Correction appended.
Fall Weekend was a time to give thanks — the Canadian way. Canadian Thanksgiving, which falls on the second Monday of October, brought together different heritages, identities and, most deliciously, pie.
For students at Brown, Canadian identity seems to be a different type of classification — neither totally familiar nor totally foreign.
Sunday night, roughly 30 students of both American and Canadian origins gathered in Faunce House to eat and give thanks at an event hosted by the newly formed Canadian Society at Brown.
The iconic maple leaf hung above Faunce Arch, attracting students from as far as Nova Scotia and Vancouver. The flag was later offered as one of the prizes for the Canadian trivia game, which included questions on wide-ranging topics such as Parliament and Canadian lakes.
Like its American equivalent, the Canadian Thanksgiving celebration featured apple and pumpkin pies, apple cider and whipped cream, because pie is "all that matters," said Innessa Colaiacovo '12, prime minister of the Canadian Society.
Up North, eh?
When Colaiacovo first came to campus, she said other students would joke, "Are you even a country?"
"It's a funny category of international student," said Colaiacovo.
Canadian students apply through the same process as all international students and are invited to the University's official international student orientation. Canada had the fifth largest number of admitted students for international countries for the class of 2015, with 28 admits, according to a University press release. International students have made roughly 10 percent of the student body in recent years, according to the Office of Institutional Research.
Canadian student Lydia Halpern '12 compared her origins to those of a friend from Hawaii — "cool and unusual, but not different," she said.
But students stressed that Canada is different — even among the country's own regions.
Trevor Smyth '13, who hails from Alberta, defines himself as from "out west," where the experience is very different than other parts of Canada.
Canadian students are definitely not the same as American students, said Rayna Chandaria '14, a fact driven home during the State of the Union address her freshman year. As her whole floor crowded into a small lounge in Littlefield Hall to watch President Obama, Chandaria realized that she was not in Canada anymore. "Patriotism is so much different in the United States," she said, adding that "no one" in Canada watches the speech from the throne, their country's equivalent.
For many, bilingualism and language define many of the two countries' differences. When Haakim Nainar '14 asked to use the "washroom" one of his first nights at Brown, he was taken to the laundry room in the basement, rather than the bathroom, he said.
Halpern remembers the shock she felt after seeing real cheerleaders at her first University football game. Before that, "cheerleaders only existed in movies," she said. And Canadian university students call pre-gaming, ‘pre-drinking', she said.
Canadians also hold different cultural attitudes towards alcohol. Because Canadians can legally purchase alcohol at 18, "most young people make their mistakes earlier, which does have an impact on the general maturity," said Nick Shulman '14 of Montreal. In America, students who have never had experience with social drinking are just "going wild with opportunity," he said.
Big differences
Cultural differences extend past social life. Most Canadian students choose a program of study before entering college, which does not allow for the same degree of freedom as American colleges, students said.
But Canadian schools are free and generally easier to apply to than American ones, which means the decision to come to America for college is a deliberate choice.
Many Canadian students boast of hanging a national flag in their rooms, but not all of our neighbors to the north plan to return home after graduation. Students said they would go wherever jobs take them after Brown.
Halpern is applying to the one law school in Canada, the University of Toronto, and many law schools in the U.S., but does not feel attached to one or the other, she said.
Jack Maclellan '12, who hopes to play professional hockey when he graduates, said he would not mind ending up in the U.S. "They have grown on me," he said.
Some students, like Anna Rotman '14, feel more pull to return home. She said she will definitely go back to Montreal.
They certainly do not all say "eh" or love Tim Hortons, but at least one stereotype appears to hold true at Brown — about half of the women's hockey team and nearly one-third of the men's hockey team hails from Canada.
— Additional reporting by Elizabeth Koh
A previous version of this article incorrectly spelled the last name of Haakim Nainar '14. The Herald regrets the error.
