The Holidays

When I first came to Canada, I had been warned: there are much less hol­i­days on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, and no pub­lic strike will change labor laws. Look­ing back, I can say the sys­tem is dif­fer­ent but not in a bad way.

Challenge Your Beliefs

Some of my core val­ues were chal­lenged at one point or another after I moved to Canada. I had to recon­sider what I had been taught as a French. What I had blindly believed in for all the years I spent in France. What had been passed on to me by my par­ents and by the edu­ca­tion system.

Even the slight­est things.

The Sweets, The Fat And The Scale

The scale in the cor­ner of the kitchen was taunt­ing me, and one morn­ing, I finally climbed on it. I was just curi­ous, I guess. Barely awake, my eyes still out-of-focus, I blinked sev­eral times, try­ing to bring the scale’s nee­dle into focus. And I gasped.

Chatting Is Cultural

When I first came to Canada, my Eng­lish wasn’t good at all. I hated talk­ing to peo­ple, espe­cially strangers. I’d go to the stores and try to keep the con­ver­sa­tion to a minimum.

I soon real­ized I just couldn’t do that. No mat­ter how hur­ried I tried to look, or how clue­less I may have seemed, peo­ple would always talk to me. Cana­di­ans love small talk.

Unpleasant Realities of American Life

I think prospec­tive immi­grants should be given the whole pic­ture and I don’t believe wear­ing pink-colored glasses really helps on the long run.

This is not about bash­ing Canada or North Amer­ica, or say­ing that other coun­tries on earth are by com­par­i­son much bet­ter. This is about giv­ing some other facts, for once a bit on the “minus” side.

The Oh-So-Sexy French Myth

I was absolutely unaware of our rep­u­ta­tion abroad until I started trav­el­ing. Then, I real­ized that the French were said to have this lit­tle je ne sais quoi. In plain lan­guage: French were lib­er­tine, were doing it all the time, rou­tinely had sev­eral mis­tresses and lovers and had a god-given tal­ent for romance.

Damn, I Wish I Had Known That...!

I Have just received the pre­cious let­ter from Cit­i­zen­ship and Immi­gra­tion: on June 11^th, I’m invited to write my cit­i­zen­ship test.

It's Okay Not To Believe

To me, going door to door try­ing to explain peo­ple they are going to hell is about as use­less as a tele­mar­keter who is call­ing at 11:00 pm to sell AIG stocks. How does shov­ing your beliefs in my face is going to make the world a bet­ter place?