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Canada - Good and Bad
Good Things | Bad Things

Let's start with the good things. There are lots of neat things about living in Calgary.

The Mountains - The first good thing is that I'm about an hour from the mountains, and that is why I moved here. I can see the mountains off my balcony at home, which is really nice. With my telescope, I can check out avalanche conditions for the front range. The mountains are just incredible, and if you haven't seen them, you will never have an appreciation until you come to visit.

Crime - There is hardly any crime in Calgary. Recently, there was an article in the Calgary Herald about the murder rate. In 1996, there were ten murders in Calgary. 1997 had nine, and then 1998 had a record breaking fifteen. For a city of nearly 900,000 people, that's incredible. Coming from a city which usually tops 500 murders per year, this is a welcome change. Also, I can walk anywhere downtown in the middle of the night, and I don't think twice about my safety. I don't think there is a bad side of town. Even the homeless people are nice to you. They come up to you while you're waiting to cross the street. They say in a very soft voice, "Excuse me sir, would you happen to have any spare change." You look at them and say "no!" They reply with a still very sweet voice, "Well, thanks anyway, have a nice day." You see, in the U.S., when you're asked for money, and you tell the bum "no!" they might mumble something to you or even give you the finger (a dirty finger at that). This just strikes me as being strange.

The Weather - The weather here can be great, especially in the summer. Calgary is a very dry climate, so it rarely rains here. During the winter, the mountains get a lot of snow, but Calgary doesn't get much at all. In the two winters I've spent up here, Calgary has received an average of 25 inches for the year. I really like the weather up here. Every day is a sunny day.

Sunlight - One more cool thing about Calgary is the amount of sunshine. When I first moved here (in early June), it didn't get dark until 23:00, and the sun came up around 0500. I was up late every night. For those who don't know me, I get up around 0500 every morning, and if the sun is already up at that time, then it's easy to get out of bed. The summer days are really long here. I think that's great.

...and now for the bad things. Sometimes change is not a good thing.

Groceries - You can't get everything up here. I can't buy squeeze margerine, Chi-chi's salsa, Totino's pizza, Samuel Adams, or Or-Ida french fries. To make things worse, everything is metric. Let's say your recipe calls for 1 pound of ground beef. When you go to the store, everything is stated in grams. Well, after six weeks, I finally figured out there are 460g in one pound. Hopefully, I will soon figure out how many milli-liters are in a cup.

The Metric System - The metric system goes well beyond the grocery store. You see a gas station, which advertises premium gas for $0.63. This is wonderful until you find out that's "per liter." So after you fill up your car, you're driving down the road and see a sign which says, "speed limit 110." At first you think to yourself, "it's about time some place has a reasonable speed limit. Then a cop reminds you that it's in kilometers. This is a bad thing. My girlfriend often uses the saying "the whole 9 yards." I always correct her that in Canada, it should be "the whole 8.1 metres."

Jay-Walking - This town is too anal. They are very strict against walking against the light. Calgary actually has cops which watch for jay-walkers, and then they give them tickets. I walk downtown all the time and I have to stop at a street crossing because some light tells me to. I believe that everybody should be able to cross a street when they want. If they get hit by a car because they didn't look both ways, then it's the pedestrian's fault. By weeding out these stupid pedestrian's that don't know how to cross a street, you're really doing society a favour. Speaking of pedestrians, they have the right of way (when there is no traffic signal). They step out in the road, and I'm suppose to stop. Can you believe that?!?! This is ludicrous!!!! In the U.S., they would be speed bumps. Actually, they don't even have to step into the road. They just look like they want to cross, and I have to stop. I can't tell you how many people I have almost run over.

The Sunlight - Like I said before, when I first moved here, the sun didn't set until 23:00. On a work night, I go to bed at 22:00. Have you ever tried to go to sleep when it was still bright outside. This is a bad thing.

The Exchange Rate - The exchange rate is a bad thing. You order something from the U.S., and try to pay for it using Canadian funds. Suddenly, things cost twice as much!!!

Well, that's really all I can think of right now. Other than these things, living in Calgary is just like living in the U.S.