Oh, Canada!

Reporting to you live from our neighbor to the north, Canada!

I am up here giving software training for six days. I spent three days in London, Ontario and am spending the balance in Milton, a smaller town outside Toronto. The strangest thing about my visit is that in all my world travels, this is my first visit to Canada. Yep, I've been to Germany, Mexico, Japan, Hong Kong, Fiji, Scotland, and Denmark, but never to the land of the maple leaf.

The trip up was uneventful. Even though I was warned that customs would be brutal, the agent I spoke with was courteous and brief. Based on my previous experience, it will probably be more difficult to get back in to the United States, and I have a passport!

The oddest thing I've noticed about Canada is its startling similarity to the U.S. In all the other countries I've visited, the difference in culture and language were significant enough that I was excited to get into the experience and enjoy the differences.

But Canada is just different enough to make the experience surreal, like an alternate reality. Here is what I mean.

• The cars and highways are pretty much the same, but distance is measured in kilometers. (The speed limit is 100? Wow! Oh.)
  
• The weather and time zone are the same, but they measure the temperature in Celsius (It's going to be a hot and sunny 22 degrees today!)
• The people are friendly and speak perfect English, of course, but to my Kentucky ears, they have a distinct accent, eh?
• The coins are the same size as ours, but the bills are all different colors.
• They have ketchup flavored potato chips (which I have not been brave enough to try).
• They have sales tax but there are two of them on every purchase, 6% and 8%!

One last interesting thing before I sign off. The biggest feature I've noticed about Milton?

A women's prison.

It's great here.

Really.