What is it like where you live?

[Kute]

I am from California in the U.S. Here we are a very mixed community and not segregated at all like other areas of the U.S. I am white (not sure really what my heritage is) and my boyfriend is Mexican. Most people I know are from Mexico or their family came from Mexico. Sometimes I meet people from Columbia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Brazil that are residence here and love when they talk about their culture. I absolutely love hispanic culture and language because I grew up with it and really enjoy being able to take part in it as a lot of it is integrated into California since it used to be part of Mexico.  Most of our street names and cities are in Spanish. I think a lot of people hear these names like 'camino norte' ,'Los Osos' 'Los Angeles' or 'La puente' for example and dont know their meaning in Spanish since we are not required to learn a second language.  It is always sunny here and I've never had a Christmas that wasn't hot. So all those songs about Christmas in the snow are lies. LOL (our winter is December, January, and February for those of you outside of north america) .  We have had a long drought and a lot of farmers have lost their crops because there is no water.   Where I live you can go to the city, the beach, the desert, and the mountains within a 30-40 minute drive so if you want to go surfing and snowboarding in the same day that is possible..  Oh and there are a lot of earth quakes here. Mostly small and you don't always feel or notice them. I've never felt a big earth quake but some do shake my house a bit and only last seconds. 

I've always wondered how other people live and I find it very interesting when I discover things like for example I just learned what brown sauce is and that people from the UK use it as one of their main condiments. I really want to purchase some online now. 

So that is a brief view of my area. I am interested in how everyone else sees their world or what is unique to them, or can you relate to me? 

[lakecat]

Hi Kute. This is a great topic. I'm surprised that no one else has replied yet. I'll just give a brief reply for now. I'm from a rural area of Michigan. It's very white racially in the countryside but the cities are more diverse. Climate wise, we have four seasons, or as some would describe it, Winter and then every thing else.  Winter lasts from late November through March here, with a chance of snow during all of those months, and an average of over 6 feet of the white stuff. And this isn't even the "snowy" part of Michigan ("up north" is). Unlike much of the Midwest, we are surrounded by the Great Lakes, and have beautiful sunsets on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. There are countless small inland lakes and rivers too, so you are always within walking distance to fresh water here. I love animals, and can watch wildlife from my windows. Recently, I've seen deer, rabbits, and baby woodchucks (ground hogs). Some Summers I've seen coyotes in my yard, and have heard them already this Spring at night. The loudest sound in the morning are all of the variety of birds, both large and small. The trees we have include oak, maple, cherry, and pine. 

I Googled and found this link to a Michigan photographer. See the top ("Galleries") for many more photos.

http://www.michigannutphotography.com/

[jellysundae]

7 hours ago, lakecat said:

Hi Kute. This is a great topic. I'm surprised that no one else has replied yet.

It IS a great topic, and I've got every intention of replying, I'm just waiting for my brain to comply, lol. Hopefully reading what others have to tell will goose it into letting me compile something myself. >_<

I CAN however, enlighten @Kute about brown sauce!

See when I was in Florida in 2008 I had the opportunity to try A1 sauce, which I'd only read about in books (Stephen King ones I'm pretty sure) and was keen to taste to see what it was like. So when we had steak at NBA City - perfect opportunity! Only to find . . . it tastes exactly the same as brown sauce! Huh, anti-climax! I mean brown sauce is great but discovering it and A1 are the same thing was a big let down, lol.

I love the Spanish city names, they make things sound so much more . . . what? Exciting? Romantic? Vibrant? Pretty? Just exotic in general?

• San Francisco
• St. Francis

Kinda dull in English, isn't it?

Just like foreign names in general, I suppose

• Leonardo DiCaprio
• Leonard of Capri

Yeah.

Oh and because my brain . . . in my head now run these thoughts.

So San Francisco because St. Francis was a guy, so Santa Barbara etc. because St. Barbara was a female. Yep, different prefixes for different genders, got it.

So . . .

Santa Claus . . . Santa is a woman!! That's a very fine beard you have there, miss!

 

Yep I know I mixing different languages here so I'm making no actual sense, but whatevs

[Duma]

I live in Western Europe (some of you know what country) and I love it here. In around an hour drive I can be at a small forest, at heather landscape or at the sea. We don't really have any earthquakes, hurricanes or volcano's. No poisonous animals or other really dangerous wildlife. We do have plenty of birds, rabbits, foxes, bats, squirrels, frogs, etc etc. The seasons are great! Northern hemisphere so winter is also in December. But it is never more than a few weeks (and that would be very long) the same kind of weather. We can have a week nice and sunny and warm and then it will rain a few days again (I love rain! as long as it's not weeks on end ). It can be windy at times (even storming) but never more than a few days. In winter it can be cold, but not like it is in Northern of Canada. Some winters we get a little bit of snow (it's rare if it's white on Christmas though, but it happens sometimes) and some years we can have lots of snow for our standards. Talking about 20 to 30 cm of snow here. If the temperature goes below minus 10 degrees Celsius it's very cold BUT a lot of people love it as they love ice skating on natural ice. This winter we were able to do that for almost a week before it started melting! The last time before this we could do that for an extended period (like a week) was like 8 or 9 years ago.
If we want to get to mountains for snowboarding or such activities it takes about a day (or half a day) driving (depending where you're going or how big you want the mountains to be). Going to a big forest is about the same distance to drive.

