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I had a request to make this thread, so here it is! I live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It's a solid 7 hour or so drive from the US border. It's one of the sunniest cities in Canada. We will usually have snow on the ground between November and April, though it is not unusual for it come earlier than that or stay later. Canada is a country with a small population spread out over a huge area. With only 36.5 million people, all of Canada could fit into the state of California or the Greater Tokyo Area. Please ask me any questions you have about living in Canada or being Canadian! I can only really speak to my experiences living in urban and rural Alberta, so I welcome folks from other parts of the country to chime in as well. To start with, here is a video about How to be a Canadian. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cPX3lEIS4bo
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May 14, 2017 19:31
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Slim Jim Pickens posted:You ever been to st. albert? Yes! My husband is from Stalbert, as well as some of our friends. Vincent Van Goatse posted:So how many times do you say "eh" in a day, eh? Personally, none.
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May 15, 2017 02:33
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roomforthetuna posted:How urban and rural are we talking? Have you lived in suburban Edmonton, or only rural and urban? Do you live in the city proper now? What's the worst thing about each of the types of Alberta living? I have lived in Tofield, Vegreville, St. Albert and Edmonton. Tofield is a little town about 45 minutes from Edmonton and is where I grew up. It's got a population of about 2000 people, so it's the kind of town where everyone pretty much knows everybody else. Lot's of churches. Most of my peers hated the place and couldn't wait to leave. I was the oddball for loving small town life, thought I will admit that the town is run by a bunch of stubborn old folks who are afraid of change. I remember when the town got a video store, an ice cream parlour and the first fast food restaurant. It was an exciting time of growth! I remember going for a lot of walks to the ice cream parlour and riding my bike around town. It was a pretty safe place to grow up. My grandparents had a farm outside of town, so I'd go there pretty often in the summer too. The farm is just outside of Ryley, a village with a population of less than 500. That's where my mom grew up. Apparently, my birthday is still listed on the Ryley town calendar because I guess they just put everyone's grandkids birthdays on the calendar so no one forgets. I also spent a lot of summers in my youth at my other grandparent's farm way out near Beaverlodge. Lot's of time spent playing with a dog, picking peas off the vine and watching all kinds of birds from the kitchen window. I lived in Vegreville for a couple years after high school. It's a town of about 5700 and has a large Ukrainian population. My grandparents family all lived in Vegreville, so though I only lived there for a couple years, I spent a lot of time there as a kid too. There's an annual country fair and my great aunt and uncle would always buy us ride bracelets for the weekend. Rides, games, a trade show, a craft competition, chariot and chuckwagon races and a grandstand show, usually featuring a magician or hypnotist. Then fireworks every night for 3 nights! The Veg fair was always a great time to spend with extended family. When I went to college, I moved to Edmonton and lived with my dad for a bit. I soon started staying with my boyfriend in St. Albert until we got our own apartment in downtown Edmonton. It was super convenient living downtown and I loved all the tall trees everywhere. The pedway systems made it easy to get around in winter. Our second apartment was just outside of townton, but right across from the train, so it only took 5 minutes to get downtown. We were close to the river valley still and went on a lot of nice walks while living there. Nearly a year ago, we bought our first home a bit further northeast of our old apartment. It's now necessary for us to drive, but the train is only a 17 minute walk away. I would say the worst thing about rural living is that you do need to drive if you want to do anything exciting. Wanna see a movie? It's an hour drive. Need to buy new clothing? Another hour drive. Vegreville kind of had the best of both worlds in that it was big enough to have a clothing store (they have a Wal-Mart now too, which closed down the Saan), a bowling alley, a movie theatre with 2 screens and even a pet store. The worst thing about city living is all the garbage everywhere. It's especially bad in the spring as the snow melts to reveal all the trash underneath. I also don't live in the safest neighbourhood, so I worry about that sometimes. When I was waiting for the bus only a few blocks away from my home, there was a guy who got really upset with me and was yelling at me. I was terrified and worried I might become a statistic before I even got to school. About 4 blocks away from my home it starts to get really shady, so I make sure to keep looking ahead and ignore any strangers. Vincent Van Goatse posted:Do you hear it in a day? Not really, no. The only people I might hear say it are guys at a bar. "You see the game last night, eh? That ref!" fart simpson posted:How bad is C-16? It seems to be a good thing? Protecting gender identity and expression is good.
