Things I will miss most from Canada

I actually wrote this at the end of September but I figure I will edit this and post since I have spent a month in not-sunny Vancouver and have regained perspective.

1. Cheaper and better gluten-free products

This has got to be one of the major drawbacks of being in Strasbourg. It's crazy expensive. For example, I just spent 3.20 euros on 5 slices of bread. And not even big slices.

edit: Prices are actually pretty similar but you just get more bread for your money.

2. Cheaper anything

Example One: Cloth bags for grocery shopping. In Canada, maybe the most you would spend is $5 for something super nice. Here, the cheapest I have found is 5.60 EUROS and it was crap. And they sell crappy thicker plastic bags (like the Ikea bags which are uber awkward) for up to 15 euros!

edit: OK, I spent $8.95 for some pretty swank shopping bags when I went back to Vancouver. But you can also spend 99 cents for something similar.

Example Two: A Brita water filter. In Canada you might pay $15 for one. And it may or may not include filters. Here it's about 30 euros and each filter is about 6 euros!

edit: I looked for the specific filter in Vancouver and we don't have it. dang.

Example Three: Cheap chinatown bowls. This was my source for anything breakable I needed in the kitchen in Vancouver, Hamilton, Montreal, Toronto. At most I would pay $1 for a bowl, but usually it would run me about 50 cents. Well, for the exact same 50 cent and 1 dollar bowls, Strasbourg is selling them at rockbottom prices of 5 and 10 euros!!!! I almost had a heart attack.

I could go on but I'm trying to let these things go. Damn zoom for going bankrupt. I could've started a consumer products run going back and forth and selling to expats.

edit: now that I have been back, I realize there are a lot of things that are cheaper in France. And the food in France is way better quality so maybe this is what we pay for.

3. Dog-poo free sidewalks. I won't elaborate. Just know I think I have mastered the "look 30 feet ahead, scan, and walk safely according to memorized poomine map" walk.

4. Free service numbers. This still shocks us. If you need any service of any kind (eg. Electicity company, France Telecom, internet, GOVERNMENT lines), you have to PAY per minute!!! It's crazy! They charge from 0.15 to 0.50 euros per minute. I still can't get over this. Coincidentally, our internet service provider provides a free service phone number but you can NEVER reach a person. Ever. Actually, I should expand this to all services. Nothing is ever straightforward.

edit: I won't elaborate...see rant from earlier posts

5. Asian restaurants. I still can't believe there are no real asian chefs in this country. I refuse to believe that! NEVER take a good pad thai for granted! We still haven't found one japanese restaurant here. Actually, I saw one but it was boarded up. I'm guessing it's because they charged 40 euros for one piece of sushi and people caught on.

edit: I stand by this 150%. Nothing beats Vancouver asian cuisine.

6. Websites that work. What I mean by this, is websites for things like the train, or the plane or the bus that actually tell you what you want to know, allow you to make reservations, and assume that you want the most direct and cheapest route possible. The best example is SNCF, the national French rail system. When we booked our tickets via the web from Marseille to Strasbourg, what they DIDN'T do is 1) make sure we don't have to switch train stations in Paris and 2) tell us there is a direct train from Marseille to Strasbourg!?! Live and learn.

edit: these websites are even more annoying when you are in Vancouver.

7. Web-savvy people. And I will include people like our parents in this. Because people still don't get the email concept here, they will use their child's email address rather than getting their own. Or they will give you the wrong email address many times until you realize that the "." is in the wrong spot. Or they just never check it even though you tell them you are going to email them.

8. Customer service.....

I can only come up with 7 so far. I am in the midst of writing a similar list for Strasbourg but I figure I will do that when I re-discover them (like pain au chocolats which I re-met an hour ago...yum).