The population is really divers, especially if you go into bigger cities. You get to meet all kinds of nationalities, cultures and religions. You can see people in all styles too, like you'll see goth's and rockers and hippies and rappers and grey mouse (don't know how else to call the "common people"), every skin tone you can think of, from bankers to artists to people that live on the streets. (But I guess that's pretty standard for cities). In the big city I used to live everyone was accepted though. The homeless were treated decent too. For some of them it was even their preferred way of living (I used to talk regularly to one of them since he often wandered the streets close to where I was living). Others just weren't very lucky. Right now I'm living in a tiny little town and I love it. I love the peace and quiet. I love hearing the birds sing and the frogs uh.. make noise.

Food like, we don't really have very specific things I guess, well, maybe we do but I just love making dishes from all over the world. I also love learning languages. I'm not good at them and as a kid I hated it, thinking I would never use it. But thanks to the internet I get to meet so many people and being able to speak their language is awesome. So at school I learned French and English as foreign languages (although my French is a bit rusty) and at the moment I'm trying to teach myself some Japanese. But just in a playful way, nothing serious.

Oh, and we drive on the right side of the road, not on the wrong side (sorry, had to make that joke )

[charelan]

I live in South Eastern Canada on the Bay of Fundy (Atlantic Ocean). Our topography is sort of rough and craggy and very forested. The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world... people typically don't surf around here though bc even in summer the water is so very cold. 

Canada is supposedly bilingual, but my province is the only actual bilingual province where absolutely everything is in both French and English. My city is primarily anglo. It used to be primarily white racially (most people whose families have been here long are of British/Irish or French descent), but is experiencing a lot of growth right now, which is so cool to see. We are getting a lot of immigrants over the last 15 years... used to be primarily Asian for some reason but now seems to be people from all over. It's really great - my town has been slowly dying for some time... the population is way lower nowadays than in the 1980s. I am hopeful this new influx of people will help turn it around. We are getting lots of new restaurants and businesses.

I am also grateful at how (relatively) unspoiled my area is. I take my dogs to a beautiful trail on an isthmus almost every day where we do a nice 7k hike all along the coast and we hardly see another person. I know in a bigger place, you could never have something so lovely all to yourself like that. My house is also on a 7 acre lot (mostly woods), which I'd never be able to afford somewhere else. I guess there are some benefits to living in a somewhat economically depressed area... 

Weather-wise we typically do have snowy cold winters... but like lakecat, it's nothing compared to "up north". It's just getting spring-y here now... the birds are back and the flowers and trees are budding. We have a lot of wildlife, too... deer are considered to be 'pests' in some neighbourhoods, but I still like seeing them  

[Rayd1978]

I live in mid-eastern Nebraska.   Around here it's mostly corn fields and cow pastures.  Soybeans are also fairly popular.   Other crops exist, but are an exception to the general rule.   Most of the state is fairly small towns scattered every 15 miles or so, or about a days ride by horseback.  Not that many people travel by horseback any more, except for fun.  I live near one of the larger towns, 20,000 people, which has a corn processing plant, meat plants, and several manufacturing plants.   Most of the small towns will say they're diverse if they have people of both Swedish and Norwegian ancestry; which is to say we tend to be very white.  The larger towns usually have a fair sized Hispanic population, and there are people from other races/cultures around, but they tend to be a small minority.

Our weather tends to be fairly extreme, with summer highs well over 100F(38C), and winters as low as -40F(-40C).   Rain is either non-existent, or comes down in buckets.  Wind is almost constant, but usually not too bad.   But sometimes it gets terrible and can blow over houses.   More common are tornadoes, which tend to be right around this time of year.  I've been in several, well, near enough to have been in serious danger.   It's something you just get used to, I guess.   They get commented upon, but mostly just hit a corn field and don't do any serious trouble.   Every couple years one hits a populated area, and that tends to make headlines.

Wildlife is somewhat lacking, the bison long gone.   Deer are still around, mostly near the rivers.  Raccoons and skunks are fairly common, and rabbits are everywhere.   Every once in a while is a mountain lion sighting in the area.  Coyotes are supposedly around, but uncommon.  We also get mice, ants, wasps, bees, flies, mosquitoes, ticks, and other vermin, but try not to think about them too much.  We do get part of the Sandhill Crane migration each year, but the majority of that is further west.

Most people are independent, but friendly.  Might live next to someone (next house over, a half-mile down the road) for years and never say hello, but if someone's cows get loose or whatever, everyone pitches in to help without a second thought.  With everything spread out, just about everyone over the age of 16 has their own car, or at least access to one.   Internet and cable TV were uncommon until about 10 years ago, but now you can typically get a cell phone signal in any town.   Are places between towns where might not get a signal, especially in the hills.

Smoking is pretty common, and alcohol use is standard.   Most small towns have several bars, one store, one gas station, and one or two churches.  Are several towns were locals are no longer allowed to drive, so they have a small fleet of driving lawn mowers to get around town.  I'm told opiate use is pretty high, but I havn't encountered it for myself.  Canibis and meth are around, but not particularly common, at least not right where I live.

