One Way Roads

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One Way Roads

You know how in Canada, when you want to get on the bus somewhere, you wait for the people getting off to disembark first? Yeah, that's not a thing here.

It's took me a while to describe that in Canada, even if someone bumps into you first, you apologize as well, because you we were there to be bumped into in the first place, so technically it is your fault too... Right?

But, they don't have that logic here. I say logic because for me, it is common sense, but here if you were to excuse yourself, you would be degrading yourself. I guess Canadians aren't afraid to admit their own defeat.

Here, Streets are confused by signs that allow only one direction. Sometimes, I don’t even see the signs, and then I realise we’re in a one lane alley, with brick building lining both sides. It follows an interesting way of thinking that I've newly discovered: France isn't that big ( 16 times smaller than Canada). It's regions are section off, like cuts of meat, and deemed more valuable than each other according to their consumers. These regions form their own culture despite their similar landscape and people. Almost everyone looks down upon each other, link of like Escher's Ascending Staircase. Like, if you said, "Man, these Sooke people are the worst. They all brag about their firkin reservoir." Or, "I'll never go to Nanaimo, the mid island is revolting." The French people that I have met have a very distinct, "Where I am is the best possible living situation, and everything less is uninhabitable" way of thinking. This is where the Halo Effect takes place: when you admire something so much that all it's less than ideal qualities seem to fade. For example,if you imagine an ex-boyfriend/girlfriend/partner/lover before you parted ways with them, they were very special to you but, after the veil of admiration was removed, you could see clearly what that person was without the halo effect. Another example would be, say, you might love Victoria, but that shouldn't discourage you from visiting Sidney or admitting that it has it's perks.

It’s just different. I thought it was more amalgamated, because it all seems so similar to me: France, in general. The idea of community here is limited. In Canada, I refer to my neighbours as people who live all across Deep Cove. Here, I think they have a different idea of Self vs. Community.

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