Canada is better than the States in many ways; in that it has different coloured money and they measure degrees in Celsius and distance in kilometres, but unfortunately, they also seem to take after the U.S. in that the majority of shops are located at large shopping centre/mall type facilities like “The Base” in Hamilton.
What that means is you need a car to get anywhere, which initially seemed quite daunting to me because Canadians drive on the WRONG side of the road!
But happily, despite a few confused looks and some desperate honking by my fellow motorists I’ve managed to negotiate the roads quite well.
I’ve simply started operating on the premise of doing the opposite of whatever my natural reaction is.
And this seems to work rather well except in moments when I’m extremely tired or stressed, which is when I’ve found my mind will wander back to automatic pilot mode and therefore take to driving towards oncoming traffic – eep!
Actually, that’s been one of the really handy things.
At first I thought it would be best if I drove during times of the day when minimal traffic would be on the road, however, I’ve found that having traffic coming directly towards me makes it much easier to remember which side of the road is mine :)
So now it’s mostly just car parks where I’ll sometimes drift over to the left until I round the bend towards some be-mused motorists who’s sitting there wondering what the hell I’m doing driving directly towards them :)
One thing that takes some getting used to though, is the Canadian penchant for having two or three lanes for one direction of traffic.
I always find myself holding my breath as I’m driving and thinking skinny in the hope that I’ll fit my car in the lanes between the others… especially when there’s two large trucks on either side.
I think it’s a very good idea to have more than one lane going the direction, but they could have made a bit more of an allowance between them!
So driving here has become a task of whole hearted concentration as opposed to the lovely relaxing cruise it used to be back home.
But then we don’t drive nearly as fast either. The highways here carry traffic at a usual speed of 140kph (which makes merging a rather terrifying experience) and a minimum of 120kph. The official limit is actually 100kph.
I’m actually quite surprised I’m still alive to write this email, after a few near misses while I adjusted to checking my blind spot over my left shoulder and getting used to the indicators being where the window wipers should be.
Not only that, but as I mentioned before with three lanes all going the same way you could very well be trying to merge into the middle lane just as someone from the outside lane is doing so.
All this is done at breakneck speed, with you having to remain within the limits of the tiniest sliver of a lane, divided only from others by painted dots on the road, and all the while trying to keep your eyes on the street signs ahead to make sure you don’t miss your exit and are in the correct lane to take it when it finally approaches!
Hence I’ve gotten lost quite a few times, but the positive is that it’s helped me familiarise myself with areas very quickly – so there you go, always a silver lining :)
And at the moment we’ve just sticking to an automatic – changing gears with your right hand would just be WEIRD!
Thankfully the road rules seem simple enough though – if you’re turning right you go and if you’re turning left you wait as far as I can tell.
Quite handy that you can turn right on a red light too - although perhaps I better not get TOO used to it in case I try it at home when we’re back in January!
Until then – here’s hoping I’ll live to write to you again another day :)
Love always,
Leafy