[Nielo]

I've been wanting to reply ever since @Kute posted this topic, but honestly couldn't think of much to say, so I was waiting for inspiration and hoping it would come in the form of other people's post. And it did.  

I live in Holland (I tend to alternate between calling it 'Holland' and 'The Netherlands'), in one of its biggest cities. Which is still tiny compared to any US city, considering my entire country could fit into the state of California several times over. Bikes, walking and public transport are much more efficient ways of getting around our big cities than cars, which might explain why I'm almost 29, yet still don't have my driver's license.
Currently I can walk to work (through a park, which is lovely), but my office is moving in June, so I'll have to get used to cycling in a big city, something I've hated ever since I moved to Amsterdam 10 years ago. I had to cycle 10-12 kilometers (6.2-7.5 miles) to school (and then again back home) when I was a teenager, but the roads were wide and you'd hardly run in to anyone. It was relaxing. Cycling in Amsterdam (or our other big cities) is awful (other people tend to disagree with me on this, but I stand by it ). It's like an obstacle course, where none of the other participants care if they might run you over. XD

I've always loved learning languages, which is a good thing, considering Dutch people are expected to be able to converse in different languages, sinc no one speaks Dutch. XD
I've forgotten most of my high school French though, as I never really use it. My German's okay. We're always surrounded by English, because the majority of the shows and movies we watch are from the US and the UK, and we only ever dub children's media, everything else gets subtitled. It makes learning the language a lot easier.

Holland has a bit of a... fascinating reputation abroad, I think. It's either the 'drugs & Red Light District' one, or the 'milkmaids and windmills' one. Neither is entirely accurate. At this point, I'm not even sure our drug laws are all that different from those of other Western countries, but I don't think we'll ever fully shake that reputation. Also, if someone can explain to me what a 'milkmaid' is supposed to be, I'll be eternally grateful. I've only ever seen them in old Vermeer paintings and American popular culture that referenced Holland.

Oh, and 90% of the time when you hear a fictional character speaking "Dutch" they're actually speaking German. (I'm guessing it has to do with the languages being similar, and the German word for 'German' being 'Deutsch'.)

Our national anthem is probably one of the most confusing national anthems ever, which might have to do with it being the 2nd oldest national anthem, having been written somewhere between 1568 and 1572, a fact that I had to look up, because us Dutchies are notorious for not being able to konw all that much about it, or even sing along to it. Maybe that's because the song includes singing we're of German blood (there's that confusing translation again! XD) and how we honour the king of Spain.

Oh, and we still have a monarchy. I sometimes feel like the UK's royal family is the only one that's still widely known, but we have one too. (As do several other countries.) We currently have a king; the first one in decades: his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother preceded him, and he only has daughters, so he'll be the last king for a while, since the husband of a queen isn't allowed to be called 'king' as kings rank higher than queens, and that would mean someone who isn't of royal blood would outrank the actual royal. So we currently do have a king and a queen, but that's for the first time in ages. And no, I can't believe this ridiculous rule still exists either. (To be completely honest, I'm not even sure why the monarchy still exists. XD)

Our national colour is orange (royal family related; I'm too lazy to look up the precise reason why their last name involves the word 'orange'), and if you ever ran into some of our football (= soccer) fans, I sincerely apologise.

[Duma]

51 minutes ago, Nielo said:

Our national colour is orange (royal family related; I'm too lazy to look up the precise reason why their last name involves the word 'orange'), and if you ever ran into some of our football (= soccer) fans, I sincerely apologise.

I'm going to add to the confusion now: It's orange because the founders (if you go way way WAY back) at one point lived/originated in/from "Orange, located in France. That has been translated to Oranje, hence their title and the color.

[Kute]

On 5/16/2018 at 11:04 PM, lakecat said:

Hi Kute. This is a great topic. I'm surprised that no one else has replied yet. I'll just give a brief reply for now. I'm from a rural area of Michigan. It's very white racially in the countryside but the cities are more diverse. Climate wise, we have four seasons, or as some would describe it, Winter and then every thing else.  Winter lasts from late November through March here, with a chance of snow during all of those months, and an average of over 6 feet of the white stuff. And this isn't even the "snowy" part of Michigan ("up north" is). Unlike much of the Midwest, we are surrounded by the Great Lakes, and have beautiful sunsets on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. There are countless small inland lakes and rivers too, so you are always within walking distance to fresh water here. I love animals, and can watch wildlife from my windows. Recently, I've seen deer, rabbits, and baby woodchucks (ground hogs). Some Summers I've seen coyotes in my yard, and have heard them already this Spring at night. The loudest sound in the morning are all of the variety of birds, both large and small. The trees we have include oak, maple, cherry, and pine. 

I Googled and found this link to a Michigan photographer. See the top ("Galleries") for many more photos.

http://www.michigannutphotography.com/

WOW so many replies. I am impressed. Okay first of all sorry I was busy the last few days so I havent had time to come back here haha. I have never been to Michigan actually no where near that side of the country so hearing this is great. I think thats awesome that you have so much wildlife around you. We dont have that so much here. It sounds really nice there!

