Canadian money still makes me feel loony... or should I say loonie?
I have lived in this country for almost 2 years now, so it is safe to say I have been to shops and bought stuff more times than I can count... and yet I am still so unfamiliar with the currency and terms, that I end up being the lame tourist-like person staring at a handful of coins at the cashier trying to figure out which coins will add up to the amount I need.
It is really not my fault. First of all, take a look at the difference in size between the ten-cent coin and five-cent coin:
Why in the world is the smaller denomination coin of a bigger size?! It still confuses me two years into living here.
Next, Canada has a 25-cent coin (which really isn't that much bigger than the 5-cent coin, but I've made peace with that). In Singapore, we use 20-cent coins. So I still take out 25-cent coins here thinking they are 20-cent coins and mess up my calculations.
Figuring out the currency is one thing... I haven't even gotten into talking about the terminology. Canadians have 1-dollar and 2-dollar coins as well. They refer to the 2-dollar coin as toonie... I assume it is a play on the number 2, which I can accept. One day my husband asked me I have a loonie. For some strange reason, the 1-dollar coin is called a loonie!
Just as I try tirelessly to explain to people here why I keep adding 'lah' to the end of my sentences and get confused expressions in response, I too will never understand why some things are the way they are here... but I guess that's the beauty of having lived in 2 vastly different countries!
It is really not my fault. First of all, take a look at the difference in size between the ten-cent coin and five-cent coin:
Why in the world is the smaller denomination coin of a bigger size?! It still confuses me two years into living here.
Next, Canada has a 25-cent coin (which really isn't that much bigger than the 5-cent coin, but I've made peace with that). In Singapore, we use 20-cent coins. So I still take out 25-cent coins here thinking they are 20-cent coins and mess up my calculations.
Figuring out the currency is one thing... I haven't even gotten into talking about the terminology. Canadians have 1-dollar and 2-dollar coins as well. They refer to the 2-dollar coin as toonie... I assume it is a play on the number 2, which I can accept. One day my husband asked me I have a loonie. For some strange reason, the 1-dollar coin is called a loonie!
Just as I try tirelessly to explain to people here why I keep adding 'lah' to the end of my sentences and get confused expressions in response, I too will never understand why some things are the way they are here... but I guess that's the beauty of having lived in 2 vastly different countries!
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