Adjustments

When I first moved to Canada from England at age 10 I had to exchange all my English words, phrases and mannerisms for the Canadian way of doing things. Now, ten years later, I am having to re-lean it all again – with Scottish differences just to make it all the more confusing!

One of the first differences I noticed when I arrived was how SMALL everything is here. I actually laughed out loud when I saw the cooker (oven) in our flat’s kitchen because it is just SO tiny. The fridge is also very small and is therefore the bane of my existence. I honestly don’t know how the residence staff expect six people to fit all their food in there. I am especially in shock because I had an entire Canadian sized fridge to myself this summer while my roommate was in BC. In the supermarkets (grocery stores) here you can’t easily buy anything in bulk like you can in Canada or the US. A salad dressing I bought was about half the size of the equivalent one I would buy in Canada. I have a theory that this is why there are far less (as far as I can tell anyway) obese people in the UK than in North America!

Everything here is also very expensive. Fortunately, there are a lot of discounts for students or if you’re involved in certain societies you can often get discounts at pubs. £1 drinks are the best thing ever! The prices for the weekend trips are also very reasonable!

Another thing I am adjusting to is my accent. In Canada, with my friends I speak with a Canadian accent but with my parents I switch to an English accent. Neither are fake, it’s just that I speak what I hear – it’s hard to explain. So back in Canada I normally spend most of my time speaking in a Canadian accent. But here it seems to be that whatever the majority of the company I am in is, that’s what accent comes out of my mouth. For instance, at home with my flat mates (who are all English/Scottish) I speak with an English accent but if I’m out with the Canadian girls or if I’m with Americans then my Canadian accent comes out. The other day I was with English people and I tried to switch to my Canadian accent but I couldn’t do it – it just came out sounding like a poor attempt at a Scottish accent! Very confusing! My American friend called me yesterday and because I was with my flatmates I was speaking in my English accent to him on the phone and he didn’t recognize me at all. People don’t really know what to make of me here – a lot of them apparently think I’m Australian!