What did I learn from Canada? To relax. Have fun. Follow my own ideals. I always seem to have a little ball of stress inside of me. Leaving the country, to a place that doesn't have the stick up it's ass like the US, gave me a new out look on the US and my place in it. Without being to narcissistic, the United States is the center of the world. In entertainment. As a super power. This time period's Rome. Which I realized is very stressful. We have to be the BEST, better then everyone else. If someone gets something you want, they took it. They were lucky. They think they are better then you! And I can't handle it any more.
What has happened to our country. We use to want to follow in the foot steps of Lewis and Clark, Johnny Appleseed, and, or course, cowboys... be your own man, do your own thing no matter what others think, explore the unknown. Where have all the cowboys gone? What happened to the pursuit of happiness? As a country we hate and fear the lone wolves, the ones that think and do things their own way. We hate what we use to love, and aspired to be.

What happened to the United States? Canada still has the frontiers man. What happened to the cowboy? How did our icon for independents, being self made, and doing your own thing... turn into a joke. I think the problem came when Regan and W. Bush called themselves cowboys, and used that image to get themselves elected. They USED the cowboy like a cheap whore. They weren't cowboys. They embodied group think, fear of the individual, and the needing to be popular.
We're left with a prevented version of our hero. No honor. No sense of self. No anything. People follow the example of the trust-fund child getting fucked on camera. The balloon boy family, famous at any cost. More people look up to Jason Voorhees and Jigsaw, then anyone worth a damn.
That's what I learned from going to Canada.