You’ll be plesantly suprised by NYC then. You can get great food there even cheeper than that, althogh the exchange rate might level that off a bit.
Huh?
Gyros are made from lamb. Well, at least in all the Greek restaurants and Greek homes I’ve been in it’s lamb.
OK, beef, even chicken gryos are fine. But when you say gyros, think lamb. With garlic sauce. Mmmmm!
What I’m used to is Donair, which is (I believe) Iranian. At least the ones I’m used to. Droooool!
Several people in this post have wistfully mentioned milk in bags, and I’m just not getting this at all. I live near Boston and I can get milk in 1qt, and half gallon cartons. I can get milk in 1qt, half gallon and one gallon plastic light block jugs. I can get milk in the high temperature patsteurized Parmalat-type container, both 1 liter and two liters.
I can get skim milk, 1%, 2%, and whole in all of these containers. I can get chocolate milk, lactose-free milk, and milk with added protein in most of these containers. I can get organic, organic skim, organic 1%, organic 2%, and probably chocolate organic milk in most of these containers. I can get soy milk, enriched soy milk, and chocolate soy milk in the cartons or the Parmalat-type containers. I can get rice or oatmeal milk, enriched and unenriched, plain or chocolate, in the Parmalat-type containers. Most of these also come in smaller sizes as well.
Yet apparently I am deprived because we don’t have milk in…bags? Is this REALLY GOOD milk? Or is it the bag itself that significantly enhances your dairy beverage procurement experience? Is this bag made of paper or plastic? How big is it? How is it opened and closed? Doesn’t it sag and collapse as the milk runs out of it? Does anyone have a link with a picture?
Well, I don’t know about the “really good” thing. But to answer your other questions: the bag is made of clear plastic, and is pillow shaped. I don’t know the size offhand (it’s been a while since I’ve seen one) but I think they hold one or two litres of milk (one or two quarts to you non-metric types). You open them by cutting off a corner, after you’ve put the bag in a pitcher; this also deals with the sagging issue. (The pitcher is narrow enough, and the plastic in the bag thick enough, to hold up the bag even when it’s mostly empty.) Then when the bag is empty, you throw it away and reuse the pitcher for the next bag.
Oddly enough, I was born and raised in TN in the same little town in which you currently reside (IIRC) and now live in MI (maybe near where you were born?), with stops in Wisconsin, Indiana, Maryland, and North Carolina inbetween. Odd coincidence. Anyway my take on racism is different than yours, but that may be a difference in where I live in Michigan. In TN, people seemed like just people to me, regardless of race. There weren’t huge differences that I saw between blacks and whites. Here in Detroit, there are huge differences (for example in style of speaking, food preferences, and clothing style) between blacks and whites. There is also much more segregation in terms of where people live.
What was truly frustrating about milk bags was when we went over from imperial to metric. Hands up all those who at one time or another made the mistake of placing a litre bag in a quart pitcher, resulting in dumping the open bag onto a half filled glass?
Thanks for the skinny on the bags o’ milk. It sounds like the main advantage is that it cuts down on packaging waste. Not a bad system, therefore it’ll never catch on here.
Dear Americans:
Is it usual to summon non-citizens to jury duty? Because I got a summons today. I just about peed my pants I was so surprised.
Never in my entire life had I ever been called to jury duty in Canada. I’m here less than a year and they’re calling me up. Says a lot about the differences in the judicial systems.
Yes, I seem to remember some of my non-citizen friends have gotten summonses before. The general idea seems to be that they call you, and then it is up to you to prove that you are not eligible to serve, for whatever reason.
For some reason some people just seem to get called more often than others. I have gotten 2 summonses in my 16 years living in this state. One was cancelled before I needed to report…apparently they already had enough people. I have had co-workers that have gotten called many times, however, often within a year or two of the last time. Again, YOU have to prove you aren’t required to serve. The problem seems to be worse if you stay in the same state but change addresses a lot.
Three milk bags hold four litres of milk. And yes, I think it was originally to reduce packaging waste. However, now Toronto recycles plastic milk bottles and cardboard milk containers, but not the bag-type plastic. Things have moved on.
Also, if you’re single and live alone, four litres of milk at one time is way too much. It will go bad before you finish it, unless you freeze it. I usually buy one-litre containers. It’s more expensive that way though.
Muffin, did they have milk bags when milk was in gallons? I do have an idea that the whole three-bags-per-four-litres thing was some kind of artifact of conversion, but I was pretty young then; I don’t remember.
Laughing Lagomorph, one half-gallon is two quarts, right? (just checking).
Yup. “Quart” is short for quarter gallon.
Really? That makes too much sense to be true.
Well, maybe not so much “short for” as “literally means”:
Quart
I was also pretty young then, but I remember getting bags of milk from the grocery store in Alberta. This was only shortly after the glass bottles with the paper tops got the heave-ho from “Alpha” Dairies’ home delivery.
(Just wanted to mention that “ex-pats” aren’t people who have moved from one state to another. Ex-patriots are people who have moved from one country to another. Just for the record, you know.)
Great thread, Ginger. I was wondering how you were finding life in such a different place. Now, the burning question; do you really pay less tax in the States, or does the gubmint just get you in other ways? Do you get as many services provided as we were used to, or do you pay less tax and get less back in return?
I’m not an American, but the question has some bearing on me, as well, so I checked. In Maryland (and every other state I could find information on), non-citizens are ineligible for jury duty:
http://www.co.ba.md.us/FAQ/juryduty.html
So that’s one thing we needn’t worry about 
- now I wonder how your name entered the system…
No, ex-patriots are people who have ceased being patriotic. Expatriates are people who have moved from one country to another.
Just for the record, you know 
Perhaps from the DMV’s records, if she’s got a driver’s licence or state ID.
(It used to be in most places that the names were taken from the electoral register, but there’s been a trend away from that due to fears people were not registering to vote specifically to avoid jury duty.)
Ah, poo - what version of Gaudere’s Law was that, where I try to be all snooty and explain something and get it wrong myself?