On 5/17/2018 at 1:24 AM, jellysundae said:

It IS a great topic, and I've got every intention of replying, I'm just waiting for my brain to comply, lol. Hopefully reading what others have to tell will goose it into letting me compile something myself. >_<

I CAN however, enlighten @Kute about brown sauce!

See when I was in Florida in 2008 I had the opportunity to try A1 sauce, which I'd only read about in books (Stephen King ones I'm pretty sure) and was keen to taste to see what it was like. So when we had steak at NBA City - perfect opportunity! Only to find . . . it tastes exactly the same as brown sauce! Huh, anti-climax! I mean brown sauce is great but discovering it and A1 are the same thing was a big let down, lol.

I love the Spanish city names, they make things sound so much more . . . what? Exciting? Romantic? Vibrant? Pretty? Just exotic in general?

• San Francisco
• St. Francis

Kinda dull in English, isn't it?

Just like foreign names in general, I suppose

• Leonardo DiCaprio
• Leonard of Capri

Yeah.

Oh and because my brain . . . in my head now run these thoughts.

So San Francisco because St. Francis was a guy, so Santa Barbara etc. because St. Barbara was a female. Yep, different prefixes for different genders, got it.

So . . .

Santa Claus . . . Santa is a woman!! That's a very fine beard you have there, miss!

 

Yep I know I mixing different languages here so I'm making no actual sense, but whatevs

Oh wow I never thought that it would be the same as A1!!! I dont even really like A1! Thats a shame LOL! mystery solved, so thank you very much for the insight! I appreciate that! I cant wait to tell my dad because he wanted to know really badly as well. 

On 5/17/2018 at 2:18 AM, Duma said:

I live in Western Europe (some of you know what country) and I love it here. In around an hour drive I can be at a small forest, at heather landscape or at the sea. We don't really have any earthquakes, hurricanes or volcano's. No poisonous animals or other really dangerous wildlife. We do have plenty of birds, rabbits, foxes, bats, squirrels, frogs, etc etc. The seasons are great! Northern hemisphere so winter is also in December. But it is never more than a few weeks (and that would be very long) the same kind of weather. We can have a week nice and sunny and warm and then it will rain a few days again (I love rain! as long as it's not weeks on end ). It can be windy at times (even storming) but never more than a few days. In winter it can be cold, but not like it is in Northern of Canada. Some winters we get a little bit of snow (it's rare if it's white on Christmas though, but it happens sometimes) and some years we can have lots of snow for our standards. Talking about 20 to 30 cm of snow here. If the temperature goes below minus 10 degrees Celsius it's very cold BUT a lot of people love it as they love ice skating on natural ice. This winter we were able to do that for almost a week before it started melting! The last time before this we could do that for an extended period (like a week) was like 8 or 9 years ago.
If we want to get to mountains for snowboarding or such activities it takes about a day (or half a day) driving (depending where you're going or how big you want the mountains to be). Going to a big forest is about the same distance to drive.

The population is really divers, especially if you go into bigger cities. You get to meet all kinds of nationalities, cultures and religions. You can see people in all styles too, like you'll see goth's and rockers and hippies and rappers and grey mouse (don't know how else to call the "common people"), every skin tone you can think of, from bankers to artists to people that live on the streets. (But I guess that's pretty standard for cities). In the big city I used to live everyone was accepted though. The homeless were treated decent too. For some of them it was even their preferred way of living (I used to talk regularly to one of them since he often wandered the streets close to where I was living). Others just weren't very lucky. Right now I'm living in a tiny little town and I love it. I love the peace and quiet. I love hearing the birds sing and the frogs uh.. make noise.

Food like, we don't really have very specific things I guess, well, maybe we do but I just love making dishes from all over the world. I also love learning languages. I'm not good at them and as a kid I hated it, thinking I would never use it. But thanks to the internet I get to meet so many people and being able to speak their language is awesome. So at school I learned French and English as foreign languages (although my French is a bit rusty) and at the moment I'm trying to teach myself some Japanese. But just in a playful way, nothing serious.

Oh, and we drive on the right side of the road, not on the wrong side (sorry, had to make that joke )

Very interesting how different the homeless population is treated. Here and closer to Los Angeles there is a huuuuuge homeless population. I watched a document about it on Netflix called Skid Row. They are pretty much unwanted and ignored here. Yesterday at a mini mart store I saw a sign that said Please say no to panhandlers. I've never seen that before but yea, theyre ignored. I think its great that you know french. I took it in highschool my freshman year. My family was yelling at me "why did you pick french? Youll never use it!!!"  and  they were right, and I only remember how to count to 3. haha.

On 5/17/2018 at 4:14 AM, charelan said:

I live in South Eastern Canada on the Bay of Fundy (Atlantic Ocean). Our topography is sort of rough and craggy and very forested. The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world... people typically don't surf around here though bc even in summer the water is so very cold. 

Canada is supposedly bilingual, but my province is the only actual bilingual province where absolutely everything is in both French and English. My city is primarily anglo. It used to be primarily white racially (most people whose families have been here long are of British/Irish or French descent), but is experiencing a lot of growth right now, which is so cool to see. We are getting a lot of immigrants over the last 15 years... used to be primarily Asian for some reason but now seems to be people from all over. It's really great - my town has been slowly dying for some time... the population is way lower nowadays than in the 1980s. I am hopeful this new influx of people will help turn it around. We are getting lots of new restaurants and businesses.

