Fredericton is a tiny city. Or more realistically, a big town. It is also extremely hard not to like. I tried my best to be objective but its charms are out to get you. Every second building in the centre is a beckoning coffee shop and there is free wifi throughout the ‘downtown area’. This means that it is essential that you go for coffee at least once a day. It’s generally accepted that you laze about with your ‘dark roast of the day’ busily typing out your novel on your laptop – or in my case pretending to write while secretly stalking friends on Facebook!
After my first weekend I was already recognising people on the street. By the end of the first week I reckoned I’d met practically everyone who lives here. Going out last Saturday helped bridge the gap enormously. I asked the bar tender what beer he’d recommend which led to him asking where I was from. Twenty minutes later a stream of people arrived to ask which of us was from Ireland. Drinks were frequently bought for us while I was asked my opinion of Canada, New Brunswick, Fredericton and my favourite coffee shop in town. I wouldn’t have been surprised to have had an autograph requested. It was official – I was the town celebrity – at least for the weekend!
I’m still getting used to all those funny little Canadian ways – they sell milk in plastic bags here (something I’d only seen previously in India) and prices in shops are frustratingly misleading. When you go to pay they suddenly come up with a new improved price which includes tax, as if an afterthought. This means that nothing in the dollar store is a dollar. It’s a dollar plus the surprise tax. Or if something is advertised as ‘Two for $10’ when you go to pay it will be more like $11.47. It doesn’t take much to confuse me at the best of times but I don’t think I’ll ever stop moaning about this quirk. It’s like Canada is being run by Ryan Air! Nothing ever costs what it seems.
Most importantly I have also discovered the secret to the successful Canadian economy. All the Off Licences (or liquor stores as they call them here) are owned by the government. Ireland listen up – the solution to your woes is simple! Monopolise the alcohol market and you’ll never again mutter the words ‘international bailout’.
Conortje 
“It’s like Canada is being run by Ryan Air!” – Love it!
“they sell milk in plastic bags here ” – I guess that you weren’t shopping in Digros/Dirk when you were living in NL 😉
We used to get small plastic bags of milk from the EC when I was growing up in Ireland in the 80s when I think that they were sorry for our poor country and didn’t want us deprived of our vitamins.
You are hilarious! My laugh for the day thanks to you.
Interestingly (more for me than you, perhaps), we don’t have milk in plastic bags in the Yukon (one of Canada’s northern territories).
Milk sold in plastic bags here too in Estonia, as well as youghurt and kefir. I too hated the sales tax being added on at the till in the US. What’s the point? Why not put the price I actually pay on the item?
aidan – on that basis they may well make a return to the emerald isle 🙂
carole – I’d love the visit the territories – one day I hope!
syntax – maybe the bags have some great practical use I’ve missed – apart from just placing them intact in jugs… The tax thing is incredibly irritating – just tell me the price that I have to pay and stop messing about 🙂
Haha town celebrity . . I’ll bet. Milk in plastic bags? God that’s an accident waiting to happen, they don’t call me basher Bainbridge for nothing!
hehe they sell special plastic containers to put the bags into – if you get that far… I’m certain I’d ended up with a flooded kitchen if I attempted it!
And of course the opposite thing happens to me when back home, I am pleasantly pleased when there is no tax added. I feel I’ve been given a present.
XO
WWW
A wonderful way to look at it 🙂
Ah, I remember all the alcohol shops in Toronto. It took me a while to work out why they were separate from supermarkets. As you say, the perfect solution to the Irish economic debacle. That and fining everyone who doesn’t drink Guinness, that is.
You need to get on to Enda Kenny NOW. All our financial problems would be solved in a week.Ger
it could be worse; here we sell wine in cardboard boxes.
lol. love it. boyf is still tramatised by plastic bottles of milk, i’d nearly import one of those bags just to watch his lovely face react mwahahaha.xx
I’ve been saying the same thing for years about California. Monopolize the booze and the debt will vanish. It kills me to see $2.99 grocery store wine in California selling for $20 (seriously) up here. I’ve been to Fredericton. What I loved was how English and French were so intertwined everywhere. In the coffee shops people bounced from one language to the other without even realizing it.