There are not many Canadian ads available on the Internet, and most of the “original” ones are from a Canadian beer brand, which slogan is “I am Canadian”. The ads of this brand basically show stereotypes about Canada. The aim of this article being to analyze the cultural differences the ad reveals and how the ad I chose would be perceived in France, using one of these ads would be pointless – these ads only suit the Canadian market. But you can still watch them by searching “Molson I Am Canadian” on YouTube if you want, most of them are funny!

Instead, I decided to choose this ad, which had a bit of an Internet success earlier this year and arouse lots of reactions (maybe you’ve already seen it):

Broadcasted on the main Canadian TV channels, this offbeat made-in-Canada ad denounces discriminations towards gay people in Russia, where the last Olympic games took place. In order to do so, the ads uses humour, and aims pretty much everybody – maybe not children though, the ad being quite suggestive (but that’s what makes it surprising). I also like the fact that this ad is not about Canada’s politics, but about an other country’s.

I think it reveals Canadian’s open-mindedness about the question, in a country where it’s been almost a decade since gay marriages are allowed in the whole country (2005), and even more for same-sex adoption (1999). But apart from the gay rights issue, from what I saw, I can say that Canadians are more open-minded than us in general: for example, they are very friendly and want to get to know you better even if you just arrived in town, or even if you just order something at their store… So this ad just shows a part of their open-mindedness 🙂

Yet, Canada is not the only country that has made an ad about this political issue: even if Canadian operator Bell also included a gay couple in its Sotchi-related ad, a Norwegian sports retailer also created a buzz on social networks with this ad.

But back to the main ad of this article: if this ad was broadcasted in France, I think it would encounter lots of critics, or at least very mixed reviews. Its suggestiveness would probably make it censored by the CSA, and gay rights are still a sensitive subject in our country at this time. It is also very very rare that an ad about another country’s problems and/or politics is on our screens, apart from NGOs’. That’s why I found this ad interesting: it is funny, and yet unusual for us.

Long time, no speak but I’ve been very busy in February dealing with midterms and a few group works. And I’m back with heavy stuff!! 🙂

Indeed, Caroline, Delphine & I took advantage of the Spring Break (well, okay, it’s called Reading Week Break at St. FX) to escape Antigonish in order to visit a bigger city. And we ended up in New York City for three days! (just kidding- this trip was planned weeks before). This was our first time ever in the Big Apple.

We rented an apartment in the neighborhood of Astoria. The apartment was as expected, it was very well-furnished and the owners were very nice. It was 1 minute away from the subway station, and 10 minutes away from Manhattan by subway. Living in this neighborhood allowed us to experience life in the Big Apple as true New-Yorkers 😉

Here’s what we did, this could maybe give people an idea of what you can do in NY in 3 days. Regarding all the things we visited, this might seem like a rush, but it wasn’t: we always had the time to fully enjoy what we were doing/seeing.

First day – February 25th

We were at the Empire State Building very early in the morning (8:30) in order to avoid the long waiting lines to go to the top. And it was worth it: we did not wait at all! Once on the observation deck, the view was just incredible. The Empire State is the tallest building in NYC so you can see the whole city and even farther. The morning light was beautiful!

We then bought some souvenirs and moved on to Grand Central (you know, this mythic train station you see in several movies and TV series!). Very impressive as well! The whole station was beautiful. I would love to take my back-home train here.

We then walked to Times Square. This place was, again, impressive (but “impressive” is, along with “huge”, a word that could be applied to the whole city though). Seeing all those ads and tall buildings is unusual yet very enjoyable.

We then did a few hours of shopping on 5th Avenue before going to the Top of the Rock situated at the top of the Rockefeller Center. It was 4:30 in the afternoon, the sun was going to set in a few couple of minutes so the view promised to be amazing, yet there was not much waiting line. Once on the top, the view was awesome: this observation deck is at the very top of a skyscraper and you have a full view on the Empire State Building on the South side, and on Central Park on the North side. This was my favorite view of NY.

We went back home, tired by all the walk we’ve done this day!

Second day – February 26th

We’ve started the day by going to Brooklyn, in order to see the two Manhattan-bound bridges there (Manhattan Bridge & Brooklyn Bridge), as well as to have a panorama of Manhattan.

