O is for Ottawa Ontario ( Double O)

This will be the biggest stretch I’ve made, sorry.  Would you believe there is only one country that begins with the letter “O?” Can you guess it? I’ll give you a second…. Oman. I knew this because several of my awesome students are from there. I did not, however, know it was the only one. So I shall write to you about Canada, specifically, kind of, Ottawa Ontario, for which I feel I should receive bonus points for alliteration.

When I lived in upstate New York, (we say upstate because no one actually knows of any of the cities or towns upstate.  In case you’re wondering, Watertown, endearingly nicknamed Snowtown USA,) we were about an hour away from Canada. Back in those days you didn’t need a passport to cross the border. “Back in those days,” Jeez, how old am I?  We would cross the border seamlessly and spend a weekend exploring a new country.  Class field trips would involve a border crossing. How many middle schools can say that?  I’ve seen Niagara Falls from both sides, used Canadian money the same as American, especially coinage, and used ‘Eh’ at the end of my sentences.

It was such a normal part of my life while living upstate that I didn’t know how unusual it was.  If I had stayed longer, I would have joined my friends for their 19^th birthdays on a trip across the border to celebrate where they were finally legally able to drink. I would have watched the border get stricter and stricter as 9/11 passed, and I would have needed a passport.  And I probably would have continued to place ‘eh’ at the end of every sentence.