Because it's Canada

I’ve continued to spend my time neighborhood and apartment hunting, but by yesterday afternoon had hit a mental wall. I believe I’ve found a neighborhood I like and can now better focus my housing search – yeah! But what I don’t move in until November 1? I don’t want to waste a month ‘in limbo’. I’ll only be here for a short time, so despite my continued search I’ve made the effort today to settle in a bit more to my current location.

That process, however, has highlighted the slight differences between life in the U.S. and Canada.  

Television

The unit I’m in has cable – sweet!

Channels are different – obviously.

I receive CTV and other Canadian channels, along with several U.S. feeds – Huh…

I noticed I had turned on the incorrect weather forecast when I heard, “Heat wave continues as this week’s highs remain in the 90’s” (Los Angeles). Something sounded too familiar when the ad stated, “Vote YES on Proposition 594!” (Washington State). I nearly threw the remote at the wall when I realized I was listening to a promotion for Bruce Rauner as Illinois Governor. (Yep, I still have to listen to Illinois political ads in Canada. AH!!!)

The programming is different as well. When watching cable stations I’m used to seeing marathons of the same show, ie eight hours of Law & Order: SVU, House Hunters, or Criminal Minds. Here they’ll run one episode two or three times a day, depending on the station. You get an SVU episode in the morning, the same episode in the afternoon, and the same one again in the evening… but no other episodes during the day. Prime Time is from 8pm -11pm PT, but until then you may need to get creative if you're spending the day at home. Which brought me to the internet…

Internet

Canada has wifi – obviously.

They stream TV here too and I can connect my Chromecast to the HDMI port on the television –obvious, but still: Woo Hoo!

In honor of being in Vancouver, let’s put-on some TV filmed here as I apartment hunt online – Brilliant!

HuluPlus – uhhhhhhhh …. Doesn’t exist in Canada.

 Guess I’ll be canceling that HuluPlus subscription...

Netflix – OhThankGod it’s still there! …wait… where’s my list of shows? Where’s American Horror Story? I’m only halfway through Season 2!  You can’t tell me it’s not available here yet- OhMyGodYouAre!!! …sigh… well what else is missing from my queue… oh, everything is. That’s awesome. Well, at least I finished The Fall before I left.

iTunes – Everything I’ve bought is still there, obviously. Wonder if the store is different… 

“We notice your location has changed. Do you want to update the location in your account? Please note that this may change the content that is availa-“ NO!

Money

I’m still adjusting to having to care about coins.

Seven Dollars

Also, this lady is on my money. As an American, I’m not ok with that yet.

Taxes go to England. Taxes go to England!

So as similar as things are, just enough is different to cause everything I do to take a little extra time and cause a little bit of confusion. But I guess I should be grateful - at least Canada drives on the right side of the road.