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May 15, 2017 19:19
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Spadoink posted:People use it way more often than they think, and they can't hear themselves say it, so don't expect Canadians to accurately self-report on the subject. It just kind of creeps in there the way "like" and "umm" and "yeah?" do for other types of English speakers. I think it's honestly less common here, at least in my circles. It's occasionally used as a replacement for "huh" and I mostly hear it from older people and at places like bars and liquor stores. quote:Nessa, I've always pictured Vegreville as a single industry town with the Case Processing Centre for immigration as the major employer, considering that working in immigration we are always referring to and using CPC Vegreville. Is this the case, and what is the general consensus about the centre moving to Edmonton? The friend I lived with in Vegreville worked at the immigration centre! She got the job because they were specifically looking to hire more minorities. I don't know how people feel about it moving to Edmonton, but I know my friend would have loved it as she hated living in Veg. She was only there because her/our boyfriend (that's a whole other story) wanted to live there. She lives in Calgary now, but she keeps up with immigration news and runs an immigration Facebook page. I don't know anyone else who worked there though. I wouldn't even be able to point out which building the place is in. Most of the family I have out there is long retired and were all farmers. Old, retired farmers make up a good deal of the town I think. bvj191jgl7bBsqF5m posted:Is it true that Westlock has the highest per-capita instances of incest in North America? That was a thing somebody told me once. I wouldn't know. Never been there. bvj191jgl7bBsqF5m posted:Have you ever taken visitor to the really big egg in Vegreville? Didn't really have visitors that weren't already familiar with the big egg. There's also a town with giant perogies on a fork and Mundare has a giant sausage. Where do you live now and in what ways do you consider it to be better?
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May 15, 2017 20:37
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Earwicker posted:I've spent a couple days in Edmonton. Nice town. Reminds me of parts of Texas in a lot of ways. My question is: where is "urban Alberta"? Urban Alberta is Edmonton and Calgary, our two largest cities.
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May 15, 2017 22:58
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tuyop posted:Fun fact about Alberta: There's a town called Vulcan that's dying and has a Star Trek centre shaped like a spaceship. It's very depressing! I keep meaning to do a road trip to Vulcan! My favourite place is probably Drumheller because it's the town with the dinosaur museum. There are dinosaur statues all over town, including a t-Rex wearing a tuxedo. I think I would like to live there someday. Earwicker posted:what are the basic Canadian accents? I know about the Newfie accent, the Quebecois accent, and the one where they say "surry" and "oatside" I guess that's Ontario? people in western Canada seemed to have the same accent as most of the western US. Western Canadian accents are pretty close to Northwestern US ones, but there are some subtle differences. The town I mentioned before, Vegreville, has it's own unique accent. My mom picked it up temporarily when she worked there as a telephone operator. It's very similar to the Midwest accent. I can usually tell when someone is from there because they sound like my relatives.
