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The rarely updated blog of Joel Dixon
Thursday, October 25, 2007
The Little Things
# Posted by Joel Dixon at 25/10/2007 09:47:18Updated by Joel Dixon at 14/07/2008 23:59:01
I've already blogged about some big differences between Australia and Canada - such as travel, customer service and language. But quite often I'm struck by some of the small differences that aren't much when looked at one-by-one - but they certainly add up.
Some things I didn't notice when I first wrote about differences in traveling are longboards and crosswalks. The number of people getting around on longboards is staggering - I'll see one at least every few weeks. Obviously this isn't a very high number - but considering I've never seen a longboard in use in all my years in Australia - it's pretty striking. Another potentially striking difference (HU HU - you'll see) is the cross walks over here - they are so dangerous. In the middle of the city, on a main road they have random cross walks setup. They have no traffic lights, the crossing lane marks are very faded (and they don't all have zebra marks), some are directly after blind turns and the only indication that they are coming is a small sign on the side of the road. I've already had the car I was traveling in screech to a halt a few times when a pedestrian comes out of nowhere.
A longboard
One of the crosswalk signs that you won't notice driving around Edmonton
It's also been weird for me to live in a place that doesn't value water above gold. Because of Canada's geography, water is an abundant resource and there's no real need to be a water saver. Water features and fountains are in common (and not drained), I've yet to hear the term "Wally" and they don't even have a "half-flush" button on the toilets.
While not related to water (but still important to the environmentally conscience) - plastic bags are handed out like candy here and I've even been asked if I want my items double bagged from time to time. I did however buy re-usable cloth bags - the Australian in me feels like a criminal whenever I'm given a plastic bag!
While they may be wasting water and plastic here, they seem to be doing the right thing about power saving. Almost all of the lights at work are operated on a timing switch, and power saving propaganda is frequently advertised on TV. I do remember some power saving going on at home - but it's nothing like Canada (in my experience so far).
The cool breeze of this energy-efficient fan almost makes up for the exertion you feel from powering it all day
Something that I had noticed a lot in North American sitcoms and school dramas was hand towel distributors. You can't just pull the paper out of the dispenser - you have to either hand-crank it, flick some switch repeatedly or press some button. I'm going to take a complete guess and suggest that this is to prevent somebody stealing the paper towel without supplying great annoyance (or to stop the kids from messing with it). It's taken a bit of getting used to - and I'll feel no great loss when I get back home!
You can see the small handle on the right hand side of this paper towel dispenser
There's also even smaller things that are different - such as stamps costing $1.10 here. Also, people have really embraced bluetooth headsets more than in Australia. It's appears people aren't ridiculed for this as much as they should - I've been playing my part - and usage is somewhat frequent.
But the biggest little difference that I've encountered here - is that everyone (about 5 or 10 people) that I have said "Maccas" to have no idea what I'm talking about. Even when I'm discussing fast food restaurants and say something like "Yeah, I really like Maccas nuggets" it's met with "Maccas?" (it's McDonalds if anyone from Canada's reading this
). They use Mickey D's (which I thought was more American) or just plain McDonald's. Thinking about it, if it followed the typical Australian nickname generation algorithm it should probably be shortened to Macco's (Jonno, Richo, Dicko etc). A quick look on Wikipedia lends a few more nicknames:The UK seem to be a cross between here and North America with "Macky D's", but "de Mac" is where I want to be eating!
Hmmm, (fast) food for thought
# Posted in the Travel section and tagged as: Edmonton
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Comments
| Eryc-Ads Posts: 13 |
You mean daddy mac yeah? Thanks for the Al joke too # Posted - 25/10/2007 13:17:24 |
 joeldixon   Posts: 156 |
 "I'm going down to Daddy Mac's to pick up a finger meal -  # Posted - 25/10/2007 13:44:06 |
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