America’s Hat

I moved from Canada to the US in 2001, and back to Canada in 2018. My wife was born and raised in the US.

When we relocated from Denver, CO to Ottawa, ON in early February 2018 we found some differences between the two countries. I decided to capture them here before they become invisible to us.

FOOD AND BEVERAGES

1. Sara took a sip of her Americano Misto and immediately proclaimed “this is unsweetened soy!”. Also, in the US we just ordered “an Americano with steamed soy.” When we tried to do that here, they clarified the order as “an Americano misto?” … Um… yes?
2. Diet Pepsi tastes different; apparently still made with Aspertame here?
3. Blue Moon beer is sold as Belgian Moon here. And to think I always thought my mom (from Edmonton, Canada) just called it by the wrong name! Sorry Mom!

ENTERTAINMENT

1. Season 4 of “Jane the Virgin” is on Netflix Canada! We only had Season 3 on Hulu in the States! 👍🏼
2. Season 2 of “This is Us” hasn’t made it to Netflix Canada yet. We had it on Hulu in the States. 👎🏼
3. Season 4 of “The Last Man on Earth” hasn’t made it to Netflix Canada yet. We had it on Hulu in the States. 👎🏼

MAIL FORWARDING

1. They charge for mail forwarding! In the US, you get charged $1 to be sure it’s really you. Here, it’s “as low as $7/month” to forward your mail, and it varies whether it’s within the province or not.

BUYING A HOME

When you buy a house in the US, you do the inspection within 5–10 days. Then someone comes out to appraise the house, and it can take several weeks to firm up the financing (up til a week before closing). In Canada, in-person appraisals are rarely done. Instead, within 5–10 days of making an offer, the inspection and reviewing of documentation all needs to be completed, and the financing is confirmed. So within 10 days, you know if the deal will go through or not.
This is a bummer for those of us wanting to buy in Canada who have to wait til ‘the deal is done’ in the US to make an offer here.