We then did some shopping in the area, before going back to Manhattan in order to visit Chinatown and Little Italy. Chinatown is very surprising: although it is in Manhattan and a few blocks after the financial district, the buildings are not as high as in the rest of the peninsula. Moreover, everything is written in Chinese and apart from tourists, there are almost only Asian people hanging out there. Little Italy is quite disappointing though: it is basically constituted of two short streets full of Italian restaurants and cafés, right in the middle of Chinatown. We then moved to SoHo, one of the trendiest neighborhoods of New York. Caroline and Delphine then joined Times Square to see a Broadway show, and I went back home.

Third & last day – February 27th

We wanted to walk a bit in Central Park just before leaving NY- after getting a bit lost in the subway, we finally arrived at the right place, and that’s what we did! Unfortunately, there was snow this day: we didn’t get to see the view of the park surrounded by all the skyscrapers (which is Central Park’s specificity) because it was too foggy. Central Park must be way more enjoyable during the other seasons.

We then moved to the famous MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art). We were at first very disappointed because the first three floors are mostly showing drafts, plans and photographies: we fell like loosing our time. But on the last two floors, lots of masterpieces were exposed, so the visit ended well.

We then ate in a restaurant and continued the day by making a lot of shopping (buying clothes and souvenirs) on 5th Avenue and in Herald Square. We then moved to Times Square in order to eat a cheesecake in a bakery that a French friend in Antigonish has advised us. We bought it and ate it while resting in the free-access lounge of the Mariott Hotel, just in front of the bakery. It was sooo yummy!

For our very last sightseeing visit in NY, we wanted to have a view of the whole city by night. We heard that the free ferry that is going to Staten Island offers great views on the city and the Statue of Liberty, so we decided to move there. We took the subway to go there, as it was late (11 p.m.) and situated at the very South point of Manhattan.

And that’s when some kind of misadventure happened to us: while in the subway, one stop before our arrival (and the terminus), everybody that was in our subway car got off. The train then drove a little bit, and stopped a couple seconds after in the middle of the tunnel, without any announcement… 6 or 7 minutes after, the train still hasn’t started again and there was absolutely nobody in the subway cars next to us. We – well, particularly me to be honest – freaked out and imagined we missed the terminus, that we were going to be stuck all night there, with the lights off, no battery on our cellphones and no service anyway… So we pulled the emergency break. We then moved in the upper subway cars (in the NY subway, there are doors connecting the different cars) and finally saw two men who told us the train was going to start again very soon. We did this for nothing…

A few minutes later, the driver went up to us and asked why we did that. We explained her the situation and, despite one of her colleagues yelling some very nice things like “punish them!” in her talkie-walkie, and probably because she saw we weren’t American citizens, she told us it was okay and that the train will start again once she’ll fix the emergency break issue, in a few minutes. It finally did, and we arrived safe and sound at the good station, without having to pay any fine or stuff. More fear than pain!! But we still paralyzed an entire subway line for a few minutes in New York City…

Anyway. We took the ferry to Staten Island and had a nice view on Manhattan, the New Jersey, and the Statue of Liberty. We then stopped for 30 minutes in Staten Island before going back to Manhattan and home.

This is how our NY exploration ended! Financially speaking, our trip was supposed to be pretty cheap for NY: spending just a little more than 200€ per person was expected. This estimation was made including the price of the monuments’ entries (very expensive in NY) and of the housing. But this budget was exceeded (a lot) by all the shopping and restaurant-eating we’ve done…

On the whole, and if we take off the time lost loosing ourselves in the subway (NYC subway is not tourist-friendly at all in my opinion…), our trip in New York was just amazing. I am looking forward going back there again!!

Boston

Although New York City was the highlight of our Spring Break, we also spent one day in Boston, guided by an American friend that is also studying in Antigonish. We hang out in the city and walked in the downtown areas. We also had a walk on the campus of Harvard University and had a panorama on the whole city from Boston’s tallest building, the Prudential Tower. Below are some photos 🙂

 

Boston is a very lovely city, much smaller than New York (600,000 inhabitants while more than 8 millions in NYC) but also less busy and stressful. We absolutely loved the ambiance here and the European feel of the buildings (some places could totally be in Ireland or in the UK). We’ll definitely go here again!

Now that Spring Break is over, we’re back in Antigonish. With lots of work to do! Who ever said being an exchange student was like being on holiday…?