Proud to be.....

Today was supposed to be a quality workout (5x1400m repeats at the track). Now, whether or not I "made" myself get sick because I wanted to avoid this workout or if Mother Nature has really "bad" timing I decided to postpone the workout until tomorrow night. I am definitely on the way up from whatever bug I have had the last few days but it is certainly making breathing a little more difficult. Everything just sort of collects and pools in my nose until I have one MONSTER nose-blow that rips through the tissue. My fear of going to the track tonight is that I would do a "farmer's blow" and it would nail someone in the eye and make them loose their vision or something (ok, maybe a little dramatic - but whatever it takes to postpone the workout!) . I WILL be there tomorrow (hopefully with both nostrils working at full capacity).

But I did do 8 miles through the Bois de Boulogne as follows:
7:09/7:12/7:10/7:10/7:17/7:13/7:06/7:07 min/mile
Average Pace: 7:10 min/mile
Tranny Count: 6

Just after completing the 1st mile of my run I came across a young guy who was CLEARLY a tourist with the Canadian Flag proudly sewed onto the back of his backpack. So, I shouted out to him, "Way to represent Canada!" as I cruised by. He shouted back, "Yo man, are from Canada too?!! Awesome!" I did not stick around to exchange pleasantries but it made me laugh BECAUSE of the Canadian Flag.

I remember that while growing up in Canada we were indoctrinated that "We MUST distiguinsh ourselves from Americans when travelling abroad. You do NOT want to be confused as an American! Bad things WILL happen to you if people confuse you as an American!"

Now, no one particular person taught you this, it is just sort of "known" within the Canadian culture! Now, I want to explore this a little bit. I think that I am entitled because I have learned that one canNOT truely understand the stereotypes of another culture until they have lived in and experienced that culture. I was born and raised on Alberta Beef for 21 years. Then I moved to Missouri for a year, which was followed by Oklahoma for 2, and then Texas for 5. This makes for a total of 8 years of living in the states.

Along the way I learned some taboos that I was never exposed to as a Canadian but learned through one awkward social situation after another. Not to bore you I will provide just one example. In Canada (and I am quite certain in many other parts of the world) we lovingly refer to Americans in general as "Yankees" (just as we refer to ourselves as "Canucks"). This term is used with absolutely NO consideration of the civil war...besides we were too busy learning about our own Canadian history (did you know that the beaver's pelt was once used as a form of currency in Canada? We have celebrated this fact by proudly making the beaver our national animal and have made it the "tail" on our nickle (pun intended). And since I have totally digressed from my main point and BEFORE I hear all the cracks about our proud and noble national animal, let me remind you that it is, infact, Oregon's state animal as well.) Back to my main point, I learned that you do not make the mistake of calling your new buddy in Missouri (who is originally from Arkansas) a "Yankee" twice.

Besides this, and many other tidbits I picked up along my journey in America, do you know what the main thing is that I learned during those 8 years? The only real difference between Canadians and Americans is their GPS coordinate in which we are born. Ok, there are a lot of other obvious differences (i.e. enthusiasm about college sports (or, emphasis on sports in general for that matter), the way in which the countries were born, political systems, definition of "exit strategy", etc, etc...), but just in terms of general attitude and overall belief system (ok, Canada does NOT have a bible belt with big billboards that say "JESUS" in big block letters) I struggle to find massive differences. Now, do not get me wrong, if you tell me that Canada SHOULD be the 51st state (which many of you have, and will again I am sure) I WILL kick you in the nuts! I am very proud to be Canadian, but I am also very proud to have lived in the states.

Back to the Canadian flag on the young Canuck's backpack...I hope that he is wearing the flag ONLY because he is proud to be Canadian and NOT because he is proud NOT to be an American.

First and foremost I am proud to be Canadian, but I am sure grateful to have lived in the States and meet many wonderful friends there. I look forward to my return.

Maybe I should have saved this post for Canada Day (July 1), but maybe it is just better to capture the moment when it happens.

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