brian's blog

Many people from MS Canada were on campus the other day and held an event to connect with all the expat 'softie Canucks living around Redmond. They served poutine, Molson, Labatt, Smarties, PC Decadent cookies, caesars, free health care, Humpty Dumpty chips, and more.

Before heading over, I stopped by my co-worker Leo's office, another recent college hire who happens to be from Texas, a rather non-Canadian province. But I didn't want to go to this event by myself. I told Leo there would be lots of free food and drink. "Dude, I'm so in," Leo said, without a hint of a Texan accent. I figured he would be able to blend in, so I told him to pretend he was from Waterloo. Which, to my amusement, didn't work out so well for Leo.

Things were fine at first. We met up with a Waterloo co-op, and Leo, surrounded by Canadians, pretended to understand every single Waterloo and Canadian reference that came up. I "saved" him once or twice when the co-op asked him a question he obviously didn't know the answer to. Other times, he rolled well with the questions; yes, he does enjoy going out to the Bomber every Wednesday, thank you for asking.

But then while Leo stepped away for a moment to grab another drink, I told the co-op that Leo was really from Texas, and that he should ask Leo all sorts of very specific questions about Waterloo. It was hilarious. The co-op asked him some of his other favorite bars, and Leo thought for a moment, giving me plenty of time to jump in (which I didn't), before being forced to answer "Well, I don't really go out that much..." It was definitely too late for him to admit the lie at that point.

Things went back and forth for a bit, with Leo doing his best to deflect the questions. Then the co-op worked his way to asking Leo who his favorite prof was. "Umm...well...it's so hard to pick...um...I...," he struggled. I was in stitches, and the co-op could barely hold his laughter in as well. Finally, I told Leo, who was totally cool about the prank and laughed about it as well.

Ironically, he later said he was about to answer "Smith," which anyone from Waterloo knows really is the answer to "favorite prof."