Friends, family living in ideal areas

[shootingstar]

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.

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.