Housepets!

Are your parents from Mexico by chance?

My father's from Mexico, my mother is just Hispanic. Despite her side of the family being in Texas so long that we have ancestors who were here when it was a country, the family still does things like speak Spanish and make tamales at Christmas.

Not me though. We're White Hispanics (I mean the family on both sides), and growing up I hung around with all the other white people, none of whom were Hispanic. Now I do have one White-Hispanic friend and we both had the same experience. Neither of us really consider ourselves Hispanic. We're Hispanic due to like...association with our family. There's been kind of an active disassociation from everything Hispanic for us.

I guess that's a possibility when you're White-Hispanic and live in Texas. You have to choose, hang with the white's, or hang with the other Hispanics. It's unreasonable to do both, because despite all the work at making cultural equality and togetherness a reality, people are still self-segregating.

Senator_Sunburst wrote:My father's from Mexico, my mother is just Hispanic. Despite her side of the family being in Texas so long that we have ancestors who were here when it was a country, the family still does things like speak Spanish and make tamales at Christmas.

Not me though. We're White Hispanics (I mean the family on both sides), and growing up I hung around with all the other white people, none of whom were Hispanic. Now I do have one White-Hispanic friend and we both had the same experience. Neither of us really consider ourselves Hispanic. We're Hispanic due to like...association with our family. There's been kind of an active disassociation from everything Hispanic for us.

I guess that's a possibility when you're White-Hispanic and live in Texas. You have to choose, hang with the white's, or hang with the other Hispanics. It's unreasonable to do both, because despite all the work at making cultural equality and togetherness a reality, people are still self-segregating.

Wow, that's powerful stuff. I knew that the southern US does things differently but I didn't know that people had to choose, although the same thing happens in Britain over class as the classes do not mix or have equality, even with all the governments attempts to establish low economic disparity the class system still stands so I can understand the idea of the choice even if I don't like it.

Speaking of foods, it seems that in the US foods from other countries are more popular than foods created here, but that is of course because the only foods that are actually "100%" American would be that of the Native Americans. All others are just variations of food that originated in another country (But specifically I'd say that the most popular are Mexican, Italian, and Asian foods)

Well, I do like spanish food. Especially their Frutti di Mare. It has such a unique taste !

And when I think about mexican food, I just imagine those people with those big hats.

We're planning to do in our class some event. Last year people made "Hawaii". But we think about "Mexicano". Maybe someone later will give me some tips?

I love Italian too, but I'm pretty sure most of the stuff we eat that's foreign isn't that foreign. I mean sure, it's not all going to be as bad as "Chinese" food, but I'm sure the Italian I like is not very authentic at all.

From Italian food I especially like Lasagne. And it tastes best when it's hot.

Well pizza became more international in modern life. Wherever you go - there is a Pizzeria. But still I believe that they serve best pizza in Italy. Especially that Italians do it in most traditional ways.

The type of pizza that most Americans are used to eating was created by Italian immigrants in New York City. Pizza served in Italy is a bit less processed, or so I've heard (Instead of sauce they use tomato slices, right?)

Some American pizza uses tomato slices and sauce.

I prefer the sauce, personally.

Edit: @ Sleet: Me, too, but it would definitely be interesting to try the authentic pizza "experience".
And you're forgetting about Spaghetti. That's awesome, too.

Spaghetti followed by gelato is actually my favorite meal ever. They're both so delicious.

Depends on how you look at it, I wouldn't consider it that much of an off-topic

But that's just me.

Discussing food from (a) certain country(ies) is still a BIT on topic, no?:o

Still counts.
Edit: Wait, did we just go off-topic by talking about being off-topic?

My country is large and in between Mexico and Canada.

My country is equal to or larger than yours.

Sleet wrote:My country is large and in between Mexico and Canada.

Cuba? :0

There's plenty of "American" food...although all the examples I can think of are actually more Southern specific.

I guess cheese steaks are Northern? I love those things.

Also, I like Greek and Italian food. There's lots of Greek food that is super awesome, and there's no need to get into why Italian food is awesome.

I think my favourite is Chinese though. American Chinese, not Chinese Chinese because I've never had that. But American Chinese is awesome.

Fried chicken is very American. And we have very American methods of preparing steak.

Sleet wrote:Fried chicken is very American. And we have very American methods of preparing steak.

And cornbread and gumbo, and grits, pumpkin pie, biscuits and gravy, key lime pie, chicken fried steak, sweet tea, pecan pie.... All of those are American. All of those are also Southern.

So many pies.

Maryland, USA-- which you could probably argue is geographically in the south, but I think most people who live here would say it's northern.

It's for the most part similar to the Southern US, except our accents aren't nearly so hypnotic and the overwhelming majority of the population is liberal. Not to get into political opinions; thats just a fact.

Of course, even generalizing a small state like Maryland is a stretch, as I'm speaking from the urban DC metro areas, and there's a lot more rural land the further you get from there.

Oh yeah, and we're famous for seafood because we're on the Chesapeake bay, but I personally want to pop in and say that I don't like crab. Sorry.

Welcome to the forum, CaptainPea!

Senator_Sunburst wrote:

Sleet wrote:Fried chicken is very American. And we have very American methods of preparing steak.

And cornbread and gumbo, and grits, pumpkin pie, biscuits and gravy, key lime pie, chicken fried steak, sweet tea, pecan pie.... All of those are American. All of those are also Southern.

So many pies.

How did you forget apple pie?!

