Housepets!

MilesKingford wrote:

Sleet wrote:USA. Far too large and diverse for me to be able to characterize based on the small parts I've been around.

Really? I thought this might be a topic you could excel at.
I have heard of the conflicting diversity in the US between the South and North, also for some reason the cultural diversity from other nations cultures mixing with US culture is overshadowed and ignored. I would have believe a country like the US would boast its diverse cultural scene.

Yeah, the North and the South tend to be at odds with each other a bit. Though they tend to go about it differently. The South is usually like "the South is so awesome, guys," whereas the North is all "the South is so dumb, guys." I'm in between the two and I think they both have their merits and need to stop hatin'.

The US is plenty diverse, which is why I don't think I'm qualified to talk about what it's like, since I've only been around parts of it. If I went to states I've never visited, there could be whole other cultures there.

MilesKingford wrote:

Jack wrote:Israel. it depends on where you live. if you live in the center, or up north, then its fun in the sun. if you leave down south, then its fun in the sun, but every now and then terrorists bomb you. then again, they are so bad at it that they can't stop missing (i kid you not).

also, its a very well educated country with a lot of history to offer to almost every possible religion and culture, its number 1 when it comes to military tech (it sells the research and products to the U.S.) it has bamba (a great snack) and i will repeat this because this is very true, it has great education.

I didn't think Isreal was so well developed (no offense), this would explain the United States close relationship to Isreal, so do you have universal education?

'universal' education? what do you mean by this? (im not familiar with the term.)

MilesKingford wrote: Really? I thought this might be a topic you could excel at.
I have heard of the conflicting diversity in the US between the South and North, also for some reason the cultural diversity from other nations cultures mixing with US culture is overshadowed and ignored. I would have believe a country like the US would boast its diverse cultural scene.

The South is better.


The cultural diversity of the US is pretty much ridiculous. I wouldn't even know where to begin describing the culture of just the area 100 miles around me.

@ Jack - Universal education means free education for all, in Britain all school and college is free and anyone is allowed to go.

Sleet wrote:

Aquablast wrote:I am from Indonesia, and we have instant noddle which is incredibly cheap and good tasting, but not very healthy.

Cheap and delicious food that's bad for you? Wow, being an American I can't say I've ever heard of anything like that.

i might put this in my sig later, too.

MilesKingford wrote:@ Jack - Universal education means free education for all, in Britain all school and college is free and anyone is allowed to go.

So if somebody wanted to go to Oxford, they could just...go?

I think in the UK "college" refers to something between high school and what we usually call "college." I think they just call what Oxford is "university."

If some British person could back me up or correct me, that'd be cool, 'cause I don't know all the details exactly.

Senator_Sunburst wrote:

MilesKingford wrote:@ Jack - Universal education means free education for all, in Britain all school and college is free and anyone is allowed to go.

So if somebody wanted to go to Oxford, they could just...go?

Yes, that's right, Sleet. Oxford is a university and therefore you would have to pay but you can occasionally get financial support from the government or from a business if you are capable. We do not have true universal education but we get a lot free than what most get in other countries.

Doesn't seem all that different then.

Also:

Sleet wrote:Yeah, the North and the South tend to be at odds with each other a bit. Though they tend to go about it differently. The South is usually like "the South is so awesome, guys," whereas the North is all "the South is so dumb, guys."

Notice it's all about us! Implicitly it means we're the more important of the two.

Besides, everything good about the US is here. Cowboys, cornbread, steak, and beaches that don't suck. Driving around now you can see piles of cotton on the roads from the wind blowing cotton out of the fields. We have tumbleweeds! They tumble. Our accents are better too.

We're just so awesome, it's crazy.

Senator_Sunburst wrote:Notice it's all about us! Implicitly it means we're the more important of the two.

I was actually thinking the same thing. Not like I'm playing favorites or anything.

Senator_Sunburst wrote:Besides, everything good about the US is here. Cowboys, cornbread, steak, and beaches that don't suck. Driving around now you can see piles of cotton on the roads from the wind blowing cotton out of the fields. We have tumbleweeds! They tumble. Our accents are better too.

We're just so awesome, it's crazy.

In this order: not exclusive to the South, true, not exclusive to the South, and true. The accents are better than most of the Northern accents; I'll give you that one too. I still have to say I prefer foreign accents, though.

