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What was the biggest culture shock you ever experienced? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago by can@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[–] Chais@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

German living in Canada since 2018. Couple of things:

There's no bread culture. It's all toast, with the exception of French breads. But I saw brown colored toast sold as pumpernickel. A travesty.
The love for bland food. I know, there was a demonization campaign against salt in the 80s or something. But you gotta get over it. Feels like you're saving salt from the cooking to put it on the road in the winter.
The healthcare system is a joke. "bUt It'S bEtTeR tHaN iN tHe Us." As if that's difficult. Only difference is your dumpster isn't on fire, yet.
THE ABSOLUTE TRASH THAT'S SOLD AS TOILET PAPER! Honestly my biggest pet peeve. TP here is flimsy and overpriced. >1$ for a roll of 2-ply or >2$ per roll of 3-ply, but both tear if you do much as look at them the wrong way.

[–] Atemu@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

Look into bidets. There's cheap seat addons you can buy but there are also portable bottle-like ones. I've got one of these: https://happypo.com/products/xl-bidet

[–] FarceMultiplier@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Bread: you are right. It's universally terrible. In larger cities there are European bakeries that are better.

Bland food: Yep. It's a mix of the worst of American northwestern food with bland British food. It's getting better though, especially in BC.

No comment on health care.

Toilet paper is this way in Canada due to so many people living with septic tanks or lagoons, I believe.

[–] Steeve@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Lol as a Canadian these are all 100% accurate, with the exception of maybe bread culture being only 80% accurate. Our grocery store bread generally sucks ass, but in most areas you can find a bakery selling some pretty solid breads, at least in Ontario. I'm in the Waterloo region which has a large Mennonite population, so there's even some decent German options.

Our healthcare is a fucking national embarrassment stuck between a government that wants to slowly privatize it and another that wants to ignore it entirely. It's what Americans point to when they need to show that public healthcare sucks.