The most obvious surprising moment to me that made me realise that I'd gotten used to the British way of doing things came about three days into my trip. Around 8am I decided to do the morning Tim's run. I got behind the wheel, backed out of the parking spot, and drove to the end of the parking lot where I needed to turn left onto the street. There I found myself in a position I never thought I'd be in: wondering which side of the street I was supposed to drive on. I genuinely couldn't remember. With no cars on the road luckily the stop sign gave me a clue, and as my hunch had been 'the right', I stuck with that and thankfully was correct. That was quite the experience. It's not like I had driven in Britain, and had only been in a vehicle maybe 8 times over those 11 months. I guess I'd just gotten used to watching for cars on the road as a pedestrian.
Walking through a grocery store had become an exciting experience. They're so large! I noticed a lot of new brands and more space devoted to international foods, including some of the Indian foods and sauces we're used to here. I made a number of trips to Zehr's and made good use of President's Choice's sale on Decadent Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk cookies (which I highly recommend!). Walmart was also great for clothes and food and generic pain killers to bring back with us. But I was also surprised at how much the price of some groceries had gone up since I was last home. I was under the impression that £2 for a bag of Doritos was expensive, but here I was being asked to pay $3.59 for a bag at Sobey's (which I didn't buy, by the way -- just couldn't bring myself to).
There were also little surprises here and there, and things that I wouldn't have noticed before. For example, last June we moved to our current flat which is rather cold and damp all year round, so to be in a warm, dry home with central heating and air-tight windows was amazing. I was actually worried about getting too used to being warm, for fear of how bad our Edinburgh flat would feel (and I have been having some trouble falling asleep at night due to feeling so cold, although it's getting better). Normal smallish Canadian washrooms seemed huge compared to our tiny washroom here, where the two of can brush our teeth at the same time only if the door (which opens inside for some reason) is shut. The bathtub also seemed crazy wide. Being able to hop in the car and drive places was amazing and so convenient. The dishwashers were huge! and held so many dishes that it seemed to take forever to empty them!
And finally, something that struck both Derek and I was what I suppose foreigners might call 'Canadian politeness'. Cashiers chatted with us, even at large, busy department and grocery stores. I didn't see any angry yelling on the streets or public drunkeness in the mornings or evenings (except at a friend's birthday party :) ). And even the toughest-looking men walking towards us on narrow sidewalks moved to the side so that we could pass without running into them or having to walking on the street. People said 'sorry' and 'excuse me' if they came close to bumping into me. That would almost never happen here. You just get used to having to walk around like a bulldozer if you don't want to end up on the street with cars flying by. So good work Canada on living up to your polite reputation. It was a very nice break.
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