O, Canada!

The secret to a happy marriage is to know when to pursue your separate interests. For instance right now. I'm blogging, and Chip's in the casino gambling. Everyone's happy.

And speaking of happy, holy moley, Canadians are really, really nice. I haven't even been here 24 hours yet, and I can already cite several examples of Canadians being really, really nice. We took a shuttle last night from the Toronto airport to Niagara Falls. The shuttle ticket agent guy was like William H. Macy playing an exaggerated Canadian ticket agent. This morning I had a couple whose elevator door was already all the way closed open it for me and say, "Going down then, eh?" I mean, who does that? Not Memphians, that's for sure.



The second thing I've noticed is that they use a completely different set of numbers here. The speed limit is 80 and the temperature is 13. I don't know what that's all about.

I won't be able to upload my photos until I get home but I do have some helpful hints for you if you ever plan on visiting Niagara Falls:

1. You're going to get WET. They may seem obvious to you, but perhaps you're not understanding what I mean exactly. I mean that if you don't ride the boat or go behind the falls or anything and all you do is stand on the overlook and shoot some photos, IT DOESN'T MATTER. You're still going to get WET. 
2. Wear shoes that will be comfortable to walk around in when they're wet. (See #1.) You can cover up with rain ponchos but your shoes are most definitely going to get wet. In fact, go ahead and pack your rain boots. That would be the very smartest thing to do. 
3. Bring a windbreaker or some other jacket with a hood. That is waterproof. (See #1)
4. Those are not quarters. Those are Canadian dollars. 
5. If you have a choice between glasses or contacts, even if you see better out of your glasses, wear your contacts. Because your glasses will continually get splattered with water. (See #1)
6. If you do wear glasses, or bring your camera, bring a soft cloth to clean the water off the lens. (See #1)
7. IDK if Tim Horton's is the Canadian Starbucks or the Canadian McDonald's, but you can get lattes there. Which is good to help you warm up. When you're wet. 

The thing I've had the most trouble adjusting to is not having my phone. My carrier will charge me like $9 a minute international roaming charges so no tweeting or facebooking from my phone. All day these bursts of short genius come to me and I have no way of sharing them. Canada has taught me that I would've made a terrible pioneer.