What do you like the most about the country you live in?

[TimeTraveler]

I have not had the chance to venture outside of the western side of North America. I read about and see different parts of the world, but I am more interested on experiencing it on a more personal level.

 

What is your city/town/state/country like? What do you enjoy about the people, places, culture or landscape? What do people in your area do for recreation? Whats the educational system like? What sports are popular?

And anything else you would like to share about your area?

[Gilded]

Finland

 

Good: Reindeers, lots of alcohol, lots of drunken people, free school food, education and health care and of course Lapland, where you can see even more drunken people (like Santa), and of course ice hockey

Bad: The drunken people tend to be angry, the free school food tends to be bad, as is the education. People say that Finland's health care is among the best in the world, yet I haven't noticed it for some reason

 

Summary: Alcohol, ice hockey, over-aggressive and very depressed people. That's all we got. A typical Finnish day involves drinking booze for breakfast, not doing any work, drinking some more booze, play some hockey while drunk, then beating someone up and then going to jail.

[bloodhound]

Well I am originally from a country called "Nepal" if anyone heard of it. Its an amazing country, but rite now its in deep political f**k. The culture is wicked too. so many festivals, everyone gets together all the time. Landscape- we got the higest place on earth Mt. Everest. or Sagarmatha as its known to us. The altitude ranges from the highest in earth to almost sea level, giving rise to an extraordinary vairety of flora and fauna. I cant remember the stats but we have the highest number on birds and butterfly species anywhere in earth. but so many god damn leeches. Sports - Football is obviously very popular. so is basketball and table tennis. Educational system is very strict in terms of discipline. its helped me a lot. also being in an english based school, we had to converse in english all during the school time. If we were heard talking in our native language we were severely punished. and punished as in PHYSICAL punishment. People are extrememly friendly. and the food is delicious as well as most of the time very healthy. recreation ? just go watch films, and generally hang about...

 

I lived in Russia (moscow) for four years. I cant remember much of the stuff, because i was very young. All that i remember is there were tanks shooting at the white house (russian white house of course). its was very cold, loads of snow, so very much fun. the education was good as well. had a single teacher teaching us everything.

 

stayed in paris for one week. oh the culture and people there are mindblowing. (a bit arrogant maybe) such a lovely place.

 

rite now been living in UK for 5 years. Fun place to be. Extrememly expensive. Haven't experienced much of the culture. People seem fun too. so many varieties hehe. You wont see any other sport over here other than football. Altough at 2 o clock in the morning you will be able to see some North american sports programme on tele. Education system is a bit Lax when compared to my other ones. Most emphasis seems to be given in learning (properly) and not just remembering stuff. (Thats in my country). ohter than that i can't say much except horrible weather.

[atinymonkey]

The Church I grew up with: -

 

The main post office where I live: -

 

A shopping arcade in the city :-

 

Me, ready for my christmas party: -

 

[bloodhound]

u must be joking...

[Gilded]

Talking about churches, Finland has the biggest wooden church in the world (Kerimäki church). So please don't burn it down.

 

...Yay, I found my hometown at Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raisio

[bloodhound]

roundabouts are very common in england. but i bet you havent seen this MONSTER....

[Gilded]

Wow, perhaps they should start another From Hell-series with Roundabouts From Hell.

[sepultallica]

im a resident alien in the US, originally born in mexico. i came to the US when i was five. i go to mexico about once a year. the best thing i like about mexico is that you can get lap dances for a dollar where in LA they cost 20 to 40 bucks.

[ydoaPs]

usa: i can charge people 20-40 bucks to get a lap dance at my topless bar.

[Ophiolite]

No. The best thing about Mexico, apart from some of the people, is the volcanoes. Active, dormant, extinct. Snow capped. Big. Lovely. (The volcanoes, not the people. People are rarely snow capped.)

[sepultallica]

No. The best thing about Mexico, apart from some of the people, is the volcanoes. Active, dormant, extinct. Snow capped. Big. Lovely. (The volcanoes, not the people. People are rarely snow capped.)

 

but they can be big and lovely.

 

 

 

naw, the best thing about mexico is their government.

[coquina]

Ophie --- and they have andesite! Subduction zone volcanoes, never seen one.

 

I live on the Coastal Plain of Virginia, on the worlds largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay.

