While you may be tempted to visit Canada, as a meridian-street.com staff member did recently, you should be aware of the challenges of heading north of the border. Here are meridian-street.com’s tips.

Beware, there are too many obnoxious tourists; mostly Americans.

You will encounter people from many different countries/cultures, speaking various languages, and those are just the Canadians.

Eating fast food with wooden utensils.* It’s a save the planet thing.

Roads covered with skid marks and bloodstains – from deer and elk we hope!

The terror of driving at night on two-lane roads with large elk with glowing eyes eating grass along the roads, ready to jump in front of you at any moment.

Figuring out how much gas costs. You pay by the liter, so gas looks cheap. Cool, it’s just $1.46 a liter. But a liter is like those bags of saline they put in you at the hospital. So, how many baggies of gas per gallon? Who knows? Imperial gallon? Do they still do that?

Speed signs are in KPH – Kilometers per hour. So, if you are driving an American car, look for the little KPH numbers on you speedometer, if you can read them. Or, multiply the KPH speed by .6.

Relearning your 6 times table. Or, if you are young, learning it for the first time.

Currency conversion. So, the tee-shirt is $29.99 Canadian. How much is that in American dollars? Is that cheap, expensive, just right? (Tip: If it’s in Canada, it’s expensive).

All the math. So, the gas is $1.46 per liter, and there are 3.78 liters per gallon, so 3.78 X $1.46 = Price per gallon in Canadian, but then to convert to American money you multiply by .72, or is it multiply by 1.28? AARRGH!

Best tip: Just pay whatever it is and enjoy your visit.

*The staff member who visited Canada hates the feel of wooden forks and spoons in his mouth. Also, he doesn’t like licking paper so always peels the paper off of ice cream cones lest his tongue might actually touch it. Oh, and he doesn’t like broccoli either.