bound by wild desire, i fell into a ring of fire...

Alana and I hosted a party at our flat last night and it was so much fun. The power was out half the time and it was super hot, but we sat around in romantic candlelight and had a great time with so much great food made by Sheuli. There were Americans and Canadians and South Africans and British and New Zealanders all mixed together, and being in this atmosphere of great intercultural diversity I have noticed something. Americans think that for the most part, there is very little difference between Americans and Canadians. And until last night I would have agreed to a point: that in terms of language and proximity and culture, we are a very similar group. However, last night it was not the Americans in whom I found a bit of home but rather – surprisingly – in Kate, from England. I never knew just how much Canadians and Brits have in common. (Alana thinks it’s a commonwealth thing because Annabel from New Zealand says the same thing.) It was so great though to talk with Kate and understand where she’s coming from and what she misses about home even though it’s SO very different from Canada. We talked about everything from fall and cold weather to tea and literature. It was wonderful…and it was also great to have someone on my side in terms of use of the English language. Some of the Americans last night were trying to tell us that “you all” (or y’all) is the proper way to address a group of people. I don’t think Kate and I made any headway concerning their perceptions of what qualifies as “proper” English, but it was good to have someone on my side none-the-less. And for the first time last night I realized that American English – which is so forced upon us through computers etc – is used really only in America and anywhere else in the world that speaks English uses a more British (or Canadian) form of it. It was a very liberating feeling to think of it in that way.
In any case, it is my goal this month to convince some of the Americans here that there is a difference between a “program” and a “programme”.