 

Here's a map: http://www.holoscenes.com/cgi-bin/img.cgi?w=1024&h=767&src=/maps/chesapeake.jpg

 

See the word "Norfolk"? See how the land above it is shaped in an arc? Expand that arc into a circle and you will see the buried rim of the Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater. It is 400' down, and is covered with many layers of strata, but because it is lower than all the surrounding terrain, it allowed the formation of the bay.

 

If you like history, come visit Williamsburg, Jamestown, and don't forget Yorktown - especially you Brits. Ironic that British colonial rule of America began at Jamestown and ended at Yorktown, less than 20 miles away.

 

Seriously - this is a lovely part of the world, especially for people who like boating or sailing.

 

However, I would truly like to travel more - Bloodhound - I cannot imagine Everest - an anthill could be mistaken for a mountain in these parts.

 

Next...?

[TimeTraveler]

I live in the USA, state of Idaho, ya know that state that no one has ever heard of? It is actually known as the potato state, I live in the northern part in a town called Coeur d' Alene (named after the Coeur d' Alene indian tribe). It is about 20 miles east of Washington, 60 miles west of Montana and 100 miles south of Canada. I don't have to travel very far to get out of state. Although I have only been to Canada once when I was a kid. The rocky mountains come down through Canada and run through my area and on down.

 

There are many lakes and rivers in the area, too many to name, recreation is huge in this area and so is tourism. It is truely one of the greatest places on Earth. In the summers, everyone spends there time boating, camping, fishing, hiking, backpacking, and just enjoying the area. Winters can seem fairly long, but if you adapt and enjoy the snow it can be a blast. Snowboarding, Snowmobiling, Skiing are huge here in the winters. (There are 7 Ski resorts all within 1-2 hrs from Cd'A) Really the only downfall here is snow or economy, other than that there is nothing to complain about. I have lived here almost my whole life, aside from a 2 year stint down in LA (yuk).

 

I usually spend my summers camping or backpacking, I usually go up the Coeur d' Alene river and head east towards Montana, Lolo national forest crosses over the border into parts of Idaho and thats my home away from home. This summer I went backpacking to some Alpine lakes up in the rockies in lolo, Where we camped was right on the border (The border marker was about 200 yards from our camp) We climbed to the top of Revett peak and got some nice footage of Blossom and Revett lakes. The great thing about it was we were standing on the border, if you looked left you were looking down at Blossom lake in Montana, if you looked right you were looking at Revett lake in Idaho. We camped right on Revett lake for 5 days, it was peaceful. The lake is only about 1 mile diameter in the valley on top of a mountain, we did not see a single person the entire trip, just nature. There are also some very beautiful waterfalls in the area.

[alt_f13]

I live in Vancouver BC, which is way cooler than Vancouver, Washington, mainly because of the higher latitude.

 

Basically, Vancouver is like Seattle with less guns and more Chinese people.

 

Mountains, lakes, and polluted rivers, green, green fields and snow capped mountains as far as the eye can see.

 

Shopping centres and grand cinema and symphony uptown, riots and high, drunken bums downtown.

 

West vancouver has the snobs, north van the cool people, core vancouver has the safe injection sites, and south vancouver has the loose woman and social misfits.

 

All in all, a regular city with regular offensive commentary.

 

look at this goose

 

[edit]

 

I almost forgot... Vancouver has the highest variety of cute women (and men for the sake of political correctness... after all, I'm here) on the planet. Wherever you go, columbians, japanese, brazillians, swedes, americans, swedes, frenchies, etc... AND THEY ALL WANT TO PARTY RIGHT NOW

 

CALL 1-800-TALK-NOW for the HOTTEST TALKING ACTION AVAILABLE!

 

LIVE SINGLES 24/7!!! ONLY $65 PER MINUTE!!!

 

 

k, im done.

[Gilded]

And now that TimeTraveler mentioned potatoes, I must add that Finnish people eat VAST amounts of potatoes and consume the most coffee per person in the world (at least this was the case when I last checked).

[Ophiolite]

What is your city/town/state/country like? What do you enjoy about the people, places, culture or landscape?

At the moment I appear to be living in a blizzard. However I can still see from my window the remains of a castle that lies just of the edge of my property and a stone circle about 400m away.

The castle was the family seat of the Leslies, but is now reduced to one wall, the remains of a watch tower and some rubble (that was doubtless pillaged to provide the masonry for my house when it was built 150+ years ago.) Mary Queen of Scots stayed in the castle for a few nights. Oliver Cromwell ordered it to be burnt to the ground. The occupants bribed the soldiers to disobey the order. They burnt straw at the windows as Cromwell passed up the road towards Inverness, thus fooling Cromwell.

