Uniquely Canadian

Since we've been here it has been fun finding things that are very unique to Canada. Well, I'm not sure if they exist anywhere else in the world, but it is different than in " the states" as they say. The first thing we noticed are all the American companies, that use the Canadian Maple Leaf in their logo designs... I'm guessing they do that to endear themselves to the Canadians... who knows?

And now that it's getting cold... out come their portable garages. The missionaries call them quoi-shacks...but many people don't have garages here, or don't use them for their cars, so they erect these portable garages for the winter... guess it keeps them from having to scrape the windshields.

Another interesting thing are the weeds that grow along every freeway and in the medians.

No one seems to know what they are. Some say just a weed. Others say it's a kind of African Grass. Others think they are similar to bullrushes (or cattails). I've even tried to find out via the internet but to no avail. They are green stemmed in the summer, then in winter turn to brown. But the heads always look like a fluffy feather duster:

We have yet to see what happens to them during the snow-covered winter. They look really rather pretty, though, blowing in the wind everytime trucks or cars drive by.

But the most interesting thing to me is the way they sell milk. They sell it in plastic bags! Usually there are 3 plastic bags inside of a bigger plastic sack. Each small bag equals 1.33 liters, so the 3 bags are the equivalent of 4 liters - or what we would call a gallon. But they don't even sell milk in the gallon jugs here.

And, you can see that the milk is fairly expensive here... usually in the $4.49 range for the 3 sacks. When we go to the states, we go to Walmart & buy it in gallon jugs for $3.01. All milk products like milk, cheese, cottage cheese, cream cheese, yogurts... they are all pretty expensive here. But the really interesting part of this milk-in-a-bag thing is what they do next. They have these small pitchers that you put the individual sacks into:This is interesting because the pitcher is shorter than the bag. Now there is a real trick to pouring the milk without the milk bag collapsing and having milk go everywhere. You are supposed to snip one corner of the milk bag off.... then clip the other side with a smaller snip. This allows an air flow when you pour out of the larger snipped end & USUALLY the bag doesn't collapse in the pitcher. To me it would seem more practical to just make the pitcher taller & where the bag would fit perfectly, or just snip open the edge & pour it into the pitcher to serve... but I guess that would leave the milk open to absorb smells of other foods in your fridg... still... Lots of new things to get used to and know that they are.... uniquely Canadian!