7 Ways Growing Up In Canada Is Wildly Different Than Growing Up In Europe

The views expressed in this Opinion article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.

Moving to a new country always comes with unique surprises, and being a newcomer to Canada often involves some serious culture shock. Whether it's Toronto slang, Canadian snacks or the chaotic environment at Costco, there's a lot to get used to.

Though I'm from Toronto, I grew up in Frankfurt and Geneva, only moving to Canada after graduating high school.

So, even though Canadian culture is a big part of who I am, there are some key parts of my European upbringing that would have been way different if I were raised here in the Great White North.

When fellow Narcity editor Morgan Leet and I were chatting about our favourite childhood memories, we noticed there were some clear distinctions.

Morgan was born and raised in Canada — first in Nova Scotia before moving to New Brunswick in Middle school (in Europe, we only had primary and secondary school).

Lunch-box goodies and snacks

Sierra: I remember at my school in Switzerland, there was a little pastry cart that sold treats in the hallway right after homeroom. You could buy a mind-blowing pain au chocolat or croissant for two Swiss Francs. It was honestly the highlight of my school day.

Still, I missed a lot of the fun snacking options that Canada had on offer; whenever we visited Toronto, I begged to have Lunchables like they were a delicacy.

Morgan: My days as a Canadian kid were filled with after-school Eggos drenched in maple syrup and bowls of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Healthy? Not exactly. Delicious? Oh yes.

Some of my favourite sugary snacks were Jos Louis, Dill Pickle chips and Coffee Crisp bars. It's not like we're eating poutine every day, but there are some undeniably tasty Canadian snacks.

Christmastime

Sierra: Christmas in Germany was next level — the markets were out of a dream. To this day, I'm obsessed with the holiday, and I attribute that in part to all of the whimsical experiences I had as a kid.

Each year in early December, we left our shoes outside for St. Nicholas, and he'd leave tangerines or chocolate in your shoe if you'd been good — or twigs if you'd been bad. (I usually got a mix, but always more twigs than my sister.)

Once, I saw a man dressed like him walking a donkey through the schoolyard on a quiet day. I was convinced, of course, that he was the real deal.

Morgan: My partner is German, so I understand on a deep level how different the holidays are for them. Of course, there are tons of different types of holiday celebrations in Canada, but my family was pretty low-key. There's the tree, some presents under it, and that's about it!

Vacation

Sierra: While we often went home for winter and summer vacation, my family was big on taking little trips around Europe. School breaks in the spring and fall usually meant a drive through the Alps to Italy, a train ride through France or a trek down to Spain.

It was cooler than my tiny, developing brain could fathom, and I wish I could do it all over as an adult (now that I have less of an are-we-there-yet mindset).

Morgan: Here's when the jealousy starts to really kick in. I can handle a croissant cart or even extra holiday treats, but the vacation spots get me. For East Coast Canadians, you either drive over to Maine or take a flight to Florida. I loved Disney World as much as the next kid, but I'll take Italy, thank you.

Shopping

Sierra: When we lived in Geneva, we were in close proximity to France, where the grocery prices were way cheaper. We always crossed the border to do our shopping, which is kind of hilarious looking back on it. The grocery stores we went to most were called Champion and Carrefour.

Needless to say, I was definitely spoiled with French bread and Swiss cheese.

Shopping for fun wasn't a huge thing over there, at least not in my memory. There were only two malls we ever went to — one that I'd go to with my friends because it had an Accessorize store, and one that had a movie theatre.

Morgan: Grocery trips were always to Sobeys or Superstore for my family, and they were an exciting adventure. I loved getting to tag along to Sobeys and pick out some snacks.

As I hit my pre-teen and teen years, going to the mall became the activity of the weekend. Not that we would actually buy anything — it was mostly wandering around the food court with Cinnabon and wishing we had more money to spend at Garage.

Movie theatres and TV

Sierra: Speaking of movie theatres, we didn't get all the latest releases in Europe. Frankfurt had a cool theatre that we went to rarely (once to see The Polar Express, once to see Love Actually and once to see Harry Potter 3) — there were red curtains around the screen that opened and closed, which felt very grand and classy in contrast to the sci-fi themed Cineplex Cinemas back home.

For a while, we had French TV and I only ever watched music videos on MTV, Friends in French or Ready Steady Cook in English. We eventually got British cable TV, and the programming was closer to what Canada gets (no Treehouse, Family or Teletoon, though).

But the biggest difference was the commercials. Those Brits apparently love their car insurance jingles. I still know the songs by heart.

Surprisingly, we also had the famous house hippo commercial, which was the same word-for-word but had a British guy narrating instead.

Morgan: I loved when we got to go to the movies. The biggest hits of my time were Ice Age, Cars, and Night at the Museum — which all still hit today.

I'll also never forget going to see Mamma Mia for the first time in the theatre. Core childhood memories.

Field trips

Sierra: In Germany, I remember we went to a pretzel factory for a field trip. No joke. In Switzerland, we went to do winter sports (and something called "underground adventure," which was honestly traumatizing). Once, we got to go to different houses of worship, which was pretty neat and honestly made me question religion in a pretty big way.

Morgan: My field trips were pretty basic — museums, aquariums and the zoo. One time in middle school, they took us to a water treatment plant, which to a 13-year-old kid, was as boring as it sounds, honestly.

Slang

Sierra: A lot of the multilingual slang went over my head, but one thing still stuck with me. As the kids might say "burn" in Canada, my classmates in Switzerland would say "cassé," which translates to "broken" in English. There was a weird arm gesture that went along with this, too. Sometimes I want to say it to people as an adult in Canada, but that would probably be weird.

Morgan: We had some pretty sweet slang in Canada that made me feel super cool as a kid. Whenever I would pull out a "ttyl" on MSN, I was feeling myself. There were also some exclusive Canadian words, like toque, that we used on the daily in the winter.