Dave's Yankee-land Odyssey, Day 1

[dave_littler]

Day three of my update-a-day schedule begins!

I recently took a week-long vacation in Tucson, Arizona, to visit my brother (coincidentally also named David), and my girlfriend, Stephy; the longest amount of time I'd ever spent away from Canada, and had intended to keep up a journal of my journey while there. For various reasons, this largely didn't

Comments

[moof]

The most annoying customs guards I've ever encountered were the American ones when re-entering Detroit from Windsor - and this was in 1997. These guards asked my gf, "How can you have a Michigan driver's license when you go to school in Illinois?", didn't like her answer, and decided to search the car for illicit goods over the next hour and a half. Canadian customs people have always been quite pleasant.

[dave_littler]

Yeah, American guards seemed almost angry that I wanted to enter or do anything in their country. Which, I suppose, it's not impossible that they were. I saw in these guys, though, a sort of attitude that I've only ever seen before on TV, in the form of American cops and other uniformed people in general. It seems almost like a cultural expectation that they should be fierce, scowling and disgusted by human contact.

[ext_319285]

I don't think it's just an American thing, the first time I traveled to Canada the guards took exception with pretty much everything about me. They pulled me out of line, questioned me for 2 hours, went through all my stuff, and made me explain every picture on my cell phone. I haven't had that level of paranoia on any of my future visits but it's off putting to have to justify your worth as a human being just to cross an imaginary line. I believe it's just how border guards are trained to act (to distrust and be suspicion of foreigners) as when crossing back into America I just answer 30 seconds of questions and I'm done.

[tcgiant]

decaffienated Dr. Pepper is a crime against humanity

[dave_littler]

Yeah, I dunno. I used to drink it and enjoyed the flavour as a kid, but never stuck with it the way I did with Coke. Then when I tried it as an adult, after that inane law had been abolished, I found it both enjoyable and satisfying. It's nice to be able to service that addiction with more than one flavour of pop.

[morgian_le_faye]

I am a citizen of the United States. I know that I should be offended by what you have written, but all I can do is nod my head in agreement. I feel like such a foreigner in my own country. And it is really really hard to keep in shape here unless you are constantly exercising and spend a ton of money on the healthy food. When you have no job because you are finishing up your degree with student teaching... healthy food and exercise kind of go out the window. The only thing that saved my weight was a seven day flu.

And I hate traveling by air. O'Hare is one big clusterfuck. The rules are stupid. I just hate it all.

[dave_littler]

I'm certainly no fan of it either. I think that between leaving my home here in Vancouver to arriving at my brother's place, it was somewhere around 14 hours of travel. Not a great way to spend a day.

The rest of my stay in the US did nothing to disabuse me of my initial impression in that Portland airport. It seems like a culture that doesn't WANT you to be in shape; it wants to stuff you with unhealthy food every moment of every day. I can see how very easy it would be to just give in.

[morgian_le_faye]

One does have to work at it. I've managed to keep most of the weight I lost due to flu off, but with Thanksgiving and the Christmas season just around the corner... At least I have plenty of time to exercising starting mid December!

[adriengriffon]

To be fair, since I work in security, those guards probably make close to minimum wage and are having to work two jobs just to pay the rent. The last thing they really want to do is smile and be pleasant to the teeming mass of humanity that goes through there every day. If they had their way, the gates would all be closed and no one would go anywhere. Busy means more paperwork which means more headache which makes for a very grumpy guard.

[nielsen12]

I agree that guards are little annoying, but not necessarily always…they are just doing their job..They have to be little strict and rude sometimes.