Hey ho! Long time between posts but it's hard not to say something about my home country on it's birfday today so here goes.
Established as a country in 1867 Canada is now 146 years old. Yea! I've celebrated Canada day in a bunch of countries since I became an Expat, not that I do it religiously or anything but any excuse to drink before noon I say! But I do carry around a honking big flag in my backpack to fly in solidarity on these occasions. In Latvia it's usually on the beach. Only this year sucks hard and today it is raining so furiously there is nothing I can do so I settled for purchasing a ridiculously expensive bottle of supposedly imported Canadian Maple Syrup to temporarily replace the Latvian honey I normally slather on everything. I hope it isn't fake, the Maple Syrup. Latvian honey is almost universally doctored unless you know where to purchase it.
What do I miss about Canada the most? Let me see ,,, ;
1) A well established civil society with uniformly enforceable laws. It doesn't exist here in Latvia yet in spite of what folks might say. You will never notice if you are a tourist hopping off a Ryan Air flight or a ferry in the port but Latvia is an impossible place to do transparent business and unfriendly to boot. A country with a declining population of now less than 2 million it seems that everyone knows everyone and foreigners are still red meat. Riga I can deal with but outside of Riga it gets nasty. Latvia is not a comfortable place to live and work. Eight years experience talking here folks.
2) The friendliness of Canadians. It's almost embarrassing and a well worn out joke outside of the country but I hope we never lose that civility (oops! my bad). You may not notice it until you leave the Motherland for some period of time but let me assure you that we Canadians are just freakishly nice in a cauldron of not nice. Never be shy about being nice homies! When I lived in Tokyo it was respected as they have a very ordered society and nice counts a lot. Except when I was getting kicked out of bars/restaurants because they thought I was Russian. Anyway, Be Nice!
3) Universal Health care bitches! I had both knees replaced here in Latvia at an out of pocket cost of CAN 10,000 without rehab and I can tell you that it hurt our bottom line in a big way. Still, for perspective, we have an old lady renter who recently suffered a mini stoke and spent 5 days in hospital receiving a bill of 150 EUR when she got out. Her pension is about 250/month and she was reduced to living on potatoes and cucumbers for three weeks so we gave her money for food and forgave her rent (paying ourselves basically) which is where that "Canadian Nice" comes in. Most everyone we know laughed at us. Anyway...
4) Canada is a land of immigrants. We know it and we celebrate it which is currently in stark contrast to our friends to the south and, quite frankly, here. Word to the wise, if you are going to sell Residence Permits in order to tweak your real-estate sector which is wholly owned and controlled by ex-Soviet apparatchiks and the current glut of Brussels office seeking politicos then open the door to citizenship wider. Just saying.
5) This is a questionable one but I include it because it haunts me so! Red meat. We just don't eat red meat anymore. Or even pork. That may just be a combination of locale and the influence of Mrs. T who is a closet vegetarian but beef just isn't a big thing here and pork wears thin real quick. That came as a real shock to me as Alberta was my home before fleeing Canada and huge BBQ's heavy with all manner of beef products was the norm. I can't even eat a full steak anymore as my stomach just rebels and it bothers me so as the brain continues with it's demands to "consume the fucking steak you pansy!" I miss bacon as well.
6) Personal vehicle. This is actually a big one for me! OK sure, there are lots of places in Canada where you can exist without a vehicle but outside of most well established urban centres it's just impossible, Canada is just too big and spread out to make it without even the crappiest of transportation, as long as it can pass a vehicle inspection you are good to go. Public transportation in the EU is so well established by Canadian metrics that one can exist quite nicely without a vehicle which may free up funds for other things, like new knees, but it does nothing for the ego. I miss my car/4X4 truck/bike. Really miss them! Yes I can walk to the train station from my flat in exactly two minutes with eighteen minutes travel putting me in the Riga central station where another eight minute walk puts me on a tram to almost the door of my office but, it's just not the same as rolling up to a parking space with my own personal vehicle. I like the freedom of public transportation but I miss the empowering aspect of owning my own fossil fuel guzzling iron behemoth. I find myself becoming plugged up with frustration and feelings of inadequacy. My penis is perfectly normal, just so you know.
7) Endless aisles of food and stuff, consumer central! I mean hell, when last in Winnipeg I could hit my remote start from the comfort of the kitchen and 10 minutes later after wasting a gallon of carbon laden fuel idling the van just to get into my warm "personal vehicle" and drive all of five minutes down to the Super Store and find just about anything I needed whether it be live lobster or powdered Voodoo Anti-Zombie Essence®. Whut? 21 long aisles of dry produce last time I was there not counting the fresh baked goods/fresh vegetable produce/dairy/dead animal sections. Then there was the clothing/appliance/pharmacy/optometrist, etc...etc... and it's not even considered a mall! All under one roof! To be fair they have places somewhat like that here, called Spice and Stockman and so forth but they have no real choices. Sad face, :(
8) Fellow Canadians. Last time I checked the official Latvian statistical web portal there were a total of 43 Canadians who had received Residence status. It's a small group and I don't know any of them. Not that I've reached out but whatever.
9) Rob Ford. Oh, wait!
10) Clamato® dudes! Look, get in touch with me, seriously. Eating a pickle with my vodka is killing me!
