Still Enjoying a Little Free Time

Today we went to the movies. At 10 AM, that is. The Vancouver International Film Festival is this week (and next week, too). We saw two documentaries, back to back. The first was the extremely grim (and powerful)”The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror”, and the second was the sweet and quirky “Souvenir of Canada” by Douglas Coupland (based on his book of the same name). I really like like Coupland, for his light-hearted but sophisticated sense of humor, his knack of putting his finger on social movements and trends (he is the originator of the term ‘Generation X’), and of course in this case, the subject matter he’s been writing on lately (Canada). I also envy him; He and I are nearly the same age, and now he is living in Vancouver as someone returning home. As fond as I ever grow of this place, I fear that I will not feel completely ‘at home’ here for a long, long time. I always feel as if I’m walking on eggshells: Did I cut in line without realizing it? Did I say the right thing to the clerk at the register? Is my accent not native enough? Do I know enough about hockey, Terry Fox or Canadian politics? Do I know too much about American politics (actually, Canadians on the whole know more about American politics than the average American does!) I feel as if I’m often on my guard, trying not to stick out too much. The opener for conversations, which is that I’ve recently moved here from Boston is always good for a few exchanged sentences (that’s what a conversation piece is for, after all). After that, it seems to be difficult. People are anxious to understand the why of it, and then when I explain that, things can get quiet. Maybe people are just wary of those Americans who come up here and are nasty to them because they (the Americans) need to convince the Canadians that they’re wrong, etc.
All I know is that Douglas Coupland is a lucky guy. He gets to move back here, live in Vancouver, and (I assume) feel perfectly at home.