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May 16, 2017 02:25
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Macarius Wrench posted:Holy Cow. Alberta is like 10 times bigger than Scotland with a similar population. Yup. Lot's of farm land. Most of the population lives within a couple hours of the US border. The further north you go, the less there is, then you get into permafrost areas where nothing can really grow. There are a few areas in northern Canada that you can only reach by plane. It is incredibly expensive to live up there because it costs so much to import groceries and basic necessities. They don't even have sewer systems up there. Nessa fucked around with this message at 21:14 on May 16, 2017 |
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May 16, 2017 16:59
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Macarius Wrench posted:I simply cannot fathom Canada. A drive from end to end in Scotland might take 5 hours. I'm lucky in that I live in a relatively rural area and I've got countryside right at my doorstep but also every major city within an hours drive. That is definitely the case. There are some small towns that are several hours away from a major city. In the prairies, it's not uncommon for smaller towns and villages to cluster around a larger town with more amenities, like a Walmart and a movie theatre. That lets people in those smaller places only need to drive 30 to 40 minutes, instead of the 2+ hour trek to the nearest major city. I'm lucky my town was close enough to a major city that day trips were pretty frequent on the weekends. Small towns and villages that are near each other will also tend to form one community with a friendly rivalry. Most of the folks in Ryley do their shopping and visiting in Tofield and people from Tofield go to Ryley to use their swimming pool. When we'd go to spend a couple weeks at my grandparent's by Beaverlodge, it was a long 7 hours of driving. We stopped going every year because my mom couldn't handle the drive back home anymore. Nessa fucked around with this message at 18:29 on May 17, 2017 |
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May 17, 2017 18:27
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bvj191jgl7bBsqF5m posted:Other than the museum and a few geological features around the Red Deer river, Drumheller is a garbage tourist trap full of creationists and prison employees. The museum and geology are primarily why I would want to live there. Also, milder winters. My mom's friend lived there and her backyard faced the hills, so she'd go out after a rain and pick up fossils. I have some fossilized wood and some bone from when I was out at her place. I'm a bit of dinosaur nut, so living in dinosaur town would be cool to me. Macarius Wrench posted:I always said to myself that if I visited Canada it would be the maritime provinces. I always found the idea of visiting Nova Scotia fascinating, might be cause I'm Scottish. Also had no idea that Montreal was on an island. With that I have done Canada questions I could just google but I'd rather hear answers from authentic Canadians. We have bears and wolves and cougars. But moose are the most dangerous. You can hit a deer with your car and come out unscathed, but if you hit a moose, you're pretty much dead. If you're not in a car, they can really gently caress you up if they want to. They are pretty massive animals and faster than you'd think. Polar bears are also very dangerous, but you're very unlikely to interact with one unless you live in Churchill. I've seen footage of polar bears playing with dogs out in Churchill. There are a few places with black widow spiders and rattlesnakes, but you're unlikely to encounter them. quote:2. Which is the best band from Canada? I'm gonna go with Bare Naked Ladies. quote:3. So do Canadian schools teach French further West? Yup. I had regular non-optional French classes from 4th through 12th grade. I cannot speak French. I remember a few words and phrases, but I would not be able to understand someone speaking French to me unless they spoke incredibly slowly and mostly used the words I know. quote:4. What caused the division between America and Canada? In what way? I mean, historically speaking, The American colonies were separate from the Canadian ones from the start, as far as I know. America became it's own country and eventually rebelled against the British. Canada only officially became a country 150 years ago. We're a Commonwealth country, so we still have the queen on all our money. I've always viewed Britain as Canada's mom and America as our rebellious older brother who ran away from home at 16, while we took our sweet time and only moved our of mom's place at 25 and still chose to live just down the street so mom could still do our laundry. quote:5. Why is France so integrated into French culture but not Spain which also has a massive presence in America. If I understand your question correctly, much of Canada was explored by French explorers and there were major French settlements here. Spanish settlements were much further south in America. The Spanish just never really came here.
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May 19, 2017 17:08
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DavidAlltheTime posted:Depends on the kind of music you like, but we also made Arcade Fire, the Weakerthans, Grimes, Feist, etc etc. Huh, I never knew that! I had certainly never heard of any in school, just all the big name French guys.
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May 19, 2017 21:00
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Earwicker posted:honestly thats a really strange impression to have, even for a Canadian I used to think the same way because I associated Texas with "the south". I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of other people did too. We don't get taught much American history here, so most of what we know of the American civil war comes from pop culture. Happy Victoria Day, folks!
