jellysundae Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 To be honest, I don't think the 100 miles thing is just Brits though, I'm Dutch myself, and all of my family lives at least an hour away, and in Dutch terms that is far away. My cousins live about 90 away, and if I see them three times a year that's a lot. I always trouble believing that people in America drive a four hour drive back and forth in a day. I suppose I relate to the UK part just because I am a Brit, but it's relevant for the majority of countries, isn't it. Not many are as huge as the Americans. I do find it really hard to wrap my head around people thinking it's no big deal to travel for hours to get somewhere.But that's only because travelling for the same time frame here takes you from one end of the country to the other >< Oh, Marae, I have a Dutch friend and he rides a bike for 8 miles to get from where he lives to work. He complains about it a lot when it's winter, but he still does it, because it's normal there, isn't it :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marae19 Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 I suppose I relate to the UK part just because I am a Brit, but it's relevant for the majority of countries, isn't it. Not many are as huge as the Americans. I do find it really hard to wrap my head around people thinking it's no big deal to travel for hours to get somewhere.But that's only because travelling for the same time frame here takes you from one end of the country to the other >< Oh, Marae, I have a Dutch friend and he rides a bike for 8 miles to get from where he lives to work. He complains about it a lot when it's winter, but he still does it, because it's normal there, isn't it :) Yeah, I checked Google Maps and it takes about 3 hours and 40 mins to drive a car from the most southern part of Holland to the most northern part. In the winter I don't like our tradition of bikeriding, either, especially when it rains (which it does, just like in the UK, all year round), because cold and wet rain whilst riding a bike is absolute hell. But yeah, a lot of people ride their bikes everyday to work or school (including me), and 8 miles is, in my opinion, a bit long, but I know of plenty of people who do it daily as well. well, i have driven the 8 hour round trip in a day, but not usually.. what i consider the four hour trip to my parents and then back to college is more of a weekend trip thing.. i used to do it about one weekend a month when i was in college for 4 or 5 years.. but a 2 hour round trip back and forth to town when living on the ranch if i was working there, sure, yeah, id do that. in fact, i may be doing that again, soon, but my parents are driving me crazy, so, i might just move to town and then visit the ranch on my weekends to ride horses and whatnot. there;s a lot of empty space, gotta drive to get anywhere, out here. Yeah, my dad and I do the two hour trip back and forth to my grandma one a day as well, we just wouldn't do it daily. Ooh, keep us updated on the maybe move :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tk421beth Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 It looks like you had a great time on your trip! I'm jealous! Your hair is wonderful. Mine is baby-fine and straight. Jealous again! :P Thank you for the pics you posted. I loved them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rntracy1 Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 I hope you're not making any correlation between black/hispanic people and violence. I'm Latina myself ;) Hahahaha, that's so funny! It takes me 1:30hr just to get to university! :D Brazil is just like America when it comes to distances. Two really large countries... I was scared of such a long flight. Returning was worse, because I was SUPER alert and didn't sleep at all during all 12 hours! It was like my internal organs were actually floating inside my body... And then when the plane finally landed, they all went back to their right places :P NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Absolutely not!!! That is the thing I hate the most about writing and not speaking face to face because you can never tell the tone of what someone is saying. I am so sorry if I offended you, that was not my intention at all!! But obviously there is a way I tend to write things, or omit certain punctuation, that tends to get me into trouble. Because I do not have a mean, or racist, bone in body. What I was trying to say, is I live in a large city that has 155.000 people. And while yes, I am white, it is mostly black and hispanic. And also, while I do live in an upper middle class neighborhood, (upper middle class by our city standards, but not for say Beverly Hills California standards) and we have black and hispanic people in our nice neighborhood too, we still don't want to walk around showing off our electronics. We have a lot of shootings, break ins, etc. in our community. While I feel safe in my neighborhood over all, we do have a lot of crime in our city. I was not correlating crime/violence with black/hispanic people, I was just making a point of the demographics of my city. I do know that you are latina, yes. You have your