Canadian Taps & Wild Cows

There are some things that I just assume that my children know about, or at least have recollections about from living in Canada.  For example, on day 2 of our road trip we passed a field of Holstein cows, and Abby innocently asked "are there WILD cows around?"  After a little snicker (I apologize, but it was cute), we talked about how cows are typically domesticated in British Columbia.  Watch, one day she'll be hiking a mountaintop meadow and run across a wild cow, and both Tris and I will have to ask her forgiveness for snickering at her question.

I was a bit more taken aback at my brother's house when last evening one of my kids came out of the powder room and asked my sister-in-law how to work the tap.  It's one of those round, crystal taps that you turn left for hot, right for cold.  You push up to turn on the water and pull down to turn it off.  Simple.  Unless of course you've spent the last 3 years in a house that has only cold water in the kitchen and bathrooms (except for the showers which have individual hot and cold faucets), or in public toilets (not washrooms/bathrooms/restrooms) that either provide a squat toilet, a bucket and a scoop, or a sprayer coming out of the wall OR, in malls where the toilets flush themselves and the soap and water turn on automatically.  Those are the contrasting experiences we've had in the last 3 years, and none of them, apparently, includes a round, crystal tap.  This leads me to wonder what terribly exciting learning adventure is in store for my kids tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.