Established as a country in 1867 Canada is now 146 years old. Yea! I've celebrated Canada day in a bunch of countries since I became an Expat, not that I do it religiously or anything but any excuse to drink before noon I say! But I do carry around a honking big flag in my backpack to fly in solidarity on these occasions. In Latvia it's usually on the beach. Only this year sucks hard and today it is raining so furiously there is nothing I can do so I settled for purchasing a ridiculously expensive bottle of supposedly imported Canadian Maple Syrup to temporarily replace the Latvian honey I normally slather on everything. I hope it isn't fake, the Maple Syrup. Latvian honey is almost universally doctored unless you know where to purchase it.
What do I miss about Canada the most? Let me see ,,, ;
1) A well established civil society with uniformly enforceable laws. It doesn't exist here in Latvia yet in spite of what folks might say. You will never notice if you are a tourist hopping off a Ryan Air flight or a ferry in the port but Latvia is an impossible place to do transparent business and unfriendly to boot. A country with a declining population of now less than 2 million it seems that everyone knows everyone and foreigners are still red meat. Riga I can deal with but outside of Riga it gets nasty. Latvia is not a comfortable place to live and work. Eight years experience talking here folks.
2) The friendliness of Canadians. It's almost embarrassing and a well worn out joke outside of the country but I hope we never lose that civility (oops! my bad). You may not notice it until you leave the Motherland for some period of time but let me assure you that we Canadians are just freakishly nice in a cauldron of not nice. Never be shy about being nice homies! When I lived in Tokyo it was respected as they have a very ordered society and nice counts a lot. Except when I was getting kicked out of bars/restaurants because they thought I was Russian. Anyway, Be Nice!
3) Universal Health care bitches! I had both knees replaced here in Latvia at an out of pocket cost of CAN 10,000 without rehab and I can tell you that it hurt our bottom line in a big way. Still, for perspective, we have an old lady renter who recently suffered a mini stoke and spent 5 days in hospital receiving a bill of 150 EUR when she got out. Her pension is about 250/month and she was reduced to living on potatoes and cucumbers for three weeks so we gave her money for food and forgave her rent (paying ourselves basically) which is where that "Canadian Nice" comes in. Most everyone we know laughed at us. Anyway...
4) Canada is a land of immigrants. We know it and we celebrate it which is currently in stark contrast to our friends to the south and, quite frankly, here. Word to the wise, if you are going to sell Residence Permits in order to tweak your real-estate sector which is wholly owned and controlled by ex-Soviet apparatchiks and the current glut of Brussels office seeking politicos then open the door to citizenship wider. Just saying.
5) This is a questionable one but I include it because it haunts me so! Red meat. We just don't eat red meat anymore. Or even pork. That may just be a combination of locale and the influence of Mrs. T who is a closet vegetarian but beef just isn't a big thing here and pork wears thin real quick. That came as a real shock to me as Alberta was my home before fleeing Canada and huge BBQ's heavy with all manner of beef products was the norm. I can't even eat a full steak anymore as my stomach just rebels and it bothers me so as the brain continues with it's demands to "consume the fucking steak you pansy!" I miss bacon as well.
6) Personal vehicle. This is actually a big one for me! OK sure, there are lots of places in Canada where you can exist without a vehicle but outside of most well established urban centres it's just impossible, Canada is just too big and spread out to make it without even the crappiest of transportation, as long as it can pass a vehicle inspection you are good to go. Public transportation in the EU is so well established by Canadian metrics that one can exist quite nicely without a vehicle which may free up funds for other things, like new knees, but it does nothing for the ego. I miss my car/4X4 truck/bike. Really miss them! Yes I can walk to the train station from my flat in exactly two minutes with eighteen minutes travel putting me in the Riga central station where another eight minute walk puts me on a tram to almost the door of my office but, it's just not the same as rolling up to a parking space with my own personal vehicle. I like the freedom of public transportation but I miss the empowering aspect of owning my own fossil fuel guzzling iron behemoth. I find myself becoming plugged up with frustration and feelings of inadequacy. My penis is perfectly normal, just so you know.
7) Endless aisles of food and stuff, consumer central! I mean hell, when last in Winnipeg I could hit my remote start from the comfort of the kitchen and 10 minutes later after wasting a gallon of carbon laden fuel idling the van just to get into my warm "personal vehicle" and drive all of five minutes down to the Super Store and find just about anything I needed whether it be live lobster or powdered Voodoo Anti-Zombie Essence®. Whut? 21 long aisles of dry produce last time I was there not counting the fresh baked goods/fresh vegetable produce/dairy/dead animal sections. Then there was the clothing/appliance/pharmacy/optometrist, etc...etc... and it's not even considered a mall! All under one roof! To be fair they have places somewhat like that here, called Spice and Stockman and so forth but they have no real choices. Sad face, :(
8) Fellow Canadians. Last time I checked the official Latvian statistical web portal there were a total of 43 Canadians who had received Residence status. It's a small group and I don't know any of them. Not that I've reached out but whatever.
9) Rob Ford. Oh, wait!
10) Clamato® dudes! Look, get in touch with me, seriously. Eating a pickle with my vodka is killing me!
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