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May 22, 2017 16:56
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Earwicker posted:
I'm just saying I thought people from Texas said "y'all" and that Texas was "the south". You might be able to blame The Beverly Hillbillies for people linking "y'all" with "hicks".
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May 22, 2017 18:00
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PT6A posted:Of all the Canadian things you could possibly ever crave: why that? Maple cinnamon French toast bagels are pretty drat good too. And 4 cheese bagels. And honey crullers. And iced Capps. I like Tim Hortons.
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May 25, 2017 02:33
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I had the potato wedges when I went out today! They're a pretty good cheap snack.
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May 25, 2017 02:37
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subpar anachronism posted:Hello fellow Edmonton goon! I've been living here a few years but mostly working from home and hiding from the snow; do you have any specific tips about the culture of Edmonton in general, or specific things I should do and see and eat? I live in the river valley. Well, festival season is coming up, so there will be lot's to do soon! Edmonton is also known as Festival City for the amount of festivals we have. There's Taste of Edmonton, The Fringe, K-Days, Heritage Days and others. Most of them are in central Edmonton too and easy to access. Heritage Days is in early August in the river valley. It's one of my favourites because there are tents set up for nearly every country with cultural displays and food. It's mostly about the food. Some also function as selling booths. There's always a ton of stuff you can buy at the Hong Kong tent and I sometimes get my fortune drawn at the China tent. Some food booths will have super long line-ups because of a popular item that may run out before the end of the festival, like French crepes. The river valley is the best place in the city to live near, imo. It's pretty pricey real estate due to the view, but there's also risk of flooding, depending on where you live in the valley. There's many hiking trails too. I just went on a river valley hike with some friends on Sunday. We walked about 9km across the river and back. You can even hike to the Muttart conservatory if you want. The Muttart is the series of glass pyramids that light up at night. There's also the Valley Zoo. I haven't been in a few years, but it's not nearly as good as the Calgary Zoo. Edmonton's biggest attraction is probably West Edmonton Mall. It's one of the largest malls in the world and held the world record for a while. Inside is an amusement park, a hotel, a water park, a small aquarium, sea lions, a movie theatre (that's never been as cool since they got rid of the fire breathing dragon), mini golf, an ice rink, a China town, and a life sized replica of the Santa Maria. If you haven't been, you should check it out sometime! Make sure to pick up a map because it can be very easy to get lost if you don't go there regularly. On Saturday mornings, there is also the outdoor farmer's market downtown. It's a great place to pick up fresh veggies and grab a bison burger. For nerdier stuff, there's Animethon in August, which is held at Grant MacEwan downtown and the Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo in September. There's also a number of smaller pop culture festivals around too. Another place I would recommend checking out is Fort Edmonton Park. It's a historical park with historic buildings and dressed up actors who play the part. It's a common destination for school field trips, but it can be fun to go as an adult too and learn some history. They sometimes do events like murder mystery nights and there's a hotel you can stay at too. It's also in the river valley. Summer is a pretty good time in Edmonton, I'd say.
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May 26, 2017 16:10
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subpar anachronism posted:Is this City Market? They have a liege waffle place I've had my eye on. Yup! I'm a big fan of the waffle truck. They used to have cinnamon and vanilla waffles that were the best.
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May 26, 2017 20:17
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Slim Jim Pickens posted:What do you think of Calgary? I think it's a nice city! Their downtown mall is really cool and way nicer than ours, their train system has a free ride zone downtown and the train goes right to the greyhound station, so it's real easy to get around by bus and train. Edmonton recently tore down our downtown Greyhound station, so the Greyhound now shares a location with Via Rail, 5Km outside of downtown in an area with no sidewalks and only 2 busses per day. Back in the winter, there was a news segment showing European travellers dragging their wheeled luggage through unplowed snow the 5km to get downtown. People are real mad that there are no plans for a more accessible Greyhound station. Calgary also has a really nice zoo with a big dinosaur section. It's terrible to drive in Calgary though. We never made many trips there when I was a kid, because my mom hated driving in the city. The cops there wear cowboy hats.
