Last week I returned to the motherland after my 4 year sojurn in Canada. Specifically, I have relocated from Vancouver, BC to Madison, WI to start a new job. While there are fairly weighty elements of reverse culture shock that I will have to navigate, here are some minor but strangely disorienting changes from my recent move.
- Pennies. Canada stopped using pennies in cash transactions at least a year or two ago, and it was a fairly easy transition to make. Now that I’m back in the States, where pennies are still a thing, I have to catch myself and remember that if something costs 5.42, I have to round up to 45 cents or actually count out two pennies.
- In a similar vein, dollar bills. What? Where are my loonies and toonies?
- Compost. Or lack thereof. Vancouver had a highly progressive compost system, as in, a) it existed and b) you could throw pretty much any organic matter into your compost bin. At this point throwing orange peels in the trash just seems so wasteful.
- Weather. This is not so much a Canada/USA thing as a west coast/midwest thing. Um. It is COLD here. Unseasonably so, in fact, so I don’t feel like I’m being a total wuss. But I have had to readjust my mental chatter from, “ah, I forgot my gloves…well, I’ll survive” to “YOU WILL NOT SURVIVE WITHOUT YOUR GLOVES.”
To be continued…