My sister spent two years living in Taiwan and despite Canada's sad cheese state, one of the biggest things she missed about home was the cheese. That and North American cake & pie. (The lack of good cheese and pastry/'real bread' are probably the biggest complaints about Canada that I hear from my European friends)

Maybe it's our commonwealth ties but I find a lot of Canadians have a romanticized view of English people. Like how having an English accent (no matter what region) automatically makes you 'fancy.' Even if they're critical enough to KNOW media portrayals and historic novels do not define the 'real' England, this…

Yes, a friend who studied abroad in the UK (speaking as a Canadian, who despite their evident pride in drinking beer I have found are actually one of the less alcoholically inclined western nations) was shocked by how many pubs there were in a small University town. And by how full those pubs were with people just…

I agree about how outgoing Americans are.

Aw that makes me sad to hear! I was pleasantly surprised to see my fellow Vancouverites leaping in to help a lost couple with their map and to pick up some travellers' dropped luggage on the skytrain. That said I think people here in this city are generally helpful and friendly to strangers but it's all very…

Yes! Thank you. I'm always having to explain that.

I agree with you that Jack doesn't feel cliche. But regarding similar things (not exact, mind), characters like Max from Dark Angel and River Tam from Firefly and Blood+ (more Diva than Saya re: being held captive by the shadow organization and to be fair they didn't need to give them drugs) or Olivia from Fringe…

Ugh, I worked that shift for a year and now working 7-3:30 has made all the difference for me. (People kept saying I'd adapt but I never felt rested. Mind you I also had trouble going to bed before 10pm...) Getting off at 2:30 is nice in that you have all that open-business-hours and day time to frolic about in, but…

An interesting article was written concerning the joke le-a/ledasha: http://www.babynamewizard.com/archives/2009/10/ledasha-legends-and-race-part-one

I agree with you about how exciting it is to see kids realize the power of story telling. When I was in second grade, we had a teacher who introduced story writing in a really compelling way: she had one of those big art easels and asked us to define different parts of a story, illustrating them in response to our…