The first is the mall parking lot ritual where people will drive around the mall entrance area for ages just to get a spot close to the doors. I always head for the far corners — drives my wife and mother-in-law crazy. I have a cruel streak!

The second concerns a ritual in the car waiting areas at the GO suburban train stations around the Greater Toronto Area.

When a train is due to arrive in rush hour, these are usually full of cars ready to pick people up from the trains.

Here’s the thing. If a woman is waiting in the car for her boyfriend or husband (with the engine running of course), very often the guy will arrive and take over driving duties.

The ‘poor little lady’ is forced to get out of the car and walk around to the passenger side.

Think about it: the woman has been driving around just minutes before, so she’s alert and in tune with road conditions if icy or wet, whereas the guy is half comatose from a stressful day at work and a drooly nap on the train. And he’s going to drive her home!

Needless to say, tempers flare in GO station parking lots!

Wat : yeah, something was wrong yesterday with the comment, one of these blogger glitch.

I totally agree with you : culture shock is tough when you first experience it, but mastering two, three or more cultures is a precious gift. I love it !

Tu as de la chance, le français et l’espagnol sont assez similaires ! I speak Spanish too, but I find the conjugaisons trickier than in French.

Webmiztris : The grass is always greener on the other side… I don’t regret moving to Canada, but a lot of people don’t understand it, since I’m French, you know, wine, perfume, arts oh lalala !

Sebastien : great answers ! I totally agree about your blog being ridiculous/absurd/post-moderny/situational humor (did I forget anything ? :$ ). I like this kind of humour. But for example, I never really understood Chinese humour, based on quiproquos (is that even an English word ?) and wordplay.

BTW… I laugh so much when I saw Zoolander, with the “gas station accident”, I though I was gonna die !

I like all sorts of humor in the end. But, as you might guess from my blog, I usually like ridiculous/absurd/post-moderny/situational humor. Which is kinda standard for our generation. One of my favorite movies is Zoolander, I know a lot of people hate it, but it’s soooo funny in my opinion…I also really like people like Louis de Funes, and early Jim Carey comedies, great physical comedic actors…

Anyway, culture shock is a very common problem. I myself experienced this growing up in a very Hispanic/Latino home and then venturing out into the real Anglo world when I was a child growing up in the United States. It was quite weird/bizarre actually, but I am glad for it because it made me a much more complete person with a bigger world view than typical Americans.

And then, AND THEN…I went to high school and took four years of French! Aren’t you proud of me?

C’est dificle l’écrire, mais j’essaie, alors, c’est comme l’espagnol grace a Dieu.

even I do not understand what clinton did to Monica

I am not shocked by anything!

Silverneurotic : yes, different cultures have different kind of humour. It’s part of the culture shock I guess… interesting though.

Devil’s son : I’m teaching gov’ employee, they should be grown up but behave like teenagers !

Dan : thanks for visiting ! I was truly impressed with your writing. I just started reading and reading and couldn’t stop !

Sir Jorge : yep, legal to smoke inside, prostitution is legal, drugs are — almost — legals… Gee, I wonder why the rest of the world think French are arrogant socialists-artists-rebels !