For me, I get, "Oh, so you're not Omani?!" so often that I forget sometimes that I am an expat. Since I get this from Omanis and Western & European expats (Arab expats know better and so does ANYONE who hears my attempts at Arabic---give me a few years why don't you LOL?!!!) I forget sometimes that my passport is gonna expire because I don't really think about leaving Oman. But then, I remember how beautiful the trees are and valley where my father lived, and the politics, and anything that was better about Canada than Oman and my Omani friends go, "why did you come here?"
I love it here in Oman, and won't really ever go back (at least not in my plans now) but the places where we live define us, the way diamonds are made into diamonds by the earth they are surrounded by, oil the same. People and places make eachother what they are.
Today I forgot it was Canada Day until Muscat Mutterings did this lovely post: http://muscatmutterings.blogspot.com/2010/07/happy-canada-day.html . Yes, one of the girls of OPNO is Canadian.
From Muscat Muttering's lovely post:
1. "Smarties, Crispy Crunch & Coffee Crisp are all Canadian.
2. Baseball is Canadian - First game June 4, 1838 - Ingersoll, ON.
3. Lacrosse is Canadian.
4. (Ice) Hockey is Canadian.
5. Basketball is Canadian. (the Americans played it but we're the ones that decided to cut a hole in the basket instead of using a ladder to get the ball out everytime).
6. Apple pie is Canadian .
7. Tim Hortons makes better coffee and doughnuts than ANY American brand.
8. In the war of 1812, started by America, Canadians pushed the Americans back past their White House. Then we burned it, and most of Washington. In fact, that is why it is painted white. They stole our mace though!!!!!
9. Canada has the largest French population that never surrendered to Germany.
10. We have the largest English population that never ever surrendered or withdrew during any war to anyone (yes, we have , never lost a war) anywhere. Ever. (We got clobbered in the odd battle but prevailed in all the wars).
11. Canada's civil war was fought in a bar and lasted a little over an hour. The drunks talked too much and the gov. found out.
12. The only person who was arrested in the civil war was an American mercenary, he slept in and missed the whole thing. He showed up just in time to get caught.
13. A Canadian invented Standard Time.
14. The Hudsons Bay Company once owned over 10% of the earth's surface and is still around as the world's oldest company - although an American company (NRDC Equity Partners) purchased them in July 2008.15. Boo!
15. The average dog sled team can kill and devour a full grown human in under 3 minutes.
16. Canadians invented ski-doos, jet-skis, Velcro, zippers, insulin, the paint roller, roller skates, duct tape, the jolly-jumper, air conditioned vehicles, the Zamboni, the barcode, short wave radios, the Blackberry and the telephone.
17. The light bulb was actually invented by a Canadian (Henry Woodward patented it in 1874). The patent was bought by an American named Edison who improved upon the design and took credit for inventing it.
18. A Canadian invented Superman.
19. We have coloured money.
20. Canadian love beer (unless their Muslim like me!!!) I bet the Canadian club in PDO is going to have fun tonight;p
Saying about Canada or famous saying about Canada (btw, the books are cover art from my suggested reading list, if you want to learn a little more about my homeland): SAYINGS ABOUT WHAT I LOVE ABOUT CANADA: I am rather inclined to believe that this is the land God gave to Cain.-Jacques CartierReferring to what would be called "Canada"
It's going to be a great country when they finish unpacking it.-Andrew H. Malcolm
The beaver, which has come to represent Canada as the eagle does the United States and the lion Britain, is a flat-tailed, slow-witted, toothy rodent known to bite off its own testicles or to stand under its own falling trees.-June Callwood
"I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind."-John DiefenbakerFrom the Canadian Bill of Rights, July 1, 1960
"As we enter our centennial year we are still a young nation, very much in the formative stages. Our national condition is still flexible enough that we can make almost anything we wish of our nation. No other country is in a better position than Canada to go ahead with the evolution of a national purpose devoted to all that is good and noble and excellent in the human spirit."-Lester B. Pearson
"Canada has never been a melting-pot; more like a tossed salad."-Arnold Edinborough
"In any world menu, Canada must be considered the vichyssoise of nations, it's cold, half-French, and difficult to stir."-Stuart Keate
"You look at the history -- the aboriginal people welcomed the first settlers here with open arms, fed us and took care of us ... that continues today, we welcome people from all nations to come in and share."-Peter Stoffer
"Canada is probably the most free country in the world where a man still has room to breathe, to spread out, to move forward, to move out, an open country with an open frontier. Canada has created harmony and cooperation among ethnic groups, and it must take this experience to the world because there is yet to be such an example of harmony and cooperation among ethnic groups."-Valentyn Moroz
CANADIAN TAKE ON NATIONALISM (lol, so different from Khaleeji countries):
"Canada is an interesting place, the rest of the world thinks so, even if Canadians don't."-Terence M. Green
"Canada is the only country in the world that knows how to live without an identity."-Herbert Marshall McLuhan
"Canadian nationalism is a subtle, easily misunderstood but powerful reality, expressed in a way that is not to state directed - something like a beer commercial or the death of a significant Canadian figure." -Paul Kopas
"Canadians do not like heroes, and so they do not have them." -George Woodcock
"Canadians have been so busy explaining to the Americans that we aren't British, and to the British that we aren't Americans that we haven't had time to become Canadians." -Helen Gordon McPherson
YOU KNOW YOU ARE CANADIAN IF THESE SAYINGS ABOUT AMERICA MAKE YOU PROUD TO BE A CANADIAN:
"I don't even know what street Canada is on."-Al Capone
"Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States. "
-J. Bartlet Brebner
"A Canadian is sort of like an American, but without the gun."-Anonymous
"Canadians don't have a very big political lever, we're nice guys."-Paul Henderson
"Canadians were the first anti-Americans, and the best. Canadian anti-Americanism, just as the country's French-English duality, has for two centuries been the central buttress of our national identity."-Jack Granetstein
"God Bless America, but God help Canada to put up with them!"-Anonymous
"The Canadian is not an American - at least, not entirely, not yet."-Alistair Horne
"We shall be Canadians first, foremost, and always, and our policies will be decided in Canada and not dictated by any other country."-John G. Diefenbaker
"You Canadians have given us such hope to carry on. We admire your bravery. You are the neighbour of such a rich, powerful country, and yet you don't mind clashing with them. Well, that gives us more confidence."-Pedro Gutierrez [why canadian were cheering for Mexico in FIFA 2010]
On being an expat Canadian: "I read and learned and fretted more about Canada after I left than I ever did while I was home. I absorbed anything I could on topics that ranged from folklore to history to political manifestos... I ranted and raved and seethed about things beyond my control. In short I acted like a Canadian."-Will Ferguson
"If you don't believe your country should come before yourself, you can better serve your country by livin' someplace else.Stompin'"- Tom Connors
"For some reason a glaze passes over people's faces when you say "Canada". Maybe we should invade South Dakota or something."- Sandra Gotlieb [Wife of Canadian ambassador to U.S.]"The reigning Miss Canada has been arrested for punching out another woman in a bar fight . . . Quite frankly, I think it's refreshing to finally find one beauty pageant winner who is against world peace."-Jay Leno
SO HAPPY CANADA DAY my expat friends:D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
***even my American ones;) who are always apologising to me about the softwood lumber lol****
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