The Real Canadian Way of Life

What have you seen about Canada? Only Vancouver? Vancouver is a fairly big city. There are a lot of streets, stores, restaurants, and of course many people. In the morning the city is already very crowded. No wonder! There are almost two million people living in Greater Vancouver.

Six weeks ago I arrived in Canada. My journey didn’t begin with going to school at EF. First I went to Big Lake. Big Lake is a little village of only 500 people in the north of British Columbia. In Big Lake live only 500 people. The way of life there is much different from in Vancouver.

Only one street crosses the village of Big Lake. Little paths go to the houses of the citizens. In Big Lake there are only four public institutions: a store, a pub, a lodge and the elementary school. The people from Big Lake often need to go to Williams Lake. They must drive for a half an hour to get there. Williams Lake, which is a lot bigger than Big Lake, offers more stores, restaurants, public institutions and even a little airport.

The people from Big Lake usually live in a house made out of wood. Most families own a big plot of land, which could be several acres in size. An acre is about half a hectare. The house and the plot of land is called a ranch.

Dogs belong to almost every ranch. But there are a lot of other animals which live on a ranch: cats, chickens, cows, horses, donkeys and even bison.

The water for the household often comes from a spring on the plot of land. How much water the people can use depends on the ground-water level. If there is a rainy period they have more water than in the dry period, when they must be careful not to waste it.

The people always keep in stock the most essential things for cooking – like sugar, flour, spices and milk. They buy them in large containers. For example flour is usually bought in 20-kilo sacs. The reason why they buy so large containers is that they cannot go to Williams Lake for grocery shopping every day.

All the garbage goes into the dump, regardless if its food leftovers, plastic, metal or other kind of garbage. The dump is a huge hole in the earth, which is located in the forest. The dump always stinks and often there are bears, which look for something to eat.

The people who live in Big Lake love nature. Big Lake is full of lakes, valleys, hills, grassland and of course forest. Many wild animals can be seen. There are bears, cougars, deer, moose, snakes and a lot more. The people in Big Lake often go fishing and in fall hunting.

In their free time a few people pan for gold. It’s not a good idea to coming rich, but it’s a lot of fun. Another popular activity is logger sports.