That's us. :D:D:D Although it was quite funny to speak a belgian dialect in morocco with the local population really in the middle of nowhere. :D:D:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Catriona
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That's us. :D:D:D Although it was quite funny to speak a belgian dialect in morocco with the local population really in the middle of nowhere. :D:D:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Catriona
Not sure why that should be mind boggling... we have traveled extensively in the US and still have lots to see and do. Plus I want to go back to a bunch of places. I thought about a cycling vacation in Ireland next summer, but I only have ten days between the end of the school year and master's classes starting. That 17 hour plane trip each way, just isn't appealing when you only have ten days. I don't even want to waste the six hours it would take each way to fly back east. So, I'm thinking a cycling trip down the coast... yeah we did it in 1992, so it's a repeat vacation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Catriona
Veronica
It's mind boggling for someone to say that they never ever think they have a reason to leave the US for their entire lives. Even if they won the lottery and never had to work again and vacation and money weren't factors... Because I've asked that when told they see no reason to ever leave the US. You're deciding against Ireland based on vacation time. But if that wasn't a factor, would you want to go see the Great Wall of China or the pyramids in egypt or fill in the blank?Quote:
Originally Posted by Veronica
Although, one of the persons that I've had this conversation with is neighbors with Sarah Palin in Alaska.
Now that is weird. I have a whole slew of places... Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Ireland... I want to go to... pesky job gets in the way. :D
Veronica
I'm more interested in the experiential end of it. Yeah, it's fun to go to galleries and museums and see works of art that I couldn't see anywhere else... but often those works were created in different countries and cultures and time periods from where they're displayed. I'd rather eat the local food, participate in local rhythms (even when they're really disruptive to my own body as they are in Spain), see the local agriculture, do my best with the language.
Which is one of the reasons I don't have any real interest in visiting east Asia - the languages are so different from what I could manage, and many of them don't even use an alphabet that I could read. It would be impossible for me to have an unmediated experience there, without a whole lot of language study that just doesn't appeal to me right now - months of study for a vacation of a couple of weeks.
And the travel time is definitely an issue, even though it's not for lack of leisure time. I'm just not interested enough in anywhere, to make it worth more than 15-16 hours in planes and airports. Whenever they get that whole beam-me-up thing going though...
Isn't it easier for Europeans to travel more? We have at least 4 weeks (most of them have up to 8 weeks) paid vacation per year. If I would only have a week or 10 days I wouldn't travel too far either...or maybe not... :D
Well, you also really don't have to go very far to be in another country. Belgium is the size of one of our small states.Quote:
Originally Posted by papaver
But it's normal for european or australian kids to take a year or two to travel before or after college - not the norm in the US.
hehe... by traveling far I really mean outside Europe. :D For us going abroad is like riding TWO whole hours maximum to go to France, Netherlands, Luxemburg or Germany. :D I live in central Belgium so going abroad only takes me one hour max. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Catriona
Okay, so I think I need to visit you in Belgium (an ideal area in my opinion).Quote:
Originally Posted by papaver
You know you're welcome. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by tulip
When dearie is travelling in Europe but outside of the U.K., he will first use his German on a non-German local before he tries English. And it has worked 50% of time, when he was in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by Catriona
Of course none of the spoken Asian languages have similarity except maybe for "tea". :D Yes, a drag especially when also one cannot read a language script.
True, that given the sheer size of Canada (bigger than U.S.) and U.S., it can be costly, there is a great deal to see with different regional differences in terms of history and environment/geography. However there is an underlying cultural sameness and ethos in North America...to me, which is Westernized. It's annoying at times, to have to travel several hundred, even over 1,000 kms., before one sees a starkly different landscape or urban/rural life.
Methinks that now the world is plugged into the Internet, it misleads us to think we have great global consciousness and real sensitive understanding of foreign cultures, languages, when we connect with people worldwide, see more 'foreign' images. Doesn't invalidate online relationships and understanding but it's an experience....under the control of each Internet user/communicator..on our own terms/time when we feel like reaching out. Not plopped suddenly into a foreign culture/linguistic group.
I mind less to be thrown into a foreign language culture where I am with friendly strangers speaking their language. It doesn't bother me as much as being part of a family where family members are speaking a language I can barely understand or don't understand at all. But then, I've lived a twilight language zone for most of my life, ...so for me to go to Quebec or to France..it actually felt ...like hanging out with my Chinese-speaking relatives: not understanding a whole lot of the language, but just enough so one doesn't feel panicky/too lost.
