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from a foreigners perspective :-)

#21
mike_v_s said:
I'd love to show you what real humidity is.

Mike
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...he's in PA, and he's complaining about humidity?

:hyper:
:D

...I really wish I could find a "falling down laughing" smiley, you and I being present (you) and former (I) denizens of the state requiring the use of scuba gear to walk to the corner store really understand the concept of "humidity", don't we? On a really bad day, you need scuba gear to get from the house to your car in Louisiana....

:eek:

(And no, we're NOT exaggerating.)
 
#24
mike_v_s said:
Uh, thanks. Not really the direction I was going, but ......

Mike
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My point was in response to the original poster’s observation #3 concerning the prices of goods in the US and wasn't related to the content of your post. A misunderstanding- perhaps due to lack of clarity on my part.
 
#28
Blavelle said:
1. you have no idea how cheap petrol is here (around $4.60 per gallon when I left) yet you still complain about it?

8. and now I realize why you guys drive everywhere too! everything is so far apart from eachother! people in europe complain that americans use so much gas and should really walk more, but its a good 15 minute drive to everything around here.
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Seems like you answered your own question!!!!

Try to get to New York City while you are here. They have a nice subway and you don't ever need a car to live there. Everything is within walking distance.

Unfortunatley, I live in Cleveland, Ohio. If I walked for 4 hours MAYBE I could make it to the grocery store. It's about 4 or 5 miles away. Cleveland has busses, but they are painfully slow and don't come by every 15 minutes. We have no subway and our downtaown area is kinda shabby..not many people live in the actual downtown part becuase they'd have to leave anyways to get groceries!!! haha


We suburbanites live in houses in America...we own plots of land that are ours to take care of and do what we want with. We don't have flats and studio apartments with a tiny kitchen and 1 bedroom with a curtain to conceal the laundry room.:smug:
 
#30
Switzerland is probably the most democratic of all countries. Decisions are made at the town level. Frequent referendums are held on decisions affecting the Swiss. The president is purely a figured head in many respects. The president gets changed every year.

Houses are smaller here than is the states. Speed limits on the highways tend to be a little faster at 80 mph. Speeding fines are painful at $20 per km over the limit. Converted to USD, if you were caught doing 120km in a 100km zone, or 80mph in a 60mph zone, it would cost you $400.

The best bread can be bought at gas stations.

Some older apartment buildings prohibit you from flushing toilets after 11pm.

No lawnmower use after 7pm on weeknights, 6pm on Saturdays. No lawnmowers or power tools on Sundays.

All stores are closed on Sundays.

There are more Ferrari's per capita in Switzerland than anywhere else. There is a lot of money in this country.
 
#32
Headroom said:
That's a nice stat for any country to claim. No doubt the owners can afford to care little about the high price of the speeding fines.
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I tailgated a Ferrari last winter coming back from Chamonix. We were both doing 135km an hour in a 100 zone. I know the zone well and where the cameras are located. There's a bend in the road by the Geneva airport where the speed drops to 80km. I breaked and watched him fly through and watched the flash go off taking his picture. That one should have cost him around $1,000. I was breaking, and he could have been downshifting as well, but he was really moving along.
 
#33
Cool thread. It is always fun to compare different countries.

I attended a Linux Symposium here in Ottawa and some Australians had made the trip here. Their first comments were on the signs of winter everywhere. This was in July!

But then they pointed out the permanently installed heaters. The double doors. The double windows. Plugins in the parking lot for the staff. All things they don't have.
 
#34
I remember going to Florida a few years ago, and thinking to myself, "ah, the climate isn't too bad here!"

the minute I walked out of the airport... :eek:
we don't really get air conditioning here, and that was my first experience of it. as far as I was concerned, the inside temperature was the outside temperature.

how wrong was I! I'll never forget walking out of the foyer into the outside, and literally being taken back by a wall of hot air and water. it was like walking into custard air.

the difference between the USA and Europe is vast; the main difference though is definitely in the people
 
#35
Welcome to the states. It is a great place and don't knock the "greasy" food too much. Many here are somewhat endeared to the "greasy Spoon" diners.

While you're here, the best cultural experience you could get would be some gritty, funky, earthy live Blues music. Hearing it live is like your first taste of beer, you end up liking it even more.
 
#36
bmc said:
Switzerland is probably the most democratic of all countries. Decisions are made at the town level. Frequent referendums are held on decisions affecting the Swiss. The president is purely a figured head in many respects. The president gets changed every year.

Houses are smaller here than is the states. Speed limits on the highways tend to be a little faster at 80 mph. Speeding fines are painful at $20 per km over the limit. Converted to USD, if you were caught doing 120km in a 100km zone, or 80mph in a 60mph zone, it would cost you $400.

The best bread can be bought at gas stations.

Some older apartment buildings prohibit you from flushing toilets after 11pm.

No lawnmower use after 7pm on weeknights, 6pm on Saturdays. No lawnmowers or power tools on Sundays.

All stores are closed on Sundays.

There are more Ferrari's per capita in Switzerland than anywhere else. There is a lot of money in this country.
Click to expand...

This all sounds great to me.

Sign me up!

I especially like the notion of everything being closed on sundays...I personally would go a step further, and ban all television transmission on sundays too...then everyone would have to find things to do with eachother and actually have to talk with eachother too!
 
#39
Techmonkey said:
the difference between the USA and Europe is vast; the main difference though is definitely in the people
Click to expand...


Considering we're a country founded by puritans and surveyors, this isn't really a surprise.

Every time I'm in Europe I think, "what am I doing living in the states?" It's mostly when I'm at a bar and I get handed a plate of food with my 2euro beer. I'm studying in florence next semester and dublin in the summer, can't wait to get out of here for a stretch...
 

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