Andrea wrote:

Sleet wrote:What's so great about dumb ol' Texas?

wow... u just pwnd sleet ;P

MilesKingford wrote:@ Jack - Universal education means free education for all, in Britain all school and college is free and anyone is allowed to go.

oh, no. it is not free. but the collages are still some of the best there are. :3

I have a feeling this thread could easily be turned into a flame war.

I love where I live (the USA). Home is where the heart is, and my whole life (friends and family) are here. Nothing is perfect, and how boring would that be if it was?

I respect all cultures and traditions, and I don't mind learning about different places. My famiy is from all different places of the world, so I've got a little bit of everything in my blood.

When it comes right down to it, we're all human beings and equals, and nothing will ever be able to change that. We should all be able to appreciate that our differences all make up one beautiful picture. I hate hearing "Oh, this/that country sucks". So to prevent me from getting fully annoyed, *walks out on this thread*.

C'mon Beagle, we're a better community than that! We're not going to go hate on each others' countries or anything.

Sleet wrote:C'mon Beagle, we're a better community than that! We're not going to go hate on each others' countries or anything.

I'm just annoyed at how many people (from America themselves) are saying that the USA sucks. It's going to be boring sometimes, that's life itself, not your country.

No one was really ripping on one another, I didn't mean it like that. My bad.

I'm tired and off to bed.

That's because the US does suck.

...Nah, I'm kidding. I like the US.

Sleet wrote:

Aquablast wrote:I am from Indonesia, and we have instant noddle which is incredibly cheap and good tasting, but not very healthy.

Cheap and delicious food that's bad for you? Wow, being an American I can't say I've ever heard of anything like that.

McDonalds Dollar Menu.

I live in the USA, or Florida to be more specific. Florida is weird because it is culturally divided into its own North and South, and they are the reverse of the normal scheme of my country. North Florida is more of what would be considered the South. We have the thick southern accent and are more conservative. Southern Florida is either part of The Everglades, or has mostly been taken over by cuban immigrants or people retiring and moving here from the northern USA. Florida has long been considered an aging state because it has a much older population in respect to the rest of the nation.

As for my own little region,there's not much to say. I live in the capital of my state. It has three colleges and is the seat of my state's government, which means that the population is in constant flux. At any given time there could be politicians, college students from around the country, The media, lobbyists, and ,well you get the picture. It is a small town, but it can get very busy. All you have to do to get away from it is to travel about five miles out of town, though. Just outside of town you will start to see the abandoned tobacco farms that used to be a staple of Florida's economy. They are decrepit old buildings whose only purpose now is to conjure memories and a sense of nostalgia in the minds of the elderly who used to work in places like these. There are also old mansions and plantation outbuildings, but they have been repurposed, and their original purpose forgotten. I know this because I work in one of those buildings. But that's enough about where I live; I have been typing for way too long

Yeah, south Florida doesn't have a Southern Accent. So it's lame.

Dubiousity wrote:GAWSH, WHY IS IT SO BORING WHERE I LIVE

It probably isn't. You are just used to the things that I would find fascinating

copper wrote:

Dubiousity wrote:GAWSH, WHY IS IT SO BORING WHERE I LIVE

It probably isn't. You are just used to the things that I would find fascinating

I don't think townhouses in a very racist area is fascinating.

I don't think townhouses in a very racist area is fascinating.[/quote]

I am from FLORIDA. I find snow and large hills interesting ( my state is very flat).

I've heard Lonelyville is nice if you go at the right time of year.

Sleet wrote:I've heard Lonelyville is nice if you go at the right time of year.

It's quiet. :/

Must be nice. Everyone is so weird in Nephelokokkygia!

Sleet wrote:Must be nice. Everyone is so weird in Nephelokokkygia!

I'd figure

I live in Arkansas, a state in what was formerly known as the Confederate States of America. It's pretty interesting. There are a lot of parks and outdoorsy things to do here. Hmm. Education isn't awful; in some categories, we're ranked 10th or better in public education. (In others, regrettably, we are 47th or worse.)

Russellville's your average college town, I guess. Low-crime rates (at least, things on the order of murders). We've got some nationally-ranked biking trails, apparently. We've also been named one of the 10 least-expensive small cities in America a couple of times.