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May 27, 2017 22:15
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PT6A posted:The drivers here are all terrible and I hate them. Last time I took a plane, transit was super easy. The 747 bus goes from the airport to the southernmost LRT station, so you can get downtown pretty quick by public transit,
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May 28, 2017 08:47
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Macarius Wrench posted:Wow there are a heck of a lot of random little settlements in Canada called Fort X. Four freaking hours for a McDonalds though, jesus. I suppose it helps to be trained in auto-repairs since so many people there are going to be car owners. A lot of places have Fort in the name because that's what the town originally was. We have a replica of Fort Edmonton in town where you can tour the barracks and fur trading stations and stuff. I've visited the Fort Saskatchewan replica too. I also happen to live near a "Fort Road"! Once you get to the country in the prairies, it's mostly trucks and SUVs. Little cars are pretty uncommon considering how much you might have to haul on unpaved roads. There's been talk of building a high speed rail train between Edmonton and Calgary for years. I think such a train would be awesome if it meant I could get to Calgary in only an hour and make a day trip there. Other people just prefer driving their own vehicle 3 hours down and would never use such transit, even if they were commuting. I'm convinced such a train line will never be built out here. Too expensive and people prefer driving their own vehicles.
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May 29, 2017 05:04
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I like Vancouver. I've only been there once, but it's super pretty. I really like cities near the ocean. I have family in the area. The one thing that made my cousin appreciate Vancouver was living in Yellowknife for a while. The property prices are such a problem that you can play the "Crack House or Mansion" game. It can be very hard to dintinguish which homes in Vancouver are crack houses and which homes cost a million dollars. Sometimes they are one and the same! If you feel like spending a million dollars on a run down crack house, Vancouver is your city! I'd like to go again sometime to visit family. I'd like to check out the Daiso store too.
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Jun 4, 2017 17:50
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ilmucche posted:How do you feel about the marketing rebrand of Kraft Dinner to just "KD"? Do you have your kraft dinner with a hot dog and/or ketchup? No strong feelings on the matter. We mostly stopped eating Kraft Dinner and switched to Annie's Bunny Pasta for our chesty pasta needs. I like to put a little garlic purée in mine and my husband always puts in a cut up hotdog. I think I last went to Harvey's a few months ago for some onion rings because it was on my way home. I don't go there too often because there aren't very many in Edmonton.
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Jun 4, 2017 19:15
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ilmucche posted:How strong is the anti-toronto sentiment in Edmonton? Did any of that change after the economic collapse surrounding the oil industry? How was trudeau's election received in alberta, given it remained conservative? I haven't seen too much Toronto hate, but I have plenty of conservative relatives who spew Notley and Trudeau hate on a regular basis. A lot of stuff about ow climate change is a hoax and "Oh dear, the poor oil sands! Everyone is so mean to the oil sands!"
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Jun 4, 2017 22:46
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Earwicker posted:San Diego is a bit different compared to the rest of CA because it's such a military town but even so, it's still nowhere near as covered in Patriotic Americana as a typical Connecticut small town When we went down to California for a trip a few years ago, I was surprised at the number of large American flags everywhere. We stayed in Modesto, but also visited Sacramento and San Francisco. Around here, we've got some regular Canadian flags hanging around at schools, government buildings, or maybe a grocery store. The ones I saw in California were HUGE, 6 foot long flags. I have never seen such massive flags and there was usually one in my field of vision. Is that the norm in America? To me, California seemed super patriotic compared to Canada.