I am also grateful at how (relatively) unspoiled my area is. I take my dogs to a beautiful trail on an isthmus almost every day where we do a nice 7k hike all along the coast and we hardly see another person. I know in a bigger place, you could never have something so lovely all to yourself like that. My house is also on a 7 acre lot (mostly woods), which I'd never be able to afford somewhere else. I guess there are some benefits to living in a somewhat economically depressed area... 

Weather-wise we typically do have snowy cold winters... but like lakecat, it's nothing compared to "up north". It's just getting spring-y here now... the birds are back and the flowers and trees are budding. We have a lot of wildlife, too... deer are considered to be 'pests' in some neighbourhoods, but I still like seeing them  

I've never been to Canada, but I do want to go. It seems fresh. Just from your description about hiking along the coast seems so nice and relaxing. 7 acres is quite a lot to someone from southern california. We have 2 acres and I already think thats huge but to be honest most homes are on like a half acre lot and people still think thats a decent sized lot.  Thats so cool that your home is along the woods. I wish it was like that here.

On 5/17/2018 at 5:23 AM, Rayd1978 said:

I live in mid-eastern Nebraska.   Around here it's mostly corn fields and cow pastures.  Soybeans are also fairly popular.   Other crops exist, but are an exception to the general rule.   Most of the state is fairly small towns scattered every 15 miles or so, or about a days ride by horseback.  Not that many people travel by horseback any more, except for fun.  I live near one of the larger towns, 20,000 people, which has a corn processing plant, meat plants, and several manufacturing plants.   Most of the small towns will say they're diverse if they have people of both Swedish and Norwegian ancestry; which is to say we tend to be very white.  The larger towns usually have a fair sized Hispanic population, and there are people from other races/cultures around, but they tend to be a small minority.

Our weather tends to be fairly extreme, with summer highs well over 100F(38C), and winters as low as -40F(-40C).   Rain is either non-existent, or comes down in buckets.  Wind is almost constant, but usually not too bad.   But sometimes it gets terrible and can blow over houses.   More common are tornadoes, which tend to be right around this time of year.  I've been in several, well, near enough to have been in serious danger.   It's something you just get used to, I guess.   They get commented upon, but mostly just hit a corn field and don't do any serious trouble.   Every couple years one hits a populated area, and that tends to make headlines.

Wildlife is somewhat lacking, the bison long gone.   Deer are still around, mostly near the rivers.  Raccoons and skunks are fairly common, and rabbits are everywhere.   Every once in a while is a mountain lion sighting in the area.  Coyotes are supposedly around, but uncommon.  We also get mice, ants, wasps, bees, flies, mosquitoes, ticks, and other vermin, but try not to think about them too much.  We do get part of the Sandhill Crane migration each year, but the majority of that is further west.

Most people are independent, but friendly.  Might live next to someone (next house over, a half-mile down the road) for years and never say hello, but if someone's cows get loose or whatever, everyone pitches in to help without a second thought.  With everything spread out, just about everyone over the age of 16 has their own car, or at least access to one.   Internet and cable TV were uncommon until about 10 years ago, but now you can typically get a cell phone signal in any town.   Are places between towns where might not get a signal, especially in the hills.

Smoking is pretty common, and alcohol use is standard.   Most small towns have several bars, one store, one gas station, and one or two churches.  Are several towns were locals are no longer allowed to drive, so they have a small fleet of driving lawn mowers to get around town.  I'm told opiate use is pretty high, but I havn't encountered it for myself.  Canibis and meth are around, but not particularly common, at least not right where I live.

What a nice description! I feel like I can see it. I've never seen a tornado in real life. That is incredible that homes are so far spread apart. I guess most of America is like that, but if you have never seen it, you would not know because TV always shows the large populated areas. I love seeing small towns because they always have charm.  We also sometimes have raccoons and rabbits and surprisingly sometimes deer, but nothing crazy like bison! I've seen a lot of farm areas with cows. You would be surprised to know that even down in Malibu where movie stars live there are farms with cows and horses. 

On 5/17/2018 at 9:42 AM, Nielo said:

I've been wanting to reply ever since @Kute posted this topic, but honestly couldn't think of much to say, so I was waiting for inspiration and hoping it would come in the form of other people's post. And it did.  

I live in Holland (I tend to alternate between calling it 'Holland' and 'The Netherlands'), in one of its biggest cities. Which is still tiny compared to any US city, considering my entire country could fit into the state of California several times over. Bikes, walking and public transport are much more efficient ways of getting around our big cities than cars, which might explain why I'm almost 29, yet still don't have my driver's license.
Currently I can walk to work (through a park, which is lovely), but my office is moving in June, so I'll have to get used to cycling in a big city, something I've hated ever since I moved to Amsterdam 10 years ago. I had to cycle 10-12 kilometers (6.2-7.5 miles) to school (and then again back home) when I was a teenager, but the roads were wide and you'd hardly run in to anyone. It was relaxing. Cycling in Amsterdam (or our other big cities) is awful (other people tend to disagree with me on this, but I stand by it ). It's like an obstacle course, where none of the other participants care if they might run you over. XD

I've always loved learning languages, which is a good thing, considering Dutch people are expected to be able to converse in different languages, sinc no one speaks Dutch. XD
I've forgotten most of my high school French though, as I never really use it. My German's okay. We're always surrounded by English, because the majority of the shows and movies we watch are from the US and the UK, and we only ever dub children's media, everything else gets subtitled. It makes learning the language a lot easier.

