Geographically Challenged Hawaiians
When I used to live in Victoria I met a young woman (early 20's) working at a Starbucks in the posh neighbourhood of Oak Bay. She mentioned to me that she had never been off of Vancouver Island - not even once. To say I found this strange would be the understatement of the decade.
Fast forward to today. Many people working here have asked where we're from. Whenever I've said just "Vancouver" I received a puzzled look. Twice there would be a pause and then they'd ask, "Vancouver, Washington?" My response was always the same: "No, the real Vancouver!" A bit snobbish, I know, but it was intended in a playful way.
Today our waitress at lunch was a delightful young woman, in her early to mid-20's. She had no idea where Vancouver was and when I asked her where she thought it might be, she said, "Near the Hoover Dam?" In her defense, she gets airsick on planes and so rarely travels by plane. Still, don't most people know approximately where the major cities in North America are? Apparently not all.
1 comment:
Aloha Rob,
I trust you are having a great time over there in Honolulu (where is that again? ;-).
Your story reminded me of when I was visiting New York back in the early 90s and was speaking with a 20-something-ish woman who asked me where I was from. When I said Vancouver, she had that "puzzled look" you describe. So I said, "it's in Canada."
She said, "oh yes, I've been to Canada." And I said, "where did you go?"
She said, "you know, Canada."
"Which part?"
"What do you mean? Canada. I took the road to Canada."
(I'm not making this up.)
"Which road?"
"You know, the road that goes to Canada."
"Well Canada's a big place, geographically it's the 2nd largest country in the world and larger than the U.S. so..."
"No it's not!"
"What?"
"It's not larger than the U.S."
"Well, not population-wise, but geographically it is."
"No, the U.S. is the largest country in the world."
(Seriously, I really am not making this up.)
"Well actually that would be Russia and Canada is 2nd."
"No, it's not. The U.S. is the largest."
She was actually a very nice woman, but I was so frustrated with this topic I think I finished the conversation by saying, "you know, you're right, if you ever take the road to Canada again, look me up. I'll take you for a ride on my dog sled."
"You have a dog sled?"
Anyways, perhaps after the 2010 Olympics a few more people will know where Vancouver is.
Mark.
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