Differences Pt. 1

Okay, here's the beginning of my list on how life in Canada is different.

• Metric System: this is an obvious one. But it's not completely metric. The roads are laid out in square miles (so 50 km/h doesn't give great idea of how long it'll take to get 50 blocks away). And some food is packaged in lbs. but some in kgs. Milk still comes in gallons.
  
• There's no Aldi (this won't mean much to most of you if you're not part of the Aldi crowd, but we've spent the last 8 years of our life shopping at Aldi for the cheap, pack-it-yourself food that we've grown to enjoy and thrive on the cheap prices of. Especially when dairy products and poultry is so expensive)
• French Fries go with vinegar (unless you're having poutine in which they come with gravy & cheese and are a meal in itself--truly. We've seen a place in the food court where the combo is some fries that comes with a hot dog. Seriously, the hot dog is the add on).
• Sports: hockey, curling, rugby and lawn bowling seem to be more prevalent than baseball & basketball.
• Prime time starts at 8pm. Which is actually quite nice for those of us with young kids.
• The phone book includes information on what to do in case of earthquake or tidal wave.
• Politics. The Canadian TV (the prime time comedy sketch shows) seem to be based on the political news of the day, but it seems that no one really cares that much about politics here--at least, not as much as in the States. Frankly, I don't understand the whole system yet, even though I've read Canada for Dummies. I get some of the gist, like the PM, MP and all the different ministries. I know there's a slough of parties--more than just 2 main ones.
• Money. Well, not money itself, but how everyone pays for everything. It seems its either cash or a bank card--credit cards seem fairly rare. And I'm still not use to using my bank card. The machine you swipe it through says "chq" instead of debit."
• Oreos. They suck here. There's no other way to say it. And any Nabisco product is under the name "Mr. Christie." It's in the same white triangle in the corner of the package, but it says Christie instead of Nabisco. They seem to make some foods healthier by removing high fructose corn syrup, and most taste good or even better, but they haven't gotten Oreos down.
• Squirrels. Some are grey, but most are black. I've spent most of my life with the brownish-red ones and some with grey ones, but black squirrels are new--kind of scary actually.