be a giant flaming lawsuit. Instead, in true Canadian fashion, I will likely launch a passive aggressive campaign to get some compensation, explanation, and apology from the company.