Holland has a bit of a... fascinating reputation abroad, I think. It's either the 'drugs & Red Light District' one, or the 'milkmaids and windmills' one. Neither is entirely accurate. At this point, I'm not even sure our drug laws are all that different from those of other Western countries, but I don't think we'll ever fully shake that reputation. Also, if someone can explain to me what a 'milkmaid' is supposed to be, I'll be eternally grateful. I've only ever seen them in old Vermeer paintings and American popular culture that referenced Holland.

Oh, and 90% of the time when you hear a fictional character speaking "Dutch" they're actually speaking German. (I'm guessing it has to do with the languages being similar, and the German word for 'German' being 'Deutsch'.)

Our national anthem is probably one of the most confusing national anthems ever, which might have to do with it being the 2nd oldest national anthem, having been written somewhere between 1568 and 1572, a fact that I had to look up, because us Dutchies are notorious for not being able to konw all that much about it, or even sing along to it. Maybe that's because the song includes singing we're of German blood (there's that confusing translation again! XD) and how we honour the king of Spain.

Oh, and we still have a monarchy. I sometimes feel like the UK's royal family is the only one that's still widely known, but we have one too. (As do several other countries.) We currently have a king; the first one in decades: his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother preceded him, and he only has daughters, so he'll be the last king for a while, since the husband of a queen isn't allowed to be called 'king' as kings rank higher than queens, and that would mean someone who isn't of royal blood would outrank the actual royal. So we currently do have a king and a queen, but that's for the first time in ages. And no, I can't believe this ridiculous rule still exists either. (To be completely honest, I'm not even sure why the monarchy still exists. XD)

Our national colour is orange (royal family related; I'm too lazy to look up the precise reason why their last name involves the word 'orange'), and if you ever ran into some of our football (= soccer) fans, I sincerely apologise.

I really enjoyed reading this because it is so unique to what I know. I always hear people say they learned english from watching tv, or that our American accent is normal because of tv. I thought that was crazy and didnt know how much English is spread from tv and movies.  Ive never heard milkmaids and windmills. Oh wow that is a confusing anthem lol. Spain? I didnt know Holland had ties with Spain? Here riding a bike is not common. Only for sport.  Actually its kind of sad how much traffic there is and people in Cali do not like to share the road with motorcycles. I did not know that you had a monarchy, but yes we very much know about and talk about the UK royal family in America. I remember growing up always hearing about the death of Diana and now everyone is going crazy again with the new princess.   I have not met any of your football fans! But it would be a dream come true to go to an actual football game where everyone is going crazy and hugging and stuff. I would never forget that! 

[Nielo]

1 hour ago, Kute said:

I really enjoyed reading this because it is so unique to what I know. I always hear people say they learned english from watching tv, or that our American accent is normal because of tv. I thought that was crazy and didnt know how much English is spread from tv and movies.  Ive never heard milkmaids and windmills. Oh wow that is a confusing anthem lol. Spain? I didnt know Holland had ties with Spain? Here riding a bike is not common. Only for sport.  Actually its kind of sad how much traffic there is and people in Cali do not like to share the road with motorcycles. I did not know that you had a monarchy, but yes we very much know about and talk about the UK royal family in America. I remember growing up always hearing about the death of Diana and now everyone is going crazy again with the new princess.   I have not met any of your football fans! But it would be a dream come true to go to an actual football game where everyone is going crazy and hugging and stuff. I would never forget that! 

Countries whose language isn't really used much anywhere else (so not just Holland, but the Scandinavian countries as well, for instance), tend to subtitle everything, while countries like Germany and France tend to dub almost everything, meaning that they tend to have been exposed to English less. (Although I think the Internet might be changing that.)
Holland had ties with Spain, way, way back. Holland (and several other countries) were under the rule of the Spanish Empire from 1556 to 1714 (there was a war for independence involved that lasted 80 years). I'm sure I was taught all of this in history class at some point, but I have to admit to having forgotten most of it...

Lol, your dream would be my nightmare. XD The going crazy often doesn't involve hugging, as much as it does riots and vandalism. (I mean, most fans are probaly normal, but these kinds of stories aren't exactly rare either.)

[phill]

A milkmaid is literally a young woman who works in a milking parlour, what they used to be called anyway. I don't know if there's a new term for them or what.  I live in Great Britain, specifically I live in England.  Don't give a monkeys about the royal wedding and don't 100% get why its a big deal.  We still have some windmills over here and some of them even still work, although many are now converted into really inconveniently laid-out houses lol.  And we have clogs too, in the North anyway, I remember watching them being hand made in a place that used to be a few miles up the road from where I used to live. I don't know if anyone actually wears them though.  They're supposed to be comfy I hear.

