O Canada! My Canada!
What to bring as a gift from the land of the maple leaf?
Traveling, business trips, student exchanges – it all makes us think of something special to bring to your family and friends. Something local, something that defines the spirit and the feeling of the place you came to visit. Bring something banal or try to find an original souvenir to surprise everyone?
Sometimes, when it comes to Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, there is nothing more obvious than a matryoshka and balalaika. Yes, it's too common really, because these are probably the main pop-cultural symbols associated with the USSR, and to the rest of the world, with all the countries that used to be its part. Needless to say vodka.
And yet, if we step away from the usual clichés for a while, there is still something reasonable in this idea. Folklore and culture express the soul most extravagantly. Maybe we would love symbols to be different, but it is not we who choose them, it's the rest of the world while looking at us.
Ask a Russian, Ukrainian, or Kazakh "what one imagines when he hears the word America," and the most common answer would be burgers and baseball. And that's not wrong! There are plenty of other worthy symbols. With France, they will call baguette and Montmartre, with Germany, the automobile industry and social order, and with Italy, the waving of hands and pasta, pasta, pasta.
What about Canada? Land of the Maple Leaf and home of hockey, it has long been associated in the minds of millions with a stick and a bright red leaf on a white flag. Yes, you can bring a mug with the national symbol or a puck as a gift to your friends, but maybe there is something else? So what do new Canadians bring as a gist to family and friends? What do those who can no longer see the bright red maple on postcards, key chains, badges, and T-shirts recommend?
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