Have any of you lived abroad and returned to Canada? Share your experiences.

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by acottawa

I lived in Europe for 3 years about a decade ago. I didn’t have too much trouble to readjusting to Canada. There are definitely things I missed: non-Taliban approach to alcohol, cheap flights, the ability to go to some random 1000 year old town at the drop of a hat. But what won me over pretty quick was how damn functional Canada is. Public services generally work, private services generally work, somebody will usually help you if you have a problem, infrastructure is usually maintained. That just doesn’t happen in a lot of places.

That's it. I moved here when I was in my mid twenties. Canada is in general less culturally interesting than any European country and there are a small number of highly irritating things - alcohol laws as you say, protectionism causing high costs of cell phone plans, dairy, flights. But most everything else just works fine.

To people who have never lived anywhere else, they might think that Canada has high levels of dysfunction, or that this is normal. But we have nothing on other places - just look at the UK. Every decision made there takes years, is then scrapped and redone, and ends of costing far more and taking longer to make the decision they probably should have made in the first place.

[Acajack]

Not sure if people would count this as extensive experience living abroad but I've been abroad for extended periods (6-8 months at a time, roughly) without coming home, multiple times. Sometimes in a single country, sometimes in several countries during the period away. Long story.

Anyway, I've found much of the same stuff as others: after time spent in Europe I've found Canada lacking in history, urban charm, etc. And since I'm Acajack, I have also lamented the (relative?) lack of an identifiable national cultural identity. That's probably one reason why I've latched onto and support those parts of Canada that have the closest thing resembling that.

One angle that I don't think has been explored is that after being abroad and seeing how other people live and what they've sometimes had to endure, I had very little patience for people here whose life was seemingly ruined because their local Walmart was out of 29.99 DVD players on Boxing Day. I realize this is not something you will feel moving to Canada from the U.S., but when you've been living in less historically or economically (or both) privileged places for a while, this type of belly-aching (first world problems) really jumps out at you and is very irritating. At least to me.

Of course, we all fall back into the trap (at least to some degree) after being here for a while, but I do try to fight that part of human nature.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by vid

I'm afraid I have some bad news about the rest of the country, then. If you're only quoting this to provoke yet another argument about the climates of either coastal province, I will personally see to it that your access to this forum is temporarily abridged. Or not. I can't actually control that.

I had to laugh about his thoughts on Toronto winters. Being from the prairies, Ottawa winters are quite benign and I'd imagine Toronto's are tropical in comparison!

[VANRIDERFAN]

I have not been posted abroad, but have been deployed to a couple of operations (Haiti in the early 90's, East Timor at the turn of the century, Persian Gulf post 9-11) and the most profound effect on me was our landing ashore in East Timor. Seeing the destruction of villages, where their homes were burnt to the ground, etc made me appreciate Canada and what we have to offer even more. So when I hear Canadians bitch and moan about little things, I just think to myself "how would you survive if somebody came and murdered members of your family, burnt your home to the ground and destroy the infrastructure of your community?" Be damn thankful for what we have!

[jawagord]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

Agreed..and to think that the OP finds Toronto winters to be brutal.

People in Toronto don’t like to be reminded that by the weather standards of most of the world’s population they have a crappy winter, ditto for Vancouver and Victoria. Being the best in Canada, is still having one of the the worst winters by the majority of the world’s population.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by jawagord

People in Toronto don’t like to be reminded that by the weather standards of most of the world’s population they have a crappy winter, ditto for Vancouver and Victoria. Being the best in Canada, is still having one of the the worst winters by the majority of the world’s population.

Of course most of those places are downright miserable in the summer.

[jawagord]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Of course most of those places are downright miserable in the summer.

Point taken, however the most miserable summer weather I have experienced was during a visit to Niagra Falls, 36 C and 90% humidity is no day at the beach! Tropical weather can be quite temperate, sub-tropical weather is where summer extremes become unbearable.

[DrJoe]

Originally Posted by jawagord

Point taken, however the most miserable summer weather I have experienced was during a visit to Niagra Falls, 36 C and 90% humidity is no day at the beach! Tropical weather can be quite temperate, sub-tropical weather is where summer extremes become unbearable.

