2015-07-11: Like Porky Pig

I like to think they are happy to see us one last time. Not that they are happy to see us leave.

Last day in Canada. One thing we forgot to do was attend a pancake breakfast.
During stampede lots of places do free pancake breakfasts. Not just the places you would expect either. On the Radio we heard that the Calgary Muslim Society was holding one and expecting thousands of people. Not sure if it is Ramadan (and lord do I feel sorry for people living up here trying to follow the eating tenets based on the sunrise and sunset of a religion founded near the equator) but I think it might be. The idea of blending the tradition of Pancake Breakfast and Ramadan feasting appeals to me.

Lots of denim ought to conceal our foreigness

Initially I thought Pancake Breakfasts were going to be mostly a Bars Trying To Sort of Faintly Sober Up Their All Night Drinking Cow-Boys and -Girls Or at least Get Them Out For Ten Minutes While we mop up the Vomit but it appears to be a community type of thing.
There is a pancake breakfast at the community centre down the road. We must attend.

Too hot for continued denim jackets. Our camouflage is fading

I am somewhat of a cynical bastard at times. If I ran a company it would be based on being cynical, expecting the worst and not really being a nice person. Oh I do. Not because I want to be a mean bastard but because that is something I can deliver to the business world they want to pay for. Sometimes Nice isn't helpful when you just want your database to run quick.

I assume the hats are signifiers of hierarchy. I think black hat is senior than white hat and older senior to newer. Not sure where the sun bonnet sits though.

Old straw hat equates to gunnery sergeant and therefore in charge of beans.

Sometimes this cynical attitude slides into my normal life as well. Free Breakfast as a Community Centre? It's going to be crap food with awful cheery people trying to hide the hole in their soul by chirping inane niceties at me. I don't hate those people but I think my pity for them shows in my expressions at times.
That's when they really try to save me from myself. I dislike that immensely.
Fortunately this morning I had coffee first.

This is table syrup. Table syrup is not Maple Syrup. We were told once again about the huge heist of Canadian Maple Syrup reserves a couple of years ago. The first time we were told about it I thought they were gently poking fun at themselves. I now think it was an emotionally scarring event that they are trying to unburden themselves of.

Even more fortunately we only had two nice people drop by to chat and one was a local politician who heard our accents and off to talk to actual voters reasonably quickly.

The band did not play any Bryan Adams which was sad. But they didn't play any Nickelback which was good (actually I don't really understand the Nickelback hate meme but lack of understanding doesn't stop me jumping in)

The other Nice Person was a pleasant older Lady who didn't claim our time whilst the food went cold. Her interest in us and our story was accompanied with waving motions indicating we should eat and relate details as a secondary thing. I don't think she cared whether we approved of what she was doing and I loved her for that.

Very sweet people. Not cynical bastards at all.

Cultural Observations: Canadian Niceness

One of the cynicisms I have often lived by is that anyone saying I am This Thing is probably saying they are the exact opposite. "I am a strong person"? that only comes out of the mouths of people trying to convince themselves of it and they need someone else to agree because they don't believe it.
Obviously there are exceptions. You can be one if you want.

(see what I mean about my cynicism slipping out if I am not careful? sheesh, that's harsh)

Passing Cab driver stopped and gave him a jump start

We have extended this truism to cultures. If a culture claims to be X we find it is a good idea to examine that a bit more carefully. Brazilians, for example, are not the raging criminals they would lead you to believe. At first we thought the whole Canadians are Polite thing was going to be just another failed self description.

Cops discussed How The Man Keeps You Down for an hour or so with the meth head  that wouldn't pay for the bus ticket, much less tasing than I expected.

Then we realised, they don't claim it for themselves. Americans assign it to them as a stereotype in TV shows etc. I don't think we have heard a Canadian claim niceness as one of their own traits in any serious way.

There are more polite words than there are actual request words.

If anything they seem kind of confused by the idea that they are polite when they are just doing what anyone would do.

Rating: 8/10 (The stereotype does seem reasonably applicable)

No idea if this is a statement about Americans or if it is an American claiming their heritage. Neither would surprise me.