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Jun 8, 2017 14:37
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Edgar Allen Ho posted:Also anyone willfully living west of the canadian rockies is either a rich yuppie or a wannabe rich yuppie Or a literal lumberjack like my uncle Stewart. I lived and worked in downtown Edmonton and it doesn't get near as dead as Calgary. The downtown mall would close at 6 most days, but even then, there are plenty of bars and restaurants, so you'd still see people wandering around. Rarely having to work evenings or weekends was one of the best parts of working retail downtown. Working in City Centre Mall was an experience though. Many weirdos. I wasn't working when it happened, but a kid stabbed another kid over heroine right in front of our store once. A guy who tried to steal from us was seen passed out in the middle of the mall in front of the store. Alarms would go off randomly and we just stopped paying attention to them. Power outages were not uncommon. One time, some random guy got access to a restricted area of the mall and cut a bunch of wires, leaving our store and several others without power or phones. Once the power came back on, we were without internet for a whole weekend and thus could only take cash. People were super mad that we couldn't look stuff up for them. It took several more days for the phones to come back. It was real nice not having to answer phones for a few days, but customers got real mad that we were refusing to pick up the phone. After all that, the mall tried to charge the store for the cost of the repairs, even though it was their own failed security that caused it in the first place. Our clientele at HMV downtown comprised mainly of wealthy business people who would pick up the latest releases and people who didn't want to or were unable to spend more than $10. Due to the homeless shelter not far away, we had both the extremely wealthy and the extremely poor. Many folks were mentally ill or unwell. There was one old man who would come in wearing the same stained clothes nearly every day. He would pick up the first things he saw in the store and buy them. He would never give you enough money to pay for them, so you always had to ask him for money. He'd just stare at you in response, so some cashiers let him get away with it. He once came up and showed me an empty wallet. I told him he couldn't buy the CDs then and he left. He stopped coming around shortly after that. I wonder how many other stores he would go to. It was sad because he really needed someone with him to make sure he didn't waste $80 on a season of Doctor Who and a Shania Twain CD every day. He was always alone and he never talked. There was also David. He was a mentally delayed regular who called us all the time and ordered stuff in. We always tried to be nice to him. He'd call us in advance of every holiday to wish everyone in the store a happy holiday. Like he would call us in May to wish us all a Happy Father's Day. I think we were his best friends. On a lighter note, there was also Tranformers Tammy. She was a 40-something woman who was in love with Optimus Prime. I know this because she told me this. She told everyone this. She would hang around the children's section and make moms uncomfortable by talking to them about various robot shows and which ones had the best character development. Tammy also writes Transformers fan fiction. I have never read any of her work, but I can imagine what it's about. Nessa fucked around with this message at 20:16 on Jun 8, 2017 |
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Jun 8, 2017 20:13
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I was talking with my mom earlier and the farmhouse she grew up in in rural Alberta didn't get electricity until 1960. And they didn't have indoor plumbing until 1976. It was only a few years ago that the 2 outhouses 30 feet from the house were torn down. My grandpa essentially lived in a mud hut when he was a child and became terrified of snakes, since garter snakes would crawl through the walls and ceiling while he slept.
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Jun 13, 2017 01:31
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Mak0rz posted:Yikes, that's pretty late! I assume that was in the north half? Only about an hour's drive east of Edmonton!
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Jun 13, 2017 03:44
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Mak0rz posted:
I think it was more to do with my grandparents not wanting to spend money on things. They had to build a whole addition onto the farmhouse to add an indoor toilet and they only did so because my mom was getting married that year and they were going to have a lot of guests. I'm sure the nearby village had electricity and plumbing before then, but it's also a town where one of the major businesses is a saddlery and I recently saw a picture of 2 horses hitched up in front of my hometown's main bar. Because I was curious, the village of Ryley has a total of 56 businesses, which include: Buzzard Gulch Fisheries (I just have no idea what's up with that name. We have neither buzzards, nor gulches here.) Dales Quality Woodwork Georges Harness & Saddlery (Old timey looking storefront on main street.) Goethe's Kitchen Hartland Stables John's Wheel & Buggy Restoration Juneberry Acres Skyway No. 29 Specializing in Chinese & Western Cuisine Both my grandfather's and great uncle's funerals in the village involved a horse drawn hearse because that's what the old cowboys would have wanted.
