Waterloo

I would like to introduce you to our future community of Waterloo.  It is a nice place.  Waterloo is one of those communities where there are a lot of new areas and the old areas are being renewed.  It has about 100,000 residents not including about 20,000 students that attend the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University.  It is most famous for being the home of a company called Research In Motion (RIM).  They make the Blackberry.

            As difficult as it will be to leave a place I have called home since birth I feel very lucky to be going to such a nice and oddly familiar place.  It seems familiar because the Waterloo area is very much like Northeast Ohio.  It has rolling hills with hardwood trees and farmers fields.  It has strip malls, suburbs and downtown areas.  I make this point because more than one person has told me I better pack a lot of warm clothes as if I were going to Grise Fiord (the most northern town in Canada).  The truth is the Waterloo area often receives less snowfall than Cleveland.  It is also lower than most of Michigan.  If it were not for Lake Erie it would be less than three hours away from Medina, OH.

            But there are differences.  Imagine if all of the McDonalds in your town were taken away and replaced with Tim Hortons.  If you are a sports fan you would not talk about the Indians, Browns, or Buckeyes.  Instead you would talk about hockey...regardless of whether the season was in session or not.  Finally, your money has rainbow colors.  Obviously there are many more differences but I am claiming ignorance for now.  As I learn more about the Canadian experience from my American perspective I will share it with you.  If you have a specific question I will research it for you.