- credit vs. debit - when they ask whether you will pay with a debit or a credit card, the only semi-safe way is to answer with the name of the card (like Visa or MasterCard). Canadians have very weird standards about what constitutes a credit and a debit card.
I was first trapped in this issue in a small shop - they said that only cash or debit card payment is possible. I did not have any cash on me, but I had a debit card. Great! Only, they told me it wasn't a debit card. I argued, they even tried the card in the terminal, but it did not go through and I had to leave the store with a lot of shame. I was not able to pay five dollars. A homeless man asked me for some change on the corner. I was tempted to ask him for the same thing.
It did not stop there though. Every time I need to pay something with a card the same nonsensical thing arises. Credit or debit? I hate that question. Well, at least I can pay there even though I have to pretend that my debit card is a credit card.
It did not stop there either. This weekend they refused to accept Visa Debit only to take different Visa Debit from the same person seconds later. The only difference was if the debit was written above or below Visa... I will probably never get it.
- public washrooms are somewhat too public - I know that I might be on the shy-er side of the spectrum, but Canadian bathrooms have caught me completely off-guard. I am not used to making eye-contact with people while using the toilet. It is weird. For some reason the planners of the stalls have never bothered with making sure that the doors don't have a slit all around them. Sometimes it can be more than few cm wide with additional slits all around. I am not even considering that the doors begin quite high and end lower than you would think they should end. So often they cover just some parts of you and taller individuals can have a great view to the next stall even when sitting down. I thought public bathrooms were truly public in South-East Asia, but Canada is beating them.
