Am I Canadian yet?

Hard to believe sometimes that I’ve been here now for over 8 months – although at other times it feels like a lifetime. As we’re now truly in the summer, we’ve got a bunch of visitors due over the coming months. It’s made me wonder if after this amount of time in Canada I’ve picked up any Canadianisms. There are definitely some signs that I have...

1. I have caught myself thinking in a Canadian accent (Awesome)!
2. When in company I excuse myself to visit the washroom, although at home I still go to the toilet!
3. Rather than grabbing a lift, I’ll catch a ride home, or get the elevator.
4. If we make a trip out east we’ll be visiting Nu’fun’lan’ or Newfie: not Newfoundland.
5. We fill up our car with cheap gas, not petrol.
6. I’ve learned that telling someone to get on the pavement when a car is coming, could lead to a nasty accident – The pavement is the road: it’s a sidewalk that runs alongside it.
7. Driving for 5 hours to get to your weekend retreat is a ‘short drive’ into the mountains.
8. I can talk about the guy in our street with the semi without giggling.
9. I no longer ask the guy next to me if he’s just been out for a fag. I now know he’s not gay, he was only out for a smoke.
10. I’m seriously considering buying a checked shirt and a cowboy hat and will wear them with pride.

I’m seriously considering buying a checked shirt and a cowboy hat and will wear them with pride.
So there are signs that I’m picking up habits from those around me but I’m quite happy that when our visitors arrive they will now I’ve not lost my teuchter roots;

1. I don’t end all my sentences with ‘eh?’ ‘you know’ or ‘aye’ work just fine, thanks.
2. If I’m sitting on my ass I’ve acquired a donkey. Otherwise it’s my arse that goes on a chair, or my bum if I’m being polite.
3. 2400 is two thousand four hundred. Not twenty four hundred.
4. I weigh 7 stone. Not 119 lbs (yeah right).
5. I don’t talk about the size of my or anyone else’s fanny! (see number 2).
6. I think the gas is cheap!
7. ..but not so cheap that I drive from the Co-op to the liquor store at the other end of the car-park (parking lot).
8. They know us by name in the liquor store.
9. If I’m cold I put on my jumper or a cardigan... not a sweater.
10. It is, and always will be the Hokey Cokey – Although the Hokey Pokey sounds like a kinky version l’d like to try...