Today is Canada Day, so to my Canuck Friends, and almost-Canuck Friends, let me wish you the very best.
Although I am from the States, I have to confess that I really like Canada. It wasn’t one of the listed options on my vacation suggestions post, but I have put Calgary on my short list of potential destinations for a fall vacation.
Canada has few of the disadvantages of the United States but with most of the advantages. About the only disadvantage I can think of is one I covered a few years back: limited freedom of speech. On the other hand, gun control is better, people are more polite, and the money is infinitely prettier.
On that last point: I went through my current reserves of active global currency (US, UK, Armenia, South Africa, Swaziland, Mexico, and the Euro) and as far as I am concerned the prettiest piece of active currency is the Canadian Five Dollar Bill. There is something incredibly nice about it, with the face of Canada’s first Prime Minister on the front and, more importantly, the recognition of ice hockey on the reverse side as Canada’s most important pastime. And it’s not the only nicely thought out Canadian currency: the ten features war remembrance in a field of poppies and the twenty emphasizes the importance of art in communicating culture.
About the only downside to Canadian currency is that all of it is the same size and that the coins are seemingly interchangeable with US currency:
I got more US pennies in change than Canadian pennies, and I got at least one US nickel back instead of a Canadian one at some point.
As an aside: while the Canadian 5 is the prettiest active piece of currency, the most beautiful piece of currency I’ve ever used was the Dutch 50 Guilder note. Actually, the entire set of Guilders were pieces of art that one could admire.
But as I noted at the end of my last Canadian post, while in Canada I started downloading a number of CBC podcasts—mainly because I’ve been in the market for an English language news podcast that I can listen to on the way to work in the morning. I subscribe to the Guardian Daily, but it comes out at 8:30 CET, which is about an hour too late for my daily commute. The CBC’s daily offer, CBC News World Report is interesting but comes out in mid-afternoon CET, which isn’t especially helpful. (CBC’s biggest advantage over the Guardian: it’s exactly 12 minutes and 30 seconds every day. The Guardian’s podcast is not time constrained and can range from 20 to 35 minutes.) Ultimately the quest for an English language newscast updated between 4 and 7 CET is still ongoing.
However I have found a number of excellent CBC podcasts: Canada Live from CBC Radio 2, Comedy Factory from CBC Radio, and CBC Radio 3 Podcast with Grant Lawrence. The first is a weekly podcast that picks out concerts that are featured on a daily radio show and puts them into mp3 format. For me it’s hit or miss so far. Some of the music I have skipped because it’s not me, but then there have been a couple that I have really grooved out to. The Comedy Factory is a weekly show of humor, some segments of which require knowledge of current Canadian News and politics—which CBC News World Report provides.
The last podcast, the CBC Radio 3 Podcast with Grant Lawrence is the real gem here: it’s a weekly themed podcast featuring Canadian music—and the back files can be downloaded. This week’s themed podcast (#211) is, apparently, an annual Canada Day feature: Sing for your song, where callers request their favorite Canada songs by singing for them. I would describe the ephemeral qualities of the music, but I, sadly, lack the vocabulary to adequately describe music so I can only say that it was an excellent hours worth of music—and one that I listened to multiple times.
However, for the expat community, it’s time to come full circle: the podcast is moist; none more so than the September 7, 2007, episode #120, “Let’s Get Moist!” I downloaded this episode because it brings back such fond memories of the Bremen Whiney Expatriate Blogger Meet-Up last fall. Not only is the podcast all about getting moist, it is moist in that special way.














