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it's strange what people here(Taiwanese) consider far. There is a woman my wife used to work with , who now teaches at a school 15 KM from her home. During the week she often sleeps in the school dormitory because it's just too far for her to drive home every night. This place is just a pube and half bigger than Vancouver Island, with 95% of the 23 million located on the western coastal plains. Anything further than a couple of blocks requires you drive....and then spend an hour looking for parking.

It's also a land of extremes in the way people react to you to go back to the original theme of cold cities/societies. The Chinese are either 'aggressively' friendly, or they don't see you..period. There doesn't seem to be a happy medium. While I generally like people...to a degree, I'm not the touchy-feely, hugging, always have to hang out type. ...many of my Chinese(and Israelis and Arabs I must add) friends are. Cultural differences in personal space discussions are my pollite ways of dropping hints.

   

Best one was a young British soldier at BATUS (CFB Suffield - just outside of Medicine Hat): "I have 3 days off, my Da said I should visit Toronto, where can I catch a train?"

The look on his face as he was trying to grasp the fact that he couldn't get there was sort of sad.

   

They shut down the Medicine Hat - Toronto Express?

   

Cutbacks, amigo.

   

I've rode the Vancouver-Winnipeg express a couple of times.

   

Took a couple neighbours in Burnaby with us to our cabin. She was Bermuda born, was griping about the distance by Cache Creek. He was French and commented it was like when they lived in Marseilles and decided to go on a road trip - to Moscow....
Shortly after he was offered a choice to manage a hotel for a chain, either in Prince George or Prince Rupert. She looked at a map, shit bricks, and they moved back to Bermuda.

   

People from small countries and small places have a hard time getting their heads around the scale of places in North America.

Calgary to Vancouver is about the same distance as Jerusalem to Baghdad.

The best parts of the Middle East would all fit into BC with room to spare.

And then these folks are amazed at the scale of Canada when they've probably never been more than 200km from the US border. They'd be gobsmacked if they tried the drive from Vancouver to Beaver Creek.

Unlike Europe, there's places in Canada where you can still go and be the first human being in history to have set foot in the place.

   

It is tough for them, what's interesting is the converse for us:

It's amazing to realize how small Europe is and how many people are packed into it.

Villages every few klicks. Astounding.

   

I had Taiwanese friends move to Germany, because they liked the wide open spaces. I explained to them that North Americans left Europe because we found it too crowded.
It's the same in Israel. I've walked from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and back in an afternoon, and biked(pedal version) to Tel Aviv.

   

I know that I find it hard to grasp Lake Superior is almost identical in size to Ireland with a pop of 6.4 million!

   

Lake Superior has 6 1/2 million people living in it?

   

Not living...

   

How about a comparison of a friendly place like Vancouver Island to the United Kingdom.
Vancouver Island: 944,735 sq km, pop 740 The UK 243,610 sq km, 61.7 million do we approve?

   

Couple of more people than 740.

   

Couple of more people than 740. [/quote]

Opps I meant 740,000 and it is probably more like a million now it's been a while since I've visited my aunt and uncle @ Hannah Court!

   

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