low lives, jerks, criminals, in every race. Believe me, I know plenty white criminals and jerks. lol. I also have a good friend at work who is from Puerto Rico. She is always in my office (I'm a school nurse for the few of you who don't know). When another hispanic person comes in and starts speaking spanish to her, she will tell me exactly what the other is saying, and my friend will respond in English. She will say, "you can speak English because she doesn't understand what we are saying." I LOVE that, because it isn't right to come into someone's office and speak in another language. So I absolutely have no racial implications, but I can see, after reading my own response, where you would have taken it that way and I apologize. :( Tracy yeah, comparatively, the UK is really tiny/the USA is really HUGE, whichever way you look at it xD These two nations might share a language so we can generally communicate easily, and I think that makes a lot of people forget that we are actually very different places, the language is one of the very few things that are mainly the same. One of the girls I work with on the site I admin on (she's a park ranger in Corpus Christi) during a similar kind of conversation told us what a friend of hers had said, and it's so true! "Brits think 100 miles is a long way, Americans think 100 years is a long time" That sums a lot of the big differences up really well, I think! Working on a site that's staffed by people from different countries is super interesting for me, you find out so many things about different cultures, maybe more than you would just chatting as users on a forum because you form a closer bond after working together for months/years. And now we're all learning stuff about Rio from Patty :D Though it's mainly kind of scary stuff, I think. All a matter of what you're used to, yeah? Yes, you are absolutely right. I never thought about it that way, but the US is so big that in order to get anywhere, we do have to drive a lot. Driving 60-100 miles is really nothing. Most of us do that on a daily basis. I know people who commute that to work then back every day. It is only an hour, hour and a half. But 100 yrs, yes to a country that has only had it's independence for 240 yrs is a lot. Many of our towns and cities were established in the 1600's. So we are a very country compared to England. That is a VERY good analogy. I like it, I am going to pilfer it. lol. leverhelven 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellysundae Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Hehe, pilferer ;D The building I live in is over 400 years old, lol, the town I live in was founded in 1120, so yep, the US is a little baby compared to the UK. I was thinking about what Patty said about people walking around with their electronics. I suppose I don't want her getting a falsely positive impression of London >< Kensington's one of the posher/richer areas of London, there's going to be a lot of areas though where it would be just as bad as Rio with regard to crime, sadly :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marae19 Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Hehe, pilferer ;D The building I live in is over 400 years old, lol, the town I live in was founded in 1120, so yep, the US is a little baby compared to the UK. I was thinking about what Patty said about people walking around with their electronics. I suppose I don't want her getting a falsely positive impression of London >< Kensington's one of the posher/richer areas of London, there's going to be a lot of areas though where it would be just as bad as Rio with regard to crime, sadly :( The building that I live in was build in the 70s, but the city I live in used to be a Roman army camp, the limes (the border of the Roman Empire), is made visible on the ground (sorry, I'm a Roman history lover, the rest of the history of the world, not so much, but the Romans and the Greeks I can't get enough of, but the Latin language is another story...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellysundae Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 The building that I live in was build in the 70s, but the city I live in used to be a Roman army camp, the limes (the border of the Roman Empire), is made visible on the ground (sorry, I'm a Roman history lover, the rest of the history of the world, not so much, but the Romans and the Greeks I can't get enough of, but the Latin language is another story...) A Roman camp, nice! There's nothing visible to show for Romans in this area, though there's been settlers here since the Iron Age, no big evidence remains though. Which is sad because stuff like that's really cool and interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marae19 Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 A Roman camp, nice! There's nothing visible to show for Romans in this area, though there's been settlers here since the Iron Age, no big evidence remains though. Which is sad because stuff like that's really cool and interesting. Oh, that's cool, too. Just too bad that there's not much left of it :( The wall of Hadrian is in England as well, right? (no idea where in England, all we had to know in school was that it was somewhere in a northern-ish part of England) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellysundae Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Oh, that's cool, too. Just too bad that there's not much left of it :( The wall of Hadrian is in England as well, right? (no idea where in England, all we had to know in school was that it was somewhere in a northern-ish part of England) It's northern England, yep. Funny really, I'd always assumed that it seperated England from Scotland, but it seems that's not the case at all. Looks like somewhere you'd enjoy visiting, as it's Roman history all the way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naamah D. Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 I love the Shrek photo! Traveling on a plane scares me, but I'd love to go to England, France, Germany and Italy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marae19 Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 It's northern England, yep. Funny really, I'd always assumed that it seperated England from Scotland, but it seems that's not the case at all. Looks like somewhere you'd enjoy visiting, as it's Roman history all the way! Yeah, I'd love to visit. What I always found funny about it was that it's talked about with such an air of greatness, and I really imagined a wall that was at least three meters high, kind of a Great Wall of China type thing, just not as long because, you know, England, and then, a few months after we'd first discussed it in class, the teacher showed a picture, and it did not meet my expectations AT ALL. It's just this knee-high wall, so that was rather dissapointing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Various Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 The photos are amazing! Glad you had a wonderful time and I'm so jealous that you went to the Harry Potter thing. I'm desperate to go but it's too far. Which is probably a ridiculous thing to say to somebody who's from Rio who went, but I would have to do it as a day trip (can't leave my dog overnight with my family) and it's a 145 mile drive there, so nearly 300 miles round trip which is insane for a day trip. Google maps is telling me that it'd be a 5 hour round trip but considering how useless our motorways are and the roadworks from hell in Birmingham, it'd be at least 7 hours. And if I did it on the train, it'd be 3 hours each way. I'm desperate to go, but not quite desperate enough to subject myself to 6 hours of torture or even worse, the risk of rail replacement buses. So I'm very jealous. Oh, that's cool, too. Just too bad that there's not much left of it :( The wall of Hadrian is in England as well, right? (no idea where in England, all we had to know in school was that it was somewhere in a northern-ish part of England) Yep, it's in northern England. It's not the border between England and Scotland which is sometimes said about it. The west end is something like a mile from the Scottish boarder but the east end is about 70 miles from the border, I think. Here's a map Talking about history, or in this case prehistory, there's an Iron Age hill fort a 10 minute walk away. So that's over 2,000 years of documented human settlement right where I live. (There's loads of older sites within driving distance, but that's the nearest settlement from where I am right now. ) So when I was on a tour around San Francisco and the tour guide got very excited about telling us about the really old houses that were built in the 1920s, none of us were that impressed :p For those who like the Romans, one of the larger Roman towns is a 15 minute drive away. But I'm not that fussed, I'm more interested in prehistory. Where I grew up (15 miles away from where I live now :p ), you can't go for a walk without coming across at least 5 prehistoric sites. Actually, 2,000 years is nothing. Earliest remains of modern humans (Homo sapiens as opposed to other homo species) in Great Britain is from over 40,000 years ago (and that is nothing compared to Africa, obviously). I think humans started to arrive in what is now the USA about 15,000 years ago. So the US really is a baby compared to the UK (and we're like a baby compared to Africa :p ) And because I can't help myself, oldest documented evidence of humans (not modern humans, earlier species) in the UK is about 800,000 years. Oldest remains of a human species in the UK are from Boxgrove and they're half a million years old. I've just read about this today and I'm ridiculously excited about it so I'm in full out geek mode at the moment. I am sorry. And new reply while I was typing... Yeah, I'd love to visit. What I always found funny about it was that it's talked about with such an air of greatness, and I really imagined a wall that was at least three meters high, kind of a Great Wall of China type thing, just not as long because, you know, England, and then, a few months after we'd first discussed it in class, the teacher showed a picture, and it did not meet my expectations AT ALL. It's just this knee-high wall, so that was rather dissapointing. Knee high? Maybe, in some parts. Not so much in other parts :p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marae19 Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 The photos are amazing! Glad you had a wonderful time and I'm so jealous that you went to the Harry Potter thing. I'm desperate to go but it's too far. Which is probably a ridiculous thing to say to somebody who's from Rio who went, but I would have to do it as a day trip (can't leave my dog overnight with my family) and it's a 145 mile drive there, so nearly 300 miles round trip which is insane for a day trip. Google maps is telling me that it'd be a 5 hour round trip but considering how useless our motorways are and the roadworks from hell in Birmingham, it'd be at least 7 hours. And if I did it on the train, it'd be 3 hours each way. I'm desperate to go, but not quite desperate enough to subject myself to 6 hours of torture or even worse, the risk of rail replacement buses. So I'm very jealous. Yep, it's in northern England. It's not the border between England and Scotland which is sometimes said about it. The west end is something like a mile from the Scottish boarder but the east end is about 70 miles from the border, I think. Here's a map Talking about history, or in this case prehistory, there's an Iron Age hill fort a 10 minute walk away. So that's over 2,000 years of documented human settlement right where I live. (There's loads of older sites within driving distance, but that's the nearest settlement from where I am right now. ) So when I was on a tour around San Francisco and the tour guide got very excited about telling us about the really old houses that were built in the 1920s, none of us were that impressed :P For those who like the Romans, one of the larger Roman towns is a 15 minute drive away. But I'm not that fussed, I'm more interested in prehistory. Where I grew up (15 miles away from where I live now :P ), you can't go for a walk without coming across at least 5 prehistoric sites. Actually, 2,000 years is nothing. Earliest remains of modern humans (Homo sapiens as opposed to other homo species) in Great Britain is from over 40,000 years ago (and that is nothing compared to Africa, obviously). I think humans started to arrive in what is now the USA about 15,000 years ago. So the US really is a baby compared to the UK (and we're like a baby compared to Africa :P ) And because I can't help myself, oldest documented evidence of humans (not modern humans, earlier species) in the UK is about 800,000 years. Oldest remains of a human species in the UK are from Boxgrove and they're half a million years old. I've just read about this today and I'm ridiculously excited about it so I'm in full out geek mode at the moment. I am sorry. And new reply while I was typing... Knee high? Maybe, in some parts. Not so much in other parts :P Okay, first of all, that article you referenced is really cool :D Even though the only part of history that I really like are the Romans and the Greeks (not so much the languages, but I know Latin, 'cause I've learned it in school (and are currently just reading a lot of Pliny Minor (the younger)), but it's really cool. And don't you dare be sorry about geeking out. Geeking out is so much fun, and just the fact that there's something that you can still get that excited about is incredible, and should be celebrated, and not apologised for. I'm not really sure hold old the oldest human remains from Holland are, or if there even are any, but I'm always so impressed that the homo sapiens have been around for so long, and I find it amazing that there's still stuff to discover, and that each day we get closer to more answers, and hopefully some day be able to find all the missing links (probably not, but a girl can dream). And second of all, I just got really excited about the height of that part of the wall of Hadrian, because that is kind of what I imagined it would be (though, I admit, my fantasy had a bit more of Roman architecture thrown in, a bit like the triumph arches, just not with so many details, but at least not these kind of grey stones...). I'm really bummed that my teacher showed the lower parts, because that seriously was a huge let down, thank you for showing me that it isn't like that everywere :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellysundae Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 It's true that Hadrian's Wall's not some intimidating rampart, it's impressive for it's age though. It was mentioned on an episode of Time Time that I saw recently, and they said on there that it wasn't just a fortification, it was a destination for controlled trade and so on. Which explains it's lack of generally scariness better. I saw something else last week that totally blew my mind, a program talking about how Scotland is some of the oldest land on the entire planet. The mountains of Scotland were originally part of a highly volcanic landmass that became America (if I remember correctly), and there's chunks of a particular kind of rock lying around in the highlands that are identifiable as being part of the earth's crust 3 billion years ago o.o Ah, here's a bit of info: Getting Started: Scottish Geology Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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