Tuesday 22 November 2011

Canucks- How nice are we really?


Canadians are known for being nice. Everywhere I go people always guess that I’m Canadian, so I guess that means I’m nice too. The thing is that I’ve never really noticed it so much in my own hometown of Hamilton (which is located in nice old Canada). People here scowl at me on the street, rarely hold doors and just seem downright miserable most of the time. It might be because we have winter for about 9 out of 12 months a year, but considering Canada is known as the friendly country I rarely see any friendliness coming from my fellow Canucks.

In my travels I have met some amazing people! I have never encountered a rude person in my travels (save one bouncer in Paris). People in the Dominican Republic were so warm and friendly, I had great conversations with many Dominicans.

When I went to France I was nervous because I had only heard bad things about the people there. I had heard they were rude and that the men were sexist and all kinds of terrible things about the French. I was so pleasantly surprised when I got there. Most people that I came in contact with were very friendly and patient. I don’t speak great French but I thought I knew enough to get by. They would be patient while I tried to work out the French or they would try to help me, or if I got it right they would congratulate me. Thankfully I had a friend with me who went to French immersion school so she knew quite a bit of French so when I really didn’t know what to say I would let her go first and then just say “La même chose” which means basically “the same thing”. I would say after going to France I became very good at frenglish, which was my own version of French mingled with English.

Frenglish really came in handy when I went to Belgium as well. I went to a party while I was there and everybody spoke French. I ended up having an entire conversation about the Twilight books with one guy. He was so patient while he was talking to me.

Ireland was beautiful and the people there are also beautiful. The Irish are amazing! They really like to have a good time and they love including outsiders. We met up with some fun Irish people as well as some really amazing Welsh people (who I am still in contact with). They took us to some great bars and showed us some sights. 

It could be because we are tourists and we are a commodity but I have encountered some really rad people in this world. I assume that my Canadian brethren are nice to outsiders as well, but I wish that they would act how they are stereotyped to their own as well. I want to find where these awesome Canadians hang out but I fear that the awesome Canadians are probably out travelling the world, giving the rest of these grumps a good name.



 Some of the amazing people I met in France!


My Welsh friends in Ireland with a statue of James Joyce


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