Swiss retrospection, American Customs & lots more (updated)
Last Friday I met Nick; he is the exchange student who will go to Winterthur next April. I also met Andrea, the Canadian exchange student, who stayed in Winterthur between October 2004 and March 2005. We had some mexican food and enjoyed our evening. It was funny listening to Andrea as she told us lots of stories about Switzerland, it looks like she really enjoyed her time in Switzerland. Also, Nick is really excited about going to Switzerland soon, I hope he will have a great time there ...
On Saturday, two French exchange students and me decided to do a trip to the United States. I asked my room mates where we should go; they gave me the advice to go to Grand Forks, which is a city with 50'000 habitants about one hour of the border. So, we started our trip at nine o'clock in the morning and arrived about one hour later at the border. First, we visited the duty free shop and also get some information about what we are allowed to buy in the United States and to get back (= import) to Canada.
That was really surprising to me: We weren't allowed to buy anything or we had to pay duties and provincial sales taxes because we just stayed for less then 24 hours in the USA. After 24 hours, 48 hours and one week you will get exemptions of CAN$50, CAN$200 or CAN$750 worth of goods without paying any duties (= GST (Goods and Services Tax, actually 7%) and excise taxes (actually 7% for products under the Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) tariff treatment); nonetheless, you (probably) still have to pay PST (Provincial Sales Tax, 7% in Manitoba). Under the NAFTA Agreement (North American Free Trade Agreement) all goods that are produced in Canada or the USA are excluded of duties (duty-free), but you still have to pay GST and PST. To buy alcohol or tobacco you have to stay at least for 48 hours (to get an excumption), or you will have to pay a duty that can exceed the value of your goods. To conclude, a funny point: If you did any reparations on your vehicle abroad you have to declare them at the border, or it could happen that they will evaluate your car as new and you will have to pay GST and duties on the entire value of the car ... :) Don't cheat!!!
But now back to our trip (I just got excited about studying the Canadian "I Declare" booklet) ... We then got back to the car and drove to the American Customs. The American officer greets us with the informal question "how's gone?", I gave him the passports and then he got serious:
"Where are you from?", "In which country were you born?", "What are you doing in Canada?", "Where do you live in Canada?", "Where are you going in the US?", "What are you doing there?", "How long will you stay?", "Is that your car?" ... and so on ... they then studied seriously our passports, recognized that they are machine readable and before the investigation continued, they check the trunk of the car. We had then to enter the building of the US customs and had to fill out a form with lots of question like if we had been involved in war activities and other stuff. Finally, they had to take finger prints and pictures of us all ... and they also didn't forget to write down my car license! After already 30 minutes and some more questions we finally got our permission to enter the US ... and don't forget to take your credit card or some US$ (you have to pay US$6 for the permit which is valid for three month). I never spent as much time at a customs, neither in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Austria or as well Canada ... they take it really serious ... still I doubt that this process increases the security of the United States. However, I have to point out that the officers were friendly and gave clear instructions of what we had to do ... and the time was worth to spend a nice day in the US.
The US customs (border)
After one hour on the Interstate 29 (I unfortunately didn't took a picture of the road sign) we arrived finally for lunch in Grand Forks. We first got some money and were amused about the ATMs ... you can do all your business out of the car by just chosing the right lane ...
Drive Thru Bank
Afterwards we decided to have lunch and found a lovely restaurant called Whitney's. We had some American food ... I enjoyed Filet Mignon (à la Americaine *smile*) and especially I liked the Bean Soup (was really good!!!). We also had some Chicken Wings on a Minnesota Sauce ... mhhh ...!!! The meal costs us about US$20, that seems to be a bit more expensive than in Canada.
Just accross the street we found the Cabelis, a hunting store. They sold lots of funny stuff like tents, special machines to drill through the ice (ice fishing), camping utilities and everything what is good for hunting. In another part of the shop you could buy weapons, rifles and also bullets ... it looked so strange to me ... there was a mum buying bullet with her daughter (she was just a teen) ... that is really thought-provoking ("nachdenklich stimmend")!!!
Bullets, bullets, bullets ...
Afterwards we went to the shopping malls and checked also the prices. The prices looks to be similar with Canada ... a reason is probably that the city is close to the Canadian border and also that there is not a lot of competition. At sunset we decided to have a look on the US airbase; unfortunately, it was too dark, so we didn't see lots. From outside the air base seems to be gigantic; according to Wikipedia the air base has a population of over 4000.
Caution: Snowmobiles!!!
On our way home we had to pass the Canadian customs, lots of questions again, yet after 5 minutes we could pass the border. The customs agent looked really serious (in the way he didn't believe/trust us) and I liked especially the question if we bought any firearms or bullets.
Now everyone was hungry and we were looking for a restaurant. We drove through the small town of St. Jean Baptiste, not only the name was french, also it was a french community. It would be nice to have dinner in that town, unfortunately; we weren't able to find a restaurant there. Finally we found a restaurant in Morris, and we enjoyed some real Canadian specialties. I had a French/Canadian bean soup and afterwards a veal cutlet ("Paniertes Kalbsschnitzel") with mashed potatoes. I really enjoyed my veal cutlet, was my first since I'm in Canada ...