We have deliberately chosen to visit (and do some minor cycling also) in some parts of the U.S. that are VERY different in terms of history / environment: ie. New Mexico. There is no equivalent of the Southwest Indian history, culture and art in Canada.
And Hawaii (where I've visited twice) which I do consider, despite its American insitutions, its underlying history and culture, plus tropical lush environment (well on some parts of the islands), very different...to me ...than mainland U.S. or even California where there is high % of Asian-origin Americans.
So I guess part of me does now want travel experiences where I wouldn't normally get here in our area which already offers alot that we still haven't seen.
There are parts of the U.S. which I'm not motivated to visit. If travelling through visually, my perception would be: now how is the landscape visually different from....ie. southern Ontario? And true, if it's a sizable North American city to spend alot of time, I confess I do prefer cities with a noticeable amount of visible diversity among its locals. After being in some rural areas with homogenous populations...after awhile I get...sorry..bored. I just feel culturally stifled.
hrm. Maybe I'm easily amused or grasp at nit picky details - but while the US and Canada are Westernized, but it's fairly diverse. I've never seen it as completely the same - except from the standpoint of a starbucks and a walmart box store on every corner.
From where I live, I can go a couple hours and meet Mennonites or Amish people. I can drive 4 hours to New York city, find the Orthodox Jewish population and it's a completely different world. Or go to West Virginia or southern Virgina and seriously - West Virginians are very different. Southeners are different from New Englanders and so are people from the Midwest or the California. I wouldn't have to go far to find a section of town that's completely Haitian or Vietnamese or Chinese or hispanic... The spanish influence on architecture and history in the south vs. what you get in the northern states is quite different. Then there's the history of the various indian tribes around the US.
Ecosystems are completely different across the US.
When I visit Canada - I notice definite differences in culture that goes way beyond they say eh a lot more up there. You can see a definite British influence around Toronto or Vancouver - just from the point of views of gardening or gardens alone... Quebec is definitely completely different from the US... our closest French influenced area is New Orleans, and obviously... new Orleans is way different from Quebec in development and where the french ancestry has branched.
Yes, it feels like a completely different world when I'm in Asia or a third world country somewhere... But it also is a completely different world when I'm in the middle of Alabama or West Virginia, or in an inner city Ghetto, or in the hispanic sections of Los Angeles.
I find it much more exotic to leave the country on a vacation - but I also really appreciate the differences within the US ecosystem or people wise...
In Canada and the U.S. really...one doesn't have to travel for kms. to find someone who speaks English, they may not be perfect, but still easily understood. There is always an English language fallback /helpful person around. This alone I distinguish a difference being in any Chinatown, Japantown, etc. in North America vs. being in China or Japan. I also consider the North American history of those ethnic groups different from the original mother country. Even the mother language transferred to North America, takes on new word idioms particular to that immigrant group to reflect their immigrant history/experience. It is for this reason alone, none of us have visited relatives in China when visiting China: cultural and linguistic gap is just too enormous plus there is no pre-history of us as kids establishing any relationship with any relative in China by mail/phone.Quote:
Originally Posted by Catriona
Yes, true about the Mennonites who are culturally as well as by religion. Even their German is different. But now we have the Mexican Mennonites settling in farming community in southern Ontario. :)
DH and I have the goal to see all 50 states. Sure some aren't that interesting but the US is a HUGE country and I feel a bit annoyed by people who don't try to learn about their country. For me I would love to see every state and every province in Canada. We also want to go out of the country but it does generally require more money and time off. I am not opposed to it but it isn't the most feasible goal.
We have a close friend living in Alaska, so next year we are getting to add a state that is usually very expensive to visit. I have wanted to go to Alaska since I was a kid and having one of our best friends there is just a great excuse!
We were in Montreal a couple weeks ago, just overnight (staying in Vermont).
I was surprised and impressed and grateful to all the people we spoke to. When they said "bon jour" and we said, "Hi", they were almost apologetic that they didn't figure out that we spoke English and not French, and happily repeated everything they'd said in French for us to understand.
I rode for a while with a cyclist in Vermont who said he rode from his home in Middlebury to Montreal and back once a year (150 miles one way). He said the hardest part was trying to find a place to use the bathroom once he entered Quebec. ?? He said the farmers between the border and Montreal tended to speak a dialect of French that even people in Montreal didn't understand. I don't know if that's true, but I thought it was interesting. (By the way, the man was 70 years old.)
Karen