Everyone's polite (with the inevitable exceptions) and people will do apparently archaic things like holding doors for others and calling everyone, regardless of age, Sir or Ma'am. If you have car trouble, several other drivers will stop to render assistance or will notify the authorities.

I realize the topic is "What's Your Country Like?" but really it's easier to describe the United States on a state-by-state basis (and your mileage may vary even when doing that).

Edit: Why did I choose "you're" instead of "your" up there? ARGH.

I always hold doors open for people and will at least call strangers sir and ma'am when they're older than I am.

Missouri's a pretty average state in almost every way. We're right in the middle of the country (and where the US Capital would be if we decided that now instead of when the country was young), right on the border of the North and the South, and on the border between the typical West/East divider (the Mississippi river; we're called the gateway to the West for a reason), and we're a swing state almost every election. We have lots of rural area as well as three big cities (two if you don't count Jefferson City). Our culture, as far as I can tell, is like our accent: as typical as they come. If a foreigner is thinking of American culture and is at least somewhat informed about it, the picture in their head is probably pretty close to Missouri.

We're a bit more into baseball relative to (gridiron) football when compared to the rest of the country, but you would be too when you have the Cardinals and the Royals to compare to the Rams (who are, to be completely fair, actually doing pretty well this season). Aside from that I can't really think of much to say about current culture that's unusual about Missouri aside from how exceptionally average we are. Historically, I could talk about jazz, or the civil war, or talking cats bootlegging alcohol, but that's not really the topic at hand.

Hey, i live in Missouri as well. I don't think i have a accent though, i just say "Doesn't, I'm, I'd, I've" stuff like that. But then again, almost everyone does now.

Everyone has an accent. You don't think you have one because of how neutral our accent is!

What part of Missouri?

Sleet wrote:Everyone has an accent. You don't think you have one because of how neutral our accent is!

What part of Missouri?

Kansas City. Around that area. I'm not telling what city where I really do live in. (for safety reasons).

I don't think you have anything to worry about. It's not like any of us are going to find you and kill you. Still, it's better safe than sorry, right? I'm a little more protective with my information than most. So, in that light, I'm on the opposite side of the state.

So I think I'll reveal some of my personal information: my full name, first middle and last, is worth 43 points in Scrabble.

I live in Sweden.

I love Sweden. :3

Sleet wrote:I don't think you have anything to worry about. It's not like any of us are going to find you and kill you. Still, it's better safe than sorry, right? I'm a little more protective with my information than most. So, in that light, I'm on the opposite side of the state.

So I think I'll reveal some of my personal information: my full name, first middle and last, is worth 43 points in Scrabble.

Just general protection. You never know what kind of people on the internet could be...
:tinfoilhat:

I live in the southern part of Sweden, a quite nice place I must say.
We do have, I think, some of the highest taxes in the world, but in
exchange health care, education and all of that is essentially free.

The nature is great here too. Lots of trees, fields and lakes. We're also
quite a small number of people on a rather large surface (around 9 million
on 450.000 square km, which is about 175.000 square miles) which makes
it a nice and quiet place I think.

Of course, there are problems as well. Recently a political party that's
essentially racist (although they don't refer to themselves as racists)
was voted into parliament. They only got 20 seats out of 349 and they're
all more or less morons, but it's still quite scary. Disliking people just because
they were born somewhere else in the world is something I will never
understand.

DigiManiac wrote:I live in the southern part of Sweden, a quite nice place I must say.
We do have, I think, some of the highest taxes inthe world, but in
exchange healthcare, education and all of that is essentially free.

The nature is great here too. Lots of trees, fields and lakes. We're also
quite a small number of people on a rather large surface (around 9 million
on 450.000 square km, which is about 175.000 square miles) which makes
it a nice and quiet place I think.

Of course, there are problems as well. Recently a political party that's
essentially racist (although they don't refer to themselves as racists)
was voted into parliament. They only got 20 seats out of 349 and they're
all more or less morons, but it's still quite scary. Disliking people just because
they were born somewhere else in the world is something I will never
understand.

^I have to agree with this. :>

I don't live in the southern part though!

Just because they're Swedish doesn't mean it's a good idea to talk like that about political groups on this forum. It could start unpleasant arguments.

Sleet wrote:Just because they're Swedish doesn't mean it's a good idea to talk like that about political groups on this forum. It could start unpleasant arguments.

Gotcha. I'll keep that in mind from now on.