It's okay where I live, the scenery anyway.  There is lots of green i.e arable land, pasture, woodland, moorland, and we are quite near the coast.  So that's nice. Lot's of castles and stuff. From ruined to lived in. Lot's of wildlife around my area like foxes, badgers, different types of deer, rabbits, squirrels, hedgehogs, weasels, the usual suspects. I saw an otter once but thats rare. Lots of wild birds I don't know the name of, but I've seen owls, woodpeckers, herons and kingfishers, theyre really pretty. (theres also plenty of pheasants and game birds around but they aren't really wild I suppose).  And bats, I like watching the bats. There's plenty of wildlife and we aren't all that far from a city.  I don't know anything about how many people are here or their genetic makeup tbh, as there are several universities in the county which means frequent massive fluctuations in pop. numbers and makeup.

We have a chunk of pasture and woodland and have some horses, breed a few, sell a few.  I used to be mad keen into horse showing, but my favourite filly died and my ambition died with her really.  I had my sights on the Horse of the Year show with her, but my hearts not really in it anymore although we've still got some really nice horses.  I don't know what else to write, I wrote more and somehow lost a chunk.

 

4 hours ago, Nielo said:

The going crazy often doesn't involve hugging, as much as it does riots and vandalism. (I mean, most fans are probaly normal, but these kinds of stories aren't exactly rare either.)

1

Yeah, same.  i think many countries have problems with people who pretend to be fans but for whom its really about the fighting not the football. They are an embarrassment to their countries and clubs and  give real football fans a bad name.

 

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[Kute]

3 hours ago, phill said:

Yeah, same.  i think many countries have problems with people who pretend to be fans but for whom its really about the fighting not the football. They are an embarrassment to their countries and clubs and  give real football fans a bad name.

 

3 hours ago, Nielo said:

Countries whose language isn't really used much anywhere else (so not just Holland, but the Scandinavian countries as well, for instance), tend to subtitle everything, while countries like Germany and France tend to dub almost everything, meaning that they tend to have been exposed to English less. (Although I think the Internet might be changing that.)
Holland had ties with Spain, way, way back. Holland (and several other countries) were under the rule of the Spanish Empire from 1556 to 1714 (there was a war for independence involved that lasted 80 years). I'm sure I was taught all of this in history class at some point, but I have to admit to having forgotten most of it...

Lol, your dream would be my nightmare. XD The going crazy often doesn't involve hugging, as much as it does riots and vandalism. (I mean, most fans are probaly normal, but these kinds of stories aren't exactly rare either.)

well then there ya go. shows how much i dont know about football 

 

[Rayd1978]

Football, wow... I'm not into it, but is a pretty big deal here in Nebraska.   During home games, the stadium becomes the third largest city in the state, so many people crowd into it.  And to be clear, when I say 'football' here I'm talking American Rugby, NFL type stuff, not Soccer.

[jellysundae]

Ah the nightmare of the British football fan, causing national embarrassment wherever they go . . .

Honestly, I'm going to make some kind of useful contribution to this topic eventually, really, I am.

. . .

Um . . .

It's lovely weather here in the UK today! and hello @phill fellow Brit! o/

[charelan]

On 5/17/2018 at 9:23 AM, Rayd1978 said:

Are several towns were locals are no longer allowed to drive, so they have a small fleet of driving lawn mowers to get around town.  

This is really interesting! Towns with no vehicles other than ride-on lawn mowers... I'm trying to imagine the pace there lol

[phill]

Ah Rayd, when I personally say Football, I mean our football, not American Football. We just call it football here in Europe, rather than soccer, on the whole.  I've only seen clips of American football on tv, it looks like quite a fun thing to go to watch, quite an extravaganza.  And the tailgating thing looks fun.  I'm not really into following or  watching sports though, on the whole.

Hello Jellysundae, fellow Briton...waves....yes, it's nice and sunny and warm and the birds are singing. I'm inside because it's giving me a headache lol!  My mothers dog is sunbathing and refuses to come indoors.

Got to be fair to the real football fans, it's only the bad element that are newsworthy and they aren't there for the game anyway.

 

 

 

[Nielo]

15 hours ago, phill said:

A milkmaid is literally a young woman who works in a milking parlour, what they used to be called anyway. I don't know if there's a new term for them or what. 

 

Yeah, same.  i think many countries have problems with people who pretend to be fans but for whom its really about the fighting not the football. They are an embarrassment to their countries and clubs and  give real football fans a bad name.

Ah, sorry, I should've clarified that I know what the technical description of a milkmaid is, but not why a fairly big chunk of American pop culture seems to think Holland's mainly populated by them.

Yup, it's like football (= soccer) has become the event of choice to use as an excuse to be violent.

[jellysundae]

3 hours ago, Nielo said:

Ah, sorry, I should've clarified that I know what the technical description of a milkmaid is, but not why a fairly big chunk of American pop culture seems to think Holland's mainly populated by them.

Yup, it's like football (= soccer) has become the event of choice to use as an excuse to be violent.

I suppose it's along the same lines of England = rain, tea, cricket and bad teeth. Firmly entrenched stereotypes are hard to get rid of. Especially if you're a country - like yours - that tends to keep its head down. When I think of Holland I think of people on bicycles, and tulips!

