Warning: Long and occasionally incoherent post.
I promised to answer this and I will, now. I can see how you might think I hate my country. I’ve been hard on Canada lately. Still, every place has good and bad and I’ll try to make a few points about both.
First the bad:
The people are not fat in the cities, generally, but they get fatter the further you move away from our urban areas. The people in the suburbs are fat and the people in rural areas are often obese, which is contrary to some common assumptions but is borne out by facts. In general, people in our big cities tend not to look disgusting, which is more than I can say for most countries.
There are other problems. Smoking does not seem to be declining anymore. Drug use is everywhere and it’s not unusual to see some stoned weirdo howling at the moon in a shopping mall. I’m not saying that will happen every trip to the store but once every few months I’ll see something like that. Erika was really struck by it when she saw it happen as it’s unheard of in Colombia.
Mental illness and gender confusion are also rampant. I don’t know if the latter is a “problem” but it’s far, far higher than you’ll find in South America. Antidepressants are also rampant, which is probably better than the alternative but I don’t get why these are suddenly needed more than they were in the past.
Feminism is rampant.
The weather in winter is still godawful and the early sunsets in December are depressing.
Now the good:
The late sunsets in summer are amazing. It’s just cool to look outside at a beautiful blue sky and realize it’s well past 10pm. The sun sets around 10pm in June but it’s often still quite light until after 11.
The lack of desperation is really startling after you’ve been to other places (aside from possibly the EU). Everyone’s got theirs. Even the poorest have food and shelter and interesting things to do, and most have far more than that. Wages are good and prices are low and life is pretty easy for everyone.
Canada isn’t pristine enough for my tastes but it’s cleaner than any other nation I’ve ever seen. I’d still like to bring back public flogging for those few who litter, however.
Canadian drivers are generally competent and polite, although our high levels of immigration mean that you’ll see your share of stupidity on Canadian roads. It is not politically correct to observe that most idiotic driving is done by immigrants but everyone knows it’s true and occasional jokes among friends are ok. My cousin’s kid (mid 20s) recently said to me, “How do you blind a Chinese guy? Put a windshield in front of him.”
There is almost no religious zealotry. Or any zealotry, really. People seem to have perspective.
The food is simply amazing. Especially the sushi in Vancouver. It’s unique in the world as far as I know because of the way it comes about. Some Japanese guy will start a sushi place but then he’ll find he can’t hire any Japanese people to work there, so he has to hire Koreans and Chinese and even some white people, all of whom have different ideas about sushi. We end up with a fusion of cultures and tastes in our sushi that offends the purist Japanese but delights almost everyone else. Of course, the negative side of this is that, unlike Colombia, the temptation to overeat definitely exists.
Canadians are often educated, polite, well informed, well behaved and well travelled. They also tend to be clean and quiet. If you could choose your neighbours, you’d generally do well to pick Canadians. If you’re at a bar and you happen to be sitting beside a Canadian, you’ve got a reasonable chance at having a cultured and interesting conversation.
The nature is just stunning. In spring, summer and fall. It’s even stunning in winter as long as you can observe it from inside.
Now the introspective:
Can a country be too comfortable? I begin to wonder this. My life in Canada is beautiful and full of friends and activities but I still feel far more alive in Colombia than I do in Canada. I like who I’ve become in South America. It’s not that I particularly disliked myself in Canada but I was boring and often fat. In South America I’m healthy and more interesting. Moving here was the best thing I ever did.
That said, I am starting to feel in a rut here in Medellín. The expat community here is older and mostly American and they often come across like pedos. It’s always the same. Some fat 60 something guy will message me on FB and say, “Hey, you seem to know a lot about Colombia, can I ask you a few questions?” After the usual questions about safety and prices and how to rent an apartment as a foreigner, they almost always ask some variant on, “Hey, is it true that younger Colombian women like older men?” I sometimes ask, “How young are you talking?” and they’ll say, “Oh, adult of course, I’m not a pervert, you know around 20 or so.” Gag. Minor league pedophiles the lot of them.
Anyway, I’m starting to think it’s time for another move. Not right now. I get my permanent residency in December but after that, I might just look at moving, either within Colombia to Cartagena or perhaps even to Europe or Asia or Africa. This doesn’t mean I hate or even dislike Canada. Or Colombia. I just want to live before I die.