On Sunday I was playing badminton, it was the last time this year, for the gym will be closed during the exam period (actually, Wednesday will be my last school day this term). In the afternoon I felt like cooking; it was time to try something new ... I did Chili con carne and it worked out: It tastes great ... :)
On Saturday, two French exchange students and me decided to do a trip to the United States. I asked my room mates where we should go; they gave me the advice to go to Grand Forks, which is a city with 50'000 habitants about one hour of the border. So, we started our trip at nine o'clock in the morning and arrived about one hour later at the border. First, we visited the duty free shop and also get some information about what we are allowed to buy in the United States and to get back (= import) to Canada.
That was really surprising to me: We weren't allowed to buy anything or we had to pay duties and provincial sales taxes because we just stayed for less then 24 hours in the USA. After 24 hours, 48 hours and one week you will get exemptions of CAN$50, CAN$200 or CAN$750 worth of goods without paying any duties (= GST (Goods and Services Tax, actually 7%) and excise taxes (actually 7% for products under the Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) tariff treatment); nonetheless, you (probably) still have to pay PST (Provincial Sales Tax, 7% in Manitoba). Under the NAFTA Agreement (North American Free Trade Agreement) all goods that are produced in Canada or the USA are excluded of duties (duty-free), but you still have to pay GST and PST. To buy alcohol or tobacco you have to stay at least for 48 hours (to get an excumption), or you will have to pay a duty that can exceed the value of your goods. To conclude, a funny point: If you did any reparations on your vehicle abroad you have to declare them at the border, or it could happen that they will evaluate your car as new and you will have to pay GST and duties on the entire value of the car ... :) Don't cheat!!!
But now back to our trip (I just got excited about studying the Canadian "I Declare" booklet) ... We then got back to the car and drove to the American Customs. The American officer greets us with the informal question "how's gone?", I gave him the passports and then he got serious:
"Where are you from?", "In which country were you born?", "What are you doing in Canada?", "Where do you live in Canada?", "Where are you going in the US?", "What are you doing there?", "How long will you stay?", "Is that your car?" ... and so on ... they then studied seriously our passports, recognized that they are machine readable and before the investigation continued, they check the trunk of the car. We had then to enter the building of the US customs and had to fill out a form with lots of question like if we had been involved in war activities and other stuff. Finally, they had to take finger prints and pictures of us all ... and they also didn't forget to write down my car license! After already 30 minutes and some more questions we finally got our permission to enter the US ... and don't forget to take your credit card or some US$ (you have to pay US$6 for the permit which is valid for three month). I never spent as much time at a customs, neither in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Austria or as well Canada ... they take it really serious ... still I doubt that this process increases the security of the United States. However, I have to point out that the officers were friendly and gave clear instructions of what we had to do ... and the time was worth to spend a nice day in the US.
The US customs (border)After one hour on the Interstate 29 (I unfortunately didn't took a picture of the road sign) we arrived finally for lunch in Grand Forks. We first got some money and were amused about the ATMs ... you can do all your business out of the car by just chosing the right lane ...
Drive Thru BankAfterwards we decided to have lunch and found a lovely restaurant called Whitney's. We had some American food ... I enjoyed Filet Mignon (à la Americaine *smile*) and especially I liked the Bean Soup (was really good!!!). We also had some Chicken Wings on a Minnesota Sauce ... mhhh ...!!! The meal costs us about US$20, that seems to be a bit more expensive than in Canada.
Just accross the street we found the Cabelis, a hunting store. They sold lots of funny stuff like tents, special machines to drill through the ice (ice fishing), camping utilities and everything what is good for hunting. In another part of the shop you could buy weapons, rifles and also bullets ... it looked so strange to me ... there was a mum buying bullet with her daughter (she was just a teen) ... that is really thought-provoking ("nachdenklich stimmend")!!!
Bullets, bullets, bullets ...Afterwards we went to the shopping malls and checked also the prices. The prices looks to be similar with Canada ... a reason is probably that the city is close to the Canadian border and also that there is not a lot of competition. At sunset we decided to have a look on the US airbase; unfortunately, it was too dark, so we didn't see lots. From outside the air base seems to be gigantic; according to Wikipedia the air base has a population of over 4000.
Caution: Snowmobiles!!!On our way home we had to pass the Canadian customs, lots of questions again, yet after 5 minutes we could pass the border. The customs agent looked really serious (in the way he didn't believe/trust us) and I liked especially the question if we bought any firearms or bullets.
Now everyone was hungry and we were looking for a restaurant. We drove through the small town of St. Jean Baptiste, not only the name was french, also it was a french community. It would be nice to have dinner in that town, unfortunately; we weren't able to find a restaurant there. Finally we found a restaurant in Morris, and we enjoyed some real Canadian specialties. I had a French/Canadian bean soup and afterwards a veal cutlet ("Paniertes Kalbsschnitzel") with mashed potatoes. I really enjoyed my veal cutlet, was my first since I'm in Canada ...
On Sunday I was playing badminton, it was the last time this year, for the gym will be closed during the exam period (actually, Wednesday will be my last school day this term). In the afternoon I felt like cooking; it was time to try something new ... I did Chili con carne and it worked out: It tastes great ... :)
posted by Alain at 23:36
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