Those numbers are above normal of course. I wouldn't trade our summers for anything. There are no ridiculous requirements like having to wear a jacket at certain times of the day during the summer. It is good for the soul to have pure warmth all times of the day for at least a couple months in the year.

I mean really I'd say we have 9 months of quality weather. Spring is warm and rejuvenating, no freak snowstorms, summer is reliably hot from pretty much June through August, fall is very much like summer in the Prairies with warm days and cool nights, no snow. Winter is tricky as December brings cold and snow but who doesn't love that before Christmas? The matrix is January through March. It is cold and it snows, March teases you with spring but the takes it away and is well, muddy. Even still we go through freeze and thaw cycles all winter so you'll still get those nice melty spring feeling days.

I've made that all sound a little too idyllic but sometimes a little bit of perspective is good. There are maybe 2-3 weeks of the year when I wonder why the hell I live in this place that is seemingly unfit for human habitation. Most places have these weeks also, whether they been monsoons, heat waves, dust storms, wildfires, anything.

[FrAnKs]

Originally Posted by DrJoe

Those numbers are above normal of course. I wouldn't trade our summers for anything. There are no ridiculous requirements like having to wear a jacket at certain times of the day during the summer. It is good for the soul to have pure warmth all times of the day for at least a couple months in the year.

I mean really I'd say we have 9 months of quality weather. Spring is warm and rejuvenating, no freak snowstorms, summer is reliably hot from pretty much June through August, fall is very much like summer in the Prairies with warm days and cool nights, no snow. Winter is tricky as December brings cold and snow but who doesn't love that before Christmas? The matrix is January through March. It is cold and it snows, March teases you with spring but the takes it away and is well, muddy. Even still we go through freeze and thaw cycles all winter so you'll still get those nice melty spring feeling days.

I've made that all sound a little too idyllic but sometimes a little bit of perspective is good. There are maybe 2-3 weeks of the year when I wonder why the hell I live in this place that is seemingly unfit for human habitation. Most places have these weeks also, whether they been monsoons, heat waves, dust storms, wildfires, anything.

There's more : There are no major earthquakes occuring along the Eastern Half of the continent, which is good! We may envy the weather they get down south in California & Mild weather of BC, but having earthquakes that can happen anytime at the point it may kill you is not fun...

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by jawagord

Point taken, however the most miserable summer weather I have experienced was during a visit to Niagra Falls, 36 C and 90% humidity is no day at the beach! Tropical weather can be quite temperate, sub-tropical weather is where summer extremes become unbearable.

When I read his statement about places that are miserable in the summer, I didn't think he had southern Ontario in mind. I though he meant places that had little to no winter weather, like the southern tier of the U.S. for example.

[Acajack]

I've mentioned this before but I have to say before spending time abroad like many Canadians I definitely underestimated the relative harshness of winters in most of the country.

For a while I imagined that most temperate regions in the world were closer to the climates I was familiar with. And so for example I expected a place like the UK to be colder and snowier in the winter, but also hotter in the summer.

Generally speaking there is a huge difference at similar latitudes between western Europe and North America, that I was not aware of.

While I didn't expect it to be as cold as here, I also would have thought a country like Australia would have four distinct seasons a lot more than it does. I also expected New Zealand to be more continental, with colder winters and hotter summers.

[GreatTallNorth2]

Lived in the UK for 2.5 years in Bath, England. A bit of adjustment come from living in a UNESCO world heritage city to London, Ontario.

What I miss
- pedestrian focused planning of cities, convenient rail links to many destinations, short flights to Europe, British TV that has a lot of quality British content (absent in Canada), 6 weeks minimum holidays per year, Castles and Historic properties everywhere and affordable to spend a day there, British chocolate, creativity, strong regional identities in British people, dairy products (Canada’s dairy is a joke)

What I don’t miss
- chavs, feeling of being cramped living there, gloomy weather

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by GreatTallNorth2

What I don’t miss
- chavs, feeling of being cramped living there, gloomy weather

Oh come on Council Housed and Violent scrotes add some flavour to the place.