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Jun 13, 2017 05:21
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What the gently caress Alberta?
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ilmucche posted:1) How do you feel about the 150th? I'm excited about the 150th! It's a monumental year! I've been seeing some of those "gently caress the 150th" Facebook posts lately. I think it's important to understand the atrocities that our country has committed in it's past and work towards a better future, but I don't think that's any reason to "gently caress the 150th". There is no country in the world that isn't guilty of many horrible things. The best we can do is understand how wrong they were and do our best to right them. We still have many issues to work through as a nation and those need to be talked about more so we can come up with better solutions. i want us to be a better Canada in the future. I still think it's worth celebrating Canada's 150th. It's a time for us to come together as a nation and celebrate the stories and work of Canadians, and the natural beauty of our country.
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Jun 13, 2017 21:12
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I only know one full native Canadian who is the wife of a friend of mine, so I often hear stories secondhand of the poo poo he has to go through. People assuming she's going to steal, or just plain treating her like poo poo when she goes shopping. A coworker of mine downtown was part native, but if you didn't know his last name, you'd think he was just a white, metalhead kid with long hair. There's a decent amount of them downtown due to the nearby homeless shelter, so most of my interaction has been with homeless individuals in the downtown core. It's really sad that many people's first or only interactions with native Canadians may be getting yelled at by a drunk guy on the bus downtown.
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Jun 13, 2017 23:10
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Gophermaster posted:I play games online for years and years and nobody ever picks out that I'm from Canada. Most people guess Montana, and a few times I got Texas. I think the stereotypical Canadian accent doesn't exist in Alberta. We have an accent, but it's subtle. I cam across a promotional video for my hometown on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=firmzBJoN4o And one for the nearby village! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZZbTOLroE8 Oh no! It looks like they got rid of the awesome Calvin and Hobbes mural at the Ryley pool! The mural on the wall of the museum is based on a photograph of my great grandfather leading a team of 16 horses.
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Jun 19, 2017 06:32
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Jyrraeth posted:SPEAKING of really terrible songs about Alberta, have you ever heard the Alberta anthem that the province released in 2005 for the provincial centennial??? Wow, I've never heard the song before. It really does suck!
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Jun 19, 2017 22:12
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It looks like outdoor pools will be free this summer starting on the 1st! Are any other cities doing this? I just had a Mexican guy I know wonder why there isn't an architectural difference between Canada and the US. I guess he just found out that a lot of American shows are filmed in Toronto or Vancouver and was wondering what possible connection these cities had to other cities so that they looked alike.
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Jun 23, 2017 05:55
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Spadoink posted:Toronto subs for NY all the time in stuff, and my favourite fact is that in some cases the city is too clean to be realistically portrayed as NY, so they have to 'litter' to make it look realer Yeah, I've read about that! Haha, that guy actually asked me if Canada had gothic and Greek style architecture like the US has. I don't know what kinds of differences he expected between American and Canadian cities. He was all "Are these two countries... linked somehow??? What is the link? Oh, so the link is England?"
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Jun 23, 2017 17:34
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tuyop posted:There are significant architectural differences around the country but you have to cross regions to notice them and just hopping the border won't give you much. Like, Alberta is full of legit Wild West facades and closer to the mountains everything looks like a lodge. The East is full of actual old fishing villages (that people still live in) painted pastel colours or just straight up shacks made out of driftwood. Check out pictures of Lunenburg or Peggy's Cove and compare them to Banff or Victoria or Ottawa. I think Red Deer also has a lot of the Wild West stuff going on, but sections of Edmonton are like that too. Yeah, those are quite noticeable differences, but much of the country can be comparable to a similar location in the US for filming purposes. I don't personally know of any common building styles that are unique to Canada that you couldn't find in the US. Living in Alberta, I only know of a few buildings with "Wild West facades" and one of them, the Transit Hotel is shutting down at the end of the month. I hope it gets turned into something good by someone willing to put in the time and money to transform it from a stab bar to a place where people actually want to go.