For the sake of balance, cheesecake is very Northern, but I don't know how American exclusive that is.

I live in the United Kingdom, England, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Stalybridge.

The United Kingdom is far from united, we are greatly devided by many things though when we agree on things we stand by them with a deep faith in what we say. My general area is full of racism, and mild sexism though I am one of the exceptions that is becoming more common. Well I say racism but we aren't really, its just that our own laws make it seem like that. The laws need reviewing, alot. We have a very silly class system that judges you for your job rather than your wage or how hard you work. A teacher that beats children and viciuosly acuses them is classified as a better rolemodle than a fireman/women who saves a million lives out of the goodness of her heart, even when off duty because their career is seen as more civilized. thankfully its dying but still has some hold over our way of thinking, not many parents what their children to become a builder or a plumber because of the negative stigma attached.

Politically we have good ideas, just not any good politicians. Most are eager to imprees countries like the USA not because they could be seen as better but because of their connections in trade. Alot of things we see appear in an American format so the leading parties believe we idolize them...because everyone in London does. We founded most of the legally recognized sports we see on the planet. We concoured most of the world for a time, with only the USA and India rebelling because of our king's politics and because we tried to force our religion upon them. The rest we released because we didn't want to make to many enemies though I'm sure small rebellious parties had already formed, plus we soon beheaded our king so a shift in ideas was expected. We were one of the first countries to remove the slave trade and allow everyone to live as equality, more given as time went on. We used Australia as a prison...yes the entire country was where we sent our convicts, though I'm not sure what happened to cahnge that if anyone knows please do tell me. England is both the rudest and the politest country, we can be very civil and decent but we can be very...open about what we have to say even when we know were wrong. We have the highest underaged preganancy rate in Europe, they haven't finnished working out if were the highest in the world yet.

In a more basic outline, wer posh idiots with a tendency to change how active we are every few generations. Our next uproar should be by 2133, or sooner if we get pushed enough. Please note that this is my general view of my country with some facts attached, with it possibly appearing different in your eyes.

Sleet wrote:How did you forget apple pie?!

For the sake of balance, cheesecake is very Northern, but I don't know how American exclusive that is.

No you're right, Cheesecake is pretty American and all the big styles are from the North.

Haru Totetsu wrote:We used Australia as a prison...yes the entire country was where we sent our convicts, though I'm not sure what happened to change that if anyone knows please do tell me.

Inaccurate and dated. Here's why.

1. The entire country was not where you sent your convicts. The majority of the colonies were convict colonies, but by no means entirely. As an example, Adelaide's land was surveyed and sold by the government at a high cost rather than just handing out land grants to all emigrants, using the money earned to then bring in workers. Definitely no convicts.
2. The very final boat was in 1868, to Western Australia. The other colonies were all closed a decade or two prior. Brisbane stopped in '42. That's given us 142 years at minimum to dilute our blood with migrants, not to mention that not everyone grows up to be exactly what their parents were.
3. More than 165,000 convicts were transported to Australia, yes. By the end of the gold rush, though? We had more than 1.7 million people. Ultimately, 'ordinary' emigrants far outnumbered convicts by more than 10 to 1. Now add that to the '142 years' thing.
4. Penal transportation was reserved for much pettier crimes than people seem to think. Murderers and the like were considered too dangerous to transport. Theft, inspiring political unrest, vandalism - those were more the types of crimes that got you transported. Example of my point.

You say you have some things you're strong on? This is one of mine. I despise the 'convict' thing, it just leaves us open for ignorant, racist implications.

So there, that's how it's not a bloody prison anymore.

No one's made a post bout Chicago so here goes.

Chicago is a pretty interesting city. We have a bit more normalized layout and green space than a lot of other cities because of the "Great Chicago Fire" in 1871. The fire forced a lot of rebuilding so the streets ended up more organized (mostly perpendicular N/S E/W) than they were before the fire. The best part about Chicago is the food. There are so many small restaurants and roadside eateries. If you only go to the chain fast food places if you visit Chicago you are doing it wrong! We also have a above average public transportation system. You can travel around the suburbs to the city pretty easily and also travel within the city on the elevated train, know as the L. There are also a lot of buses, but I've never used them yet.

Our sports teams have a love hate relationship with the city. The Bears, our football team, always seem to get our hopes up by somehow getting close to or into the playoffs then loosing spectacularly in them. Otherwise we have a crosstown rivalry between the Sox and the Cubs (they are on the same L line just on different sides of the city) and many Chicagoans vehemently support one or the other (I myself am a Sox fan). Recently the Blackhawks, our hockey team, have been doing great and since TV has better resolution you can actually watch games on TV and see the puck.

Chicago's my favorite city, and even after visiting other places I still love Chicago. It's what I call home. It has its problems, lots of traffic and corruption to name two, but I love this place. Come check it out! (So much good food.)

Ebly wrote:So there, that's how it's not a bloody prison anymore.

Even if it was a prison entirely, it's obviously not one anymore.

Well I did my civic duty to get tourism dollars for Chicago . Though I hate our sales tax, 10% is a real big purchase killer. I buy all my computer parts out of county.

I really haven't just walked around Chicago as much as I should. There are some good parks I have visited though, Millennium Park with its silver bean is pretty awesome to take pictures of. Sears Tower (its spelled Willis, but pronounced Sears), has an epic view on a clear day, and Ed Debevic's is one of the most hilarious eating experiences ever (though they probably have other locations other than Chicago). I'd name some of the smaller two person burger and dog joints I frequent, but they're not downtown.