In case you missed it:

• I have a problem when it comes to spending money on something (probably not what you think!)

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It’s time for another lesson on the difference between Canadians and Americans. This time: The Holiday Edition!

How many Americans knew that it’s NOT Thanksgiving for Canadians this week? YAY for you if you did! The Canadian Thanksgiving was actually at the beginning of October – October 10 to be exact. Yup, I was running a marathon on our Thanksgiving

Maybe I’ll just have to celebrate this weekend to make up for it??

Here’s a very informative article on WHY Canadians and Americans celebrate Thanksgiving on totally different dates.

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So since we don’t have Thanksgiving coming up this Thursday we also don’t have this craazzzyyy Black Friday thing y’all are talking about!

What we do have in Canada is Boxing Day (December 26). There are always lots of sales happening on Boxing Day and it’s a great day to buy TV’s or other electronics because a lot of them are half-off. Of course, considering it’s the day AFTER Christmas it kind of defeats the purpose when it comes to Christmas shopping

I’ve also heard that we have a lot more public holidays in Canada. We have a long weekend almost every single month of the year except for three and a few months (like April and December it’s a 4-day weekend because of holidays.)

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January – New Years Day

February – None (3 provinces in Canada do celebrate ‘Family Day’ in February, though!)

March – None

April – Good Friday AND Easter Monday (4-day weekend, whoop!)

May – Victoria Day (a.k.a May Long Weekend)

June – None

July – Canada Day (which is July 1)

August – August Civic Holiday (a.k.a. August Long Weekend)

September – Labour Day

October – Thanksgiving

November – Remembrance Day

December – Christmas Day + Boxing Day

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I love having so many long weekends to look forward to throughout the year, having a long weekend or a random day off work to look forward to really makes the 5-day work weeks more bearable don’t ya think?

I think those are the only really differences: Canadians still celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas the same way as Americans do (in a traditional sense). And Canada Day could be compared to Independence Day – there are very patriotic celebrations that happen and fireworks of course – I talked more about Canada Day here!

So, tell me, AND BE HONEST, did you know that it wasn’t Thanksgiving for Canadians this week?

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Last year when I posted about Canada Day a surprising number of my American readers had no idea what I was talking about!

Well, my lovely American friends, I’m here to tell you that your country is not the only one that celebrates a special day to honour your nation. We do it too! Every July 1 = Canada Day. The reason for it being July 1 is because it’s the date that Canada actually became a country, back in 1867! You can read about that here.

Basically this means a day off of work (yes, it’s a statutory holiday!), a day of parades and flag-waving, and maple leafs being painted on faces and people getting drunk. Hehe.

Want to know some interesting facts about Canada?

• The country of Canada takes up most of North America and is the second largest country in the world!
• We don’t have “states”, we have 10 provinces and three territories. I live in the province of British Columbia, which is the most western province.
• Canada is a constitutional monarchy, and technically, the Queen (yes, the Queen of England) is the highest head of state in Canada.
• We don’t have a President, we have a Prime Minister.
• We don’t have Democrats and Republicans. We have Liberals and Conservatives (the two main parties but there are more). I’ve been writing a post in my head about the difference in our political systems – I will plan to post it soon!
• We have a publicly-funded health care system.
• The border between Canada and the United States is the worlds longest undefended border (hi pals!)
• Our population density is among the lowest in the world! Remember how I explained we have 30 million people compared to the U.S. 300 million?!
• Canada has more lakes than any other country in the world and most of the worlds fresh-water is in Canada!
• Our money is colourful
• We spell things with a “u” – colourful, favourite, neighbour.
• Canada’s culture is greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world – we’re a very multicultural country.
• No, we don’t ALL speak French (I don’t) but our official languages are French AND English

Traveling to different countries has taught me a lot, a lot, A LOT of great lessons. But the biggest lesson of all? Appreciate where you’re from; traveling has made me love my country and province even more. I never want to live anywhere else!

Happy Canada Day! I, for one, am EXTREMELY PROUD to be a Canadian!

I was really shocked to read in the comments on Monday’s post that some Americans, when traveling internationally, said they were Canadian because otherwise people would be rude to them and attack them with questions and accusations about their country.

I didn’t know that.

I have to admit, I did grow up hearing a lot of American stereotypes: rude, arrogant, demanding etc. But, after “meeting” so many Americans through blogs – some who I now consider my close friends – I have to say those stereotypes don’t ring true to me at all.

You can’t judge an entire country by the attitudes of a few. Trust me, there are some REAL rude Canadians out there. I’ve met them.

Now that I think of it, when we were in Germany people were always kind of leery of us at first and then our hosts would say that we are from Canada and they warmed up to us right away.

It’s really unfortunate that it has come to that, though. I’m super proud to be Canadian and I could never imagine how it would feel to hide where I’m from because people would judge me because of that.

On that note, speaking of backpacks, should me and Eric take backpacks to Europe or suitcases? We are flying on Easyjet 3-4 times and taking a train all throughout Italy.

My friend sent me this article about that and I think the backpack looks HUGE and I’m not sure if we need something that big since we’re only going for three weeks!

Backpack or suitcase? (And, if backpack, where can we buy them for relatively cheap?)

And, if you’re American, have you ever said you were Canadian (or wanted to) when traveling internationally? Why or why not?