I recall in 1992 not yet engaged to be married and went to the UK with my now wife and we were a bit lost near Bath. We stopped in the car by a bus stop and asked the 'local' there for directions to a town about 20 km away where our B and B was. I spoke to the local and came back to the car and told her 'I have no idea what that guy was saying.' Having lived in Cheshire and Derbyshire as a kid and I thought I could fathom most UK accents , the strong Somerset accent threw me for a loop

[MolsonExport]

Almost anywhere in Canada, save perhaps for the lower mainland, Vancouver Island, and the Sunshine Coast, the weather basically is really shitty for half the year, awesome for 2-4 months (partly depending on your latitude) and passable for the remainder of the year.

London, Ontario is balmy in Winter compared to what I endured in Montreal, but I have come to realize that it is worse in London: Unrelenting Grey, cold blasts interspersed with soggy mildish days. I actually think I prefer the dryer, colder Montreal winters, with more predictable weather, more sunshine, and better skiing.

Vancouver sometimes had these insanely wonderful days in Dec-Feb, where the temperature got into the lower teens, the sun was shining, and you could contemplate going outside without a jacket. But mostly during that period, it was grey and soggy.

No place holds a candle to the (mostly wonderful, except for the Mistral winds) weather I experienced during my sojourner days in Provence.

[saffronleaf]

I haven't read all the responses but I want to apologize for venting. I obviously love this country and I'm incredibly fortunate to have been raised here and to live here. Sometimes moving back to your hometown can be challenging, but that's more on me than the hometown.

[saffronleaf]

Originally Posted by DrJoe

I have a hard time criticizing someone who has actually lived in both places when I have not but I find his paragraph about the weather very hyperbolic when you look at the statistics.

Denver averages more snow than Toronto and its overnight lows (his biggest complaint) are within a degree or two of Toronto (using Pearson Toronto is colder, using the Annex Toronto is warmer). In essence they are exactly the same in that regard and yet that is his biggest gripe. Denver does have Toronto handlily beat when it comes to date time highs (about 7C) but even still Toronto averages out to 0C, it ain't that bad.

Biggest difference is that in Denver you get so many breaks in the winter. Think of it as a warmer version of Calgary, with many warming periods in the day time and, as a result, little long-lasting snow cover.

I don't think my issue is the overnight lows. It's just the constant cold, snow cover, slush, ice... I really don't recall that in Denver (at least inside the city). Snow in Denver felt charming because it wasn't something you had to deal with constantly.

But it is what it is. Reflecting soberly on it, Toronto winters are not that bad.

[saffronleaf]

Also thanks to everyone for sharing their views. Lol clearly not many shared my frustrations.

[TownGuy]

Originally Posted by saffronleaf

Biggest difference is that in Denver you get so many breaks in the winter. Think of it as a much warmer version of Calgary, with many warming periods in the day time and, as a result, little long-lasting snow cover.

I don't think my issue is the overnight lows. It's just the constant cold.

But it is what it is. Reflecting soberly on it, Toronto winters are not that bad.

Just looking at, like Calgary, Denver only averages 3 snow free months a year. Toronto averages 5 (6 if you don't count October's amount of 0.1 cm). So while Toronto is colder during the winter, you aren't ever going to see snow in May or September.

This isn't to make some kind of Denver vs Toronto debate but a great example of climate tradeoffs.

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by saffronleaf

- Beyond that, none of my mixed feelings relate to Canada or Toronto specifically. It's just the usual challenges of "coming back home". Newsflash: if you've been away from "home" for an extended period of time, there is no "home" to return to. You're effectively starting anew.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Originally Posted by saffronleaf

I haven't read all the responses but I want to apologize for venting. I obviously love this country and I'm incredibly fortunate to have been raised here and to live here. Sometimes moving back to your hometown can be challenging, but that's more on me than the hometown.

If anyone's offended by what you wrote, that's their problem not yours. Don't apologise.