gentlemanghost

I returned from Canada last Thursday night, yet it still feels like I just got home. Some thoughts on my trip:

As I said in my last blog, the point of travelling to Canada was mostly to try it on for size in a sense and see if I'd be interested in moving there. I arrived in Toronto on August 9th and spent much of time there hanging out with my CouchSurfing hosts (www.couchsurfing.org, I highly recommend checking it out if you're unfamiliar). My first host was a director of infomercials, and each of the two nights I stayed with him we met at a bar and discussed the differences between Canadian and American politics until last call. I was just as lucky with my second set of hosts, who were some really interesting college kids. Fortunately through them I met this wonderful girl. I thought she was very pretty and she seemed very smart. We talked for a few hours and, after I mentioned that I had no where to stay in Montreal, she offered me the keys to an apartment she had just rented there. A serious stroke of luck...and the apartment turned out to be beautiful. I spent the majority of my trip in Montreal, which was plenty of fun...however I really wish I'd had some company while there (I spent most of my six days there alone).

A recurring theme of my conversations while in Canada revolved around the Canadian media's fascination with American politics. Nearly every Canadian I spoke to knew almost as much about the current American political scene as I did. Consider that the Canadian prime minster is considerably more powerful than the American president. The prime minister has direct control over the entire Canadian military and can take total control of the government via marshal law when ever he sees fit (this has actually be done before, wikipedia Pierre Trudeau). The only branch of the military the president controls is the Marines and at no point can he simply take over government. Yet the only news report I saw on the prime minister during my visit was a quick blurb about a recent vacation he had taken. There were plenty of reports on Obama.

When I mentioned this, the response I typically got was that Canadian politics were far less interesting than American politics. My hosts and acquaintances seemed to find the extreme opinions of American politicians very entertaining, while most members of the Canadian government were referred to as having more moderate demeanors. To make the rest of this short, I took this to mean that Canadian politics were less a sort of battle field (as American politics are usually viewed) and more a scene of reason and careful consideration. This is most likely an idealistic interpretation and I'm sure there are plenty examples of ridiculous behavior in the Canadian parliament, however there is still a lot of appeal left.

Though I really enjoyed my time in Canada, I feel like I should look into a few other cities before ultimately deciding where to go. I've been looking into an AmTrak rail pass for my next bit of traveling. I figure this will give me the chance to spend a bit of time in several cities over a month-2 month period. The list so far is New York, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver. Unfortunately I estimate this trip will cost around $1600, which would just about wipe out my savings.This means all plans are on hold until I can find a job and save up.

For now, I've had the luck to inherit a decent amount of very strong fader for a very low price (the silver lining when your supplier decides to get out of the game), so I think I'm going to enjoy that and then veg. out to Red Dead Redemption for the rest of the night