They're friendly, they can drink at a younger age than you can and they actually care that hockey season began Wednesday night. Still, students from Canada - the foreign country most represented at Brown - have had to adjust significantly to life in Providence despite being America's next-door neighbors.
"I genuinely find people here surprisingly ignorant," said Sarah Andersen '07 of Victoria, British Columbia. "(Brown students) have no idea if we're governed by the Conservative Party or the Communist Party."
Andersen is one of many Canadian Brunonians who believe their neighbors to the south know hardly anything about Canada. "Everyone should know about their neighbors," she said. "When you move into a new neighborhood, you bring cookies to your neighbors. That totally doesn't happen here."
Vernissia Tam '09, a native of Toronto, Ontario, and "co-prime minister" of the Canadian Club at Brown, agreed that her classmates demonstrate minimal knowledge of Canucks. "I've been asked, 'do you have Internet in Canada?'" she said. "I'm from Toronto, and they think I live so far away." She said Californian students are amazed that she's come all the way from Ontario to attend Brown, without realizing that the mere 424 miles she has traveled pale in comparison to their 3,000-mile journey.
However, despite the geographic and cultural distance between Canada and Providence, most Canadian students interviewed by The Herald said they feel welcomed by their American peers, uninformed as they may be.
"I feel pretty at home here," said Matt Dennis '09 of Toronto. He added that Brunonians' open-minded views have eased his transition to American college life.
Professor of Economics Peter Howitt, who is originally from Guelph, Ontario, but has lived in the United States for 12 years, agreed with Dennis. "There are cultural differences (between the United States and Canada), but less in Rhode Island than just about anywhere in the States," he said.
Though Rhode Island may feel close to home for Howitt in some ways, he said he misses Canadian health care, which is publicly funded. "Canadians are proud of their health care system," he said, adding that universal health care seems to him much less likely to be implemented in the United States. "A lot of people think that (universal health care) is the first step towards socialism," he said.
Howitt is not the only Canadian expatriate who prefers the simplicity of health care in his native country.
"I miss the health care system," Tam said. She recalled getting a simple throat swab and culture, a procedure that would have been free in Canada, at University Health Services. By the time she received the test results, she had recovered - but had paid a whopping $200 for the process. "I think I just had a sore throat," she said.
Health care is but one topic on which Canadians and Americans might disagree. Andersen also said Canadians may be more likely to show concern for the environment and that her British Columbian neighbors ride their bikes for miles rather than driving short distances, as Americans do.
"(In Canada), there's more awareness of preserving the outdoors and the environment," Andersen said. "Plus, we have more nature-y stuff in Canada. Like the Marijuana Party."
However, Andersen and others said the most obvious difference between the two neighboring countries is neither health care nor an approach to the environment: it's language.
"Most people treat you exactly the same (as other students), except for making fun of the way you talk," Andersen said. "People always ask me to say 'about.' I do say 'zed,' and of course I say 'eh.'"
Howitt joked that 'eh' is a crucial part of Canada's cultural identity. "Don't you know?" he said. "That's how Canada got its name! 'C, eh, N, eh, D, eh.'"
Among other linguistic oddities in Canada are British spellings like centre, favourite, judgement, haemophilia and cheque. But Canadians are quick to defend their idiosyncratic spelling. "We're in the Commonwealth of England - the country that invented English," Tam said. "I think we'd know."
But one aspect of Canadian culture that incites even more fervor is hockey, which was declared Canada's national sport (along with lacrosse) in 1994 by the National Sports of Canada Act.
Edmonton, Alberta native Jordan Pietrus '10 said he came to Brown to play varsity hockey. When asked about the significance of Oct. 4, the start of this year's NHL season, he responded instantly. "Best day of 2006," he said.
Looking to the future, most Canadian Brown students said they expect to stay in the United States for many of the same reasons they came in the first place.
"There's a kind of prestige you'll get here that you just can't get in Canada," Tam said. Dennis added the flexibility of American higher education appealed to him because it provides similar professional clout but doesn't require that its students specialize as early in the process.
In Canadian universities, he said, "You apply to a program, and from day one, you're in that program."
Tam said she hopes her fellow Canucks make their presence known on campus as much as she does. "I have a huge flag up in my room, I have badges on my backpacks and I have shirts that say 'Canadians girls are the best.'"
"We have to display our Canadian pride," Tam said.