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Jun 24, 2017 17:00
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GREAT WHITE NORTH posted:1. How was the transition to the metric system? I still encountered a few old-timers who would tell me distances in miles, but most of my Canadian acquaintances recognized both Metric and Imperial. Like was said above, metric is used everywhere except when referring to short distances and smaller weights. I think the reasoning behind this is that imperial is easier to guesstimate. Centimetres are too small and metres are too large to estimate someone's height with them, so we use feet and inches and don't bother to do the math to convert it to metric. quote:2. Why is everyone rippin' on Tim Hortons? I'm just curious, as my experience with Tim's has been better than any American fast food chain, and I seriously crave their Tim Bits. I like Tim's, but I primarily get iced Capps, bagels, timbits, honey crullers or potato wedges there. When I was at college, there was a Tim's on the main floor that would have a crazy lineup every morning, and forget about roll up the rim season. During the summer, the school had another Tim's put in across the street to lessen the traffic at the other one. The maple cinnamon French toast bagels are pretty good, but I usually stick to the four cheese bagels. I sometimes get mad when they don't fill the iced capp all the way, even though they raised the price of them this year. quote:4. What's the national take on Justin Treadeau? It's pretty divisive where I live in central Alberta. I have an uncle who is always sharing memes from a "Justin Trudeau is an idiot" page and the "Albertans Against the Liberal Parties" page. Most other people I know seem to think he's alright. I recently saw a photo of him from the Pride parade where he went up to a guy with a rainbow turban to get his picture taken. quote:5. I remember seeing on a map a place in southern Alberta called "Buffalo-Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and Interpretative Site" or something like that. Has anyone ever been there? I can't remember if I've actually been there or not. My school did an overnight field trip to the dinosaur museum in 4th grade and we might've gone there too, but I don't remember. It's pretty well known though.
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Jun 30, 2017 17:12
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PT6A posted:At the University of Calgary, there are two separate Tim Horton's locations right beside each other in the student union building. NAIT has 3, but only one of them serves food beyond doughnuts and muffins. There's an old, empty Burger Baron near my place that I think should become a Tim Horton's. It's just down the street from the LRT and they're building a bunch of new apartments in the area as well. Every time I pass by it, there are cars in the parking lot and a conspicuous, fancy, black, retro car is parked right at the front doors. We joke about it being the headquarters for a Lebanese mafia.
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Jun 30, 2017 18:49
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Mak0rz posted:I didn't realize you could find a Burger Baron anywhere in a city. I've never seen one in Calgary living there for six years (and according to Google Maps there currently aren't any there), but I saw tons in the country when I was doing field work. Burger Baron was the first fast food joint my hometown of Tofield got, back in the late 90's. We often got pizza, corn fritters, burgers and milkshakes there. When I was younger and my mom was out late at a conference, she would get the Burger Baron to deliver food for us in the evening. I really liked the pizza burgers. The location was always kept pretty clean whenever I went in there. The ones in the city are definitely grungier. The ones around here are all run by a Lebanese family. I only know this because I went to college with a couple girls from the family.
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Jun 30, 2017 19:36
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Happy Canada Day! I'm probably going to check out a Chinatown market this afternoon and the fireworks tonight.
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Jul 1, 2017 18:56
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Ensign Expendable posted:I heard that Tim Hortons and McDonald's swapped coffee bean suppliers, that's why Timmies coffee tastes like poo poo now. I don't drink coffee that's not a sweet and creamy variety, so I wouldn't know. I do prefer McDonald's Hot Chocolate though.
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Jul 5, 2017 19:00
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Timmy's white hot chocolate is really good. It's. It's better than the regular stuff.
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Jul 5, 2017 19:13
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