I’ve had about twenty conversations like this in the past two days:
Tennessean (shivering in their insufficient winter gear): Are you warm?
Me (in my two-layer fleece from Edmonton): Warm enough.
Tennessean: You must be from up north.
Me: I’m Canadian.
Tennessean: Oh then this is like spring to you! Ha ha.
Me: Yeah. Ha ha.
It was about 20°F (-6°C); this is legitimately cold but all the complaining (and hilarious – at least to this Canuck – panic over the centimeter of snow we got yesterday) isn’t so much because of the weather as because nobody here is prepared for it. It’s cold for about two weeks here; people don’t have proper winter jackets for the same reason private residences in Nova Scotia don’t typically have air conditioning. I’m still amused, for the same reason Alan was amused when everybody in Halifax complained of the sweltering 32°C (90°F) heat.
