Shoji Ushiyama is a Japanese artist from Hong Kong who lived in the UK before moving to Toronto to study industrial design. He recently posted a long list of observations on his Canadian experience at Twitter.
As an expat living in Canada, the more I live here, the more I'm convinced I'm actually stuck in some kind of cryptic horror nightmare country that's subtly and slowly eating away at me.
— 将司 (@Kavaeric) October 22, 2019
You want to move in. You ask someone about what the electricity bills are like. They ask you if you mean "hydro". You say you weren't talking about water, but electricity. They insist it's called "hydro". You accept this.
People praise the coffee shop. They joke about the coffee shop. They say the coffee shop is central to their collective identity. You mention that you have been to the coffee shop before, and you liked it. The people are horrified. You decide not to visit the coffee shop again.
Everyone says the other language everyone speaks is French. When you walk down the street, though, you notice all the signs are in Chinese. You ask them again. They still tell you it's French.
Someone invites you somewhere. You ask if it is far and inconvenient, but they assure you it is only a short trip away. They give you the address to check. You learn that it is very, very, very far, and ask them again. They insist, please, let me. It is closer than you think.
You speak to someone. They make a sound at the end. You nod your head and agree. You never disagree when they make the sound at the end.
Dude idk if you're finished yet, but this whole thread was more unsettling than most horror stories I've read in a while
— Autumn Taco (@its_tacotime) October 22, 2019
Oh, there's a lot more, which you may or may not relate to, depending on how well you know Canada and the experience of having to shift cultures. The more you read, the more it feels like a classic episode of The Twilight Zone. Check it out at Threadreader, or the original Twitter thread with replies. -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Flickr user Alex Indigo)