Difficult questions

• How did the french word "entrée" (starter) acquire its current meaning of "main dish" in American English? (the OED has some information but I didn't find a good answer)

Living in the US - subtle and not so subtle differences

As a European living in the States has many surprises. We like to complain about the waste of energy, poor quality of food, bad public transportation (called "transit" here!), the bad public education (here we are joined by many Americans who home-school their kids), the horrendous cost of health care and housing, etc. The list goes on and on. After a few months, however, or when we go home for a visit to good ol' Europe we miss the air condition, our two cars, being able to find parking everywhere, the general friendliness of people, being able to shop around the clock and whatnot. There are a few curious facts, however, that I can neither explain nor make sense of. This list is still growing:

• American packages virtually never have an opening tab or perforated strip. You always have to poke your finger between the glued layers of cardboard and rip the stuff open. This is so anti-convenience, thus un-American.
• The standard issue-appliances in US apartments (also the low to mid price range new stuff in stores) look incredibly old fashioned. As if they had decided in the 70s not to change the style ever again. Modern home-owners of course take pride in Bosch, etc. - German made, stylish high quality appliances, often even with German labeled buttons.
• In the same vein: American washing machines just don't get anything clean. I guess people take their stuff to the dry cleaner's for this purpose. Update: It took us a while to realize that the main reason for the poor performance is that American washing machines actually don't heat the water. Warm water runs in from the tap and that's it. So even if you choose the "hot" setting, it wont really be hot.
  This whole issue is deeper rooted: American seem to prefer chemistry over physics. They like to put bleach into everything: washers, drinking water; Also they have their nutritional supplements stores, where you can buy bodybuilders' protein and all sorts of artificial vitamins. I mentioned that we didn't have those in Europe to a colleague and got a surprised look: "And where do you buy your vitamins?". Well, in the fruit section of a grocery store...
• And more: The standard American vacuum cleaner is deafeningly noisy - and inefficient. I concede that with the abundance of carpets one needs the rotating brushes, but why they have the fan before the dust bag escapes me. Suck in any object larger than a sesame seed and you might think this was the last thing your vacuum cleaner ever took in.
  Update: Now that we own a house in Canada we know that everybody has central vacuum systems. The noise is even worse, but the noisy unit is tucked away in the garage so that it doesn't bother us.
• All the coffee you can buy in America, including Starbucks & Co. and small roasting companies' grinds taste sour. It is very hard to come by beans which will yield a taste similar to the European one. Update: turns out, long enough exposure to North American coffee will force tastebuds to adapt...
  

The Canadian section

Now, before we came to Canada we hadn't realized that this country is actually different from the US. One of the biggest things here is trying to define what it means to be Canadian. As Austrians, we sympathize: A small (by population) country next to a big, loud neighbor with a somewhat related language. And both Austria and Canada were once (part of) a big empire. Regarding Canada-Austrian relations, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that Canadians as opposed to US Americans do know about the existence of Austria as a country.

There are many ways in which Canada is between the US and Europe. For example in units of measurement. Before I came to Canada I had been told that the country was metric. That's only partly true. Sure, you'll buy gas in liters and drive kilometer distances. But even the prices for fruit in the supermarket have a large-letter per pound price with a small per kilogram text underneath. You will find some basic metric screws between the masses of imperial-sized ones. But the metric system is completely forgotten as soon as you have to do with construction, buildings, etc. Everything is in inches and feet then. While I am talking about screws: Canada has some unique things, for example screws heads for square (Robertson) screwdrivers. They are so ubiquitous that it is difficult to find anything else. Mind you, they are not bad, that is if you have the exact fit screwdriver (they have numbers 0-5(?)).

As I mentioned, Canadians are generally very nice people. One of their not so obvious traits is that they don't like to haggle. If some service or thing has a certain price then that's the way it is. Shopping around, comparing prices and trying to play dealers against each other is not really theirs. Now, this may just be a local observation and for sure nothing said here will apply to French Canadians.

Fun

At the breakfast buffet in a Sapporo (Japan) hotel: "This milk is for used cornflakes"