Este Nuevo Mundo Antiguo, Canadá

I recently read a blog post about embracing reverse culture shock, and I decided that was a good idea - use this time to highlight the differences between Canada and Peru.

Aire Rico
When I first walked out the door in Canada, I noticed just how fresh the air smelt in comparison to Tacna and Lima. It was humid, and with grass and trees even several metres from the airport, I was very impressed with the cleanliness and even delicious smell of Canadian air. My family told me Ottawa had been going through a bit of a drought, but the air was just so much more humid than Tacna's I didn't care.

Pasto tras pasto, árbol tras árbol
Since I lived in a desert for a year, there is basically no grass nor trees (except artificially planted and regularly watered ones). Grass is expensive, not just because it's really scarce and you have to buy it there, but you have to water it, since it only rains about 6-8 times a year (and even them it's only a very fine, light mist). Lush grass. And trees! And flowers!

La cortesía canadiense
I had heard, living in Canada, of how polite the people here were. I was just blown away when I returned and a day after arriving, went to a government building to get a document renewed. A cheerful grin, thank you's and please's were springing forth from not just the government employees but also the people they were helping. Then hours later I spoke with a bus company route-finder. He was very polite even though I had him on the phone talking for 20 minutes! Thank God.

Sí, riqueza material habita por acá
The people here are wealthy, rich, and affluent. The airport, the massive cars everywhere, the public transportation provided by the government, drying machines (in southern Peru we just leave them to dry hanging up on the roofs), massive TVs, the houses, washing machines, extra clothes, storage rooms to store more things, traffic lights everywhere, well paved roads, free public playing field after free public playing field... just nuts!

Tráfico Sano
The traffic here is not insane. People stop at stop signs, cars in traffic circles are given the right of way (in Arequipa cars inside these circles often have to stop completely to let another car in because they're so jammed pack), cars don't hover between lanes, right on the line...