When I was entering Canada, I, of course, had to go through the customs.
“Have you been to Canada before?” the customs officer said, staring at my Canadian passport.
I stared at him. He stared back at me. The passport stared at both of us in mute incomprehension.
Hilarious! Perhaps he was just acting on auto-pilot.
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I must look very American. 🙂
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Great anecdote. Never thought about it before, but there is no one “American” look or “Canadian” look. Perhaps more amazingly, I don’t think there’s even a general Canadian or American accent. I guess one difference is that some Canadians speak French, and today many Americans speak Spanish. 🙂
Why don’t we just tear down that wall at the border? Oh, right, there is no wall. Of course. Why would we need or want a wall?
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very Very funny…eh!
maybe that is the ‘Customary’ response !
your sure it was Canadian Customs?
?were you wearing a burka?
then what happened?
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‘“Have you been to Canada before?” the customs officer said, staring at my Canadian passport.”
I would say: “Canada? This is Canada? How on earth did I end up here??? I was trying to get to Belgium, which exit is Belgium here?”
Or at least I would if I didn’t suspect that border agents have no sense of humor.
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I participated in a US/UK exchange program and the single most specific, repeated and emphasised bit of orientation given to us was ‘Don’t make jokes when applying for your visa at the Embassy, when in Customs or generally when dealing with any variety of US officials – it almost never goes down well.’
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“I suppose I am as Canadian as possible under the circumstances …”
Perhaps he was testing you — test him back next time. 🙂
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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