Rules and Regulations

I know Canada is supposed to be nothing like the United States but let me, nevertheless, point out some oddities in terms of bureaucracy in these two countries:

- you can't cash traveler's checks at a bank without having an account there. You can't open an account without cash and a permanent address in Canada
- they have about a billion different price groups for public transportation: regular, 14-day advance purchase, 7-day advance purchase, 1-day advance purchase, local student, student with ISIC, youth, and so on... In addition, I heard different companies may have two for the price of one deals as well...
- when you enter the US from Canada, you have to pay a 7-dollar visa waiver fee that allows you to stay in that country for three months. When you return to Canada within that time period, they may not necessarily remove the piece of paper from your passport (in case you want to re-enter the US). However, if the paper remains in your passport after those three months, you can't return to the US because they think you've never left the country. How can they think you never left if you're crossing the border from Canada to the US, I don't know. In any case, you have to get the visa waiver removed from your passport (by sending it to US authorities or by traveling to the nearest international airport to do it) and somehow prove that you have at some point left the US. (Again, if you're doing this IN Canada, how can they think you haven't left the US?)

As for security matters, M told me that Canadians frequently drive around with a gun by their side. However, they have to file a whole lot of paperwork if they ever take out that gun so I guess that's supposed to keep irrational shooting at a minimum...? On my very first night here we went to see a movie preview at the university and there were two security guys there to make sure people didn't record the film or something. They just had some kind of binoculars or something, which was really creepy. I had this feeling that they were aiming at me and would shoot me at any moment...