What can I dredge out of my brain to tell people about this area . . .

Hmm . . . I live in the east of England, in the flat land of Lincolnshire, there's windmills here too! Though the one in this town has no sails and is now an inconveniently laid out cafe! those conversions aren't limited to houses. Though there's one in a village just up the road which is still whole, and working, the only 8 sailed windmill in the country now. This is the view I'll see of it tomorrow, when my sis picks me up and we go to mum's for much food!

There's a micro-brewery in the mill yard now, apparently, which is pretty cool. Though reading about it, the guy who runs it is/was a local estate agent/realtor going by the surname, but I'll try not to hold that against him. >_<

 

 

[Kute]

51 minutes ago, jellysundae said:

I suppose it's along the same lines of England = rain, tea, cricket and bad teeth. Firmly entrenched stereotypes are hard to get rid of. Especially if you're a country - like yours - that tends to keep its head down. When I think of Holland I think of people on bicycles, and tulips!

What can I dredge out of my brain to tell people about this area . . .

Hmm . . . I live in the east of England, in the flat land of Lincolnshire, there's windmills here too! Though the one in this town has no sails and is now an inconveniently laid out cafe! those conversions aren't limited to houses. Though there's one in a village just up the road which is still whole, and working, the only 8 sailed windmill in the country now. This is the view I'll see of it tomorrow, when my sis picks me up and we go to mum's for much food!

There's a micro-brewery in the mill yard now, apparently, which is pretty cool. Though reading about it, the guy who runs it is/was a local estate agent/realtor going by the surname, but I'll try not to hold that against him. >_<

 

 

oh my gosh how cute! I love this style.  Looks like a nice place to take a walk 

[jellysundae]

1 hour ago, Kute said:

oh my gosh how cute! I love this style.  Looks like a nice place to take a walk 

I've got to say, that image is pretty quintessentially English village to me, if the shot's taken from the station platform it gets even more so because the little station building that the crossing guard lurks in is in shot. The Victorians built really cute buildings!

Also the crossing guard has to come out and manually open and close the level crossing gates when a train comes through, no automation at this station! Don't actually know why, might ask mum tomorrow and see if she knows!

[phill]

Lincolnshire is soooo flat

That station is very similar in style to the closest train station to here, and the next one a couple of miles down the track is a one-story greystone with the postcard worthy window boxes and flower planters, a different style but the same 'feel' about it. I agree the Victorians did make pretty buildings.

[ladyblack]

São Paulo is chaotic, but I still love it.

[phill]

I bet it is, São Paulo is a massive city! What's it like living there? 

 

I'm not a big city person but they're great to visit, I know some people love the big city craziness though

 

(edit: sorry, or do you mean the state not the city?)

[ladyblack]

2 hours ago, phill said:

I bet it is, São Paulo is a massive city! What's it like living there? 

 

I'm not a big city person but they're great to visit, I know some people love the big city craziness though

 

(edit: sorry, or do you mean the state not the city?)

Phill, I do live in the city of São Paulo. 

I like to live here, because there's always something happening (I am one of those people who love the big city craziness lol). I usually hang out around one of the main avenues, where there are parks, shopping malls, museums, etc. The traffic is kinda terrible, but I find it relatively easy to reach anywhere by public transportation. I guess the worst thing is the poverty, homeless people (although it happens in every big city I've visited) and drug addicts. I live in the "nice" part of the city, but I know some places are not that nice. 

São Paulo received (and still receives) a lot of immigrants, so we have a rich culture that mixes people from all over the world. We're considered the most multicultural city in Brazil. We have lots of immigrants (and their descendants, including myself) from Japan (we're home to the largest Japanese diaspora in the world), and also Italy, Portugal, Lebanon, etc.

Anyway, it is my hometown, and one of my favorite places in the world.

[Nielo]

17 hours ago, jellysundae said:

I suppose it's along the same lines of England = rain, tea, cricket and bad teeth. Firmly entrenched stereotypes are hard to get rid of. Especially if you're a country - like yours - that tends to keep its head down. When I think of Holland I think of people on bicycles, and tulips!

What can I dredge out of my brain to tell people about this area . . .

Hmm . . . I live in the east of England, in the flat land of Lincolnshire, there's windmills here too! Though the one in this town has no sails and is now an inconveniently laid out cafe! those conversions aren't limited to houses. Though there's one in a village just up the road which is still whole, and working, the only 8 sailed windmill in the country now. This is the view I'll see of it tomorrow, when my sis picks me up and we go to mum's for much food!

There's a micro-brewery in the mill yard now, apparently, which is pretty cool. Though reading about it, the guy who runs it is/was a local estate agent/realtor going by the surname, but I'll try not to hold that against him. >_<

Lol, yeah, there are some pretty stubborn stereotypes about England as well! (I think American tourists might be disappointed when they come to Holland, only to realise it rains nearly as much as it does in the UK. We're just not famous for it. XD)
I guess we do have a lot of tulip fields, but I'm not sure if I ever actually saw any. Maybe when I passed through them on the train, but I never paid much attention to them.

That's a lovely looking windmill.