Y O U K N OW Y O U ’ R E F R OM VA N C O U V E R I S L A N D WH E N . . .

• You consider anything less than 5°C freezing.
• You consider anything above 25°C way too hot.
• You start wearing shorts in January.
• You notice your lifestyle has become unaffordable.
• You take a Gravol before driving to Tofino.
• Your wedding invitation specifies potluck.
• You know Douglas fir from hemlock, balsam or spruce. By smell.
• You have no trouble pronouncing Ucluelet, Sooke, Tahsis, and Zeballos.
• You have no concept of humidity without precipitation.
• You’ve actually used your mountain bike on a mountain.
• You know that squirrels are just rats with fluffy tails, even though tourists think they’re cute.
• You carry sunglasses and an umbrella at all times.
• If you really wanted to, you could snowboard, sail, golf, and bike all in the same day.
• You know the provincial flower is the dogwood.
• You’re confused as to why Saskatchewan and Manitoba are part of Western Canada.
• You know more people who own boats than air conditioners.
• You think Atlantic salmon doesn’t deserve the name salmon when compared to Pacific salmon.
• You consider a week with no rain to be “great weather.”
• You have no problems drinking your tap water.
• You leave the island to see the rest of Canada, and you realize that there is nothing better to see.
• You have been lost in the woods on several occasions; you know you will be again; and you’re okay with that.
• You’ve heard about “the big one” and you just couldn’t care less.
• You know how scary it is to drive next to a loaded logging truck.
• You can recite the BC Ferries safety announcement by heart.
• You know that a “1.5 hour ferry” really means 3 hours: Time to get to the ferry, wait for the ferry, get on the ferry, eat in the buffet on the ferry, and then wait for the broken down VW in front of you to get off the ferry.
• You recognize April 20th as a good reason to celebrate.
• “The Bay Centre” just sounds wrong.
• Your life was dramatically impacted by the four feet of snow that fell during the Blizzard of ‘96.
• You remember Uforia and the Cheesecake Factory with a sense of nostalgia.
• A stroll through Mayfair Mall turns into an informal high school reunion.
• Your parka gets worn exactly one time a year—on your annual trek to the mountains.
• You have never spent money on curl enhancers for your hair.
• The peaches you had for breakfast are super fresh; you picked them from the tree on your front lawn.
• Your 3-bedroom, single bath bungalow is worth as much as a mansion just about anywhere else in Canada.
• You drank green tea long before it became trendy.
• Your commute involves a ferry ride.
• Your home has a recycling room.
• You carry baggies for picking up dog poo.
• You swim in the harbour on New Year’s Day.
• You’d rather do it yourself.
• Your clothes all have SPF ratings.
• Conversation with another islander generates at least three points of view.
• You laugh out loud when you hear the words, ‘fast ferries.’

I know some of these will be "inside jokes", but you'll get the gist of it.

Erich