The stone circle is small one, but typical of many throughout the north east of Scotland, with a large recumbent stone and around a dozen uprights. Some photographs and information in this link.

http://www.ifb.net/webit/balquhai.htm

The snow has stopped now, so I can see across country to the sites of two battles: the Battle of Harlaw took place between the Lord of the Isles and 'the rest' in 1411 and is a mile away on a small plateau. Five or so miles beyond that is the hill of Barra where Robert the Bruce fought in 1308.

If I go to the other side of the house I can see an isolated hill atop of which is an Iron Age fort, and on the slopes of which the Roman Legions destroyed the Pictish army in AD84.

So, you may have gathered, that what I rather like about living here is being immersed in a countryside that has a diverse and dramatic histroy stretching back millenia, and that is close enough to reach out and touch.

[Sorcerer]

I live in New Zealand, an island country at the bottom of the world and the beggining of time (as in just west of the international dateline).

 

What I love most about NZ is that the coast is only 20 mins from my house and the ski fields are only an hour and a half. So in summer you have swimming/surfing/fishing and all sorts of marine recreation, and winter you have the snow to go play in. Autumn and Spring are great times for checking out out national parks with our (somewhat now less) diverse flaura and fauna.

 

We have a large variety of microclimes, with sub-tropical rain forests, temperate forests, temperate rain forests, alpine forest/scrub, alpine desert plateaus, fiords and a huge diversity of coastal ecosytems.

 

Kaikoura (about and hour drive north) is world renound for its whale watching and is on the migration route of the humpback whale, the Kaikoura coastline suddenly plunges off a shelf into deep cool waters, as the waters circulate they provide the ideal nutrient conditions for the growth of plankton, no wonder Kaikoura is favoured by the whales. Kaikoura is also a great place for getting crayfish (like lobster without claws) and its name means Food Crayfish in Maori, New Zealands indigenous language.

 

There is a active volcanic region on both main islands of NZ, as it sits on the pacific ring of fire, half on the pacific plate, half on the australasian plate. The largest lake in NZ is Taupo, in the north island, this is the result of a catastrophic volcanic eruption about 1000 years ago, which was louder than Krakatoa and is expected to be heard 2/3 of the way round the world. There are thermal springs in alot of places, heck one time walking down the river and someone stepped in a rock pool by the shore and said, hey its warm....... other places you can sit on the beach and dig a hole in the sand, up from it seeps the hot water from the nearby lake, so you can make your own spa.

 

Unfortunately for me, I have never been out of New Zealand, although I've seen almost all of it. People are always telling me how beautiful it is and how friendly the people are, I take that for granted since I have nothing to compare it with, but I hope if they are right that it will stay this way.

[alt_f13]

At the moment I appear to be living in a blizzard. However I can still see from my window the remains of a castle that lies just of the edge of my property and a stone circle about 400m away.

 

That is hardcore.

[Hellbender]

I live in upstate NY, in a state park called the Adirondacks. The winters are long, the summers short, the tourists obnoxious, and the jobs crappy. But it is so beautiful up here, with Lake George a few miles away, and a mountain range outside my window. But its cold almost all year round here. The winters are so horrendous some years. Summers would be great if not for the legions of tourists that come from downstate that turn the small town I live in into a cramped metropolis for 2 months. SO I guess there is some things to like about where I live, maybe I am tired of it and pessimistic, but I really want to move.

[YT2095]

I don`t know a whole lot about ALL of my country, I`ve visited only a few parts of it, the rest I`ve driven through too fast to appreciate much of it`s beauty.

 

I CAN speak for my home town though, It`s gone badly downhill since I was a child, but non the less, it`s the place many of my ancestors grew up and died in and the place I grew up in until I was age 7, we moved to Canada then.

I missed my home town so badly though,and the family I had here

eventualy, we moved back, I was aged 14 then, and now I refuse to leave, not now, or ever!

 

it`s my home

[alt_f13]

I don`t know a whole lot about ALL of my country' date=' I`ve visited only a few parts of it, the rest I`ve driven through too fast to appreciate much of it`s beauty.

 

I CAN speak for my home town though, It`s gone badly downhill since I was a child, but non the less, it`s the place many of my ancestors grew up and died in and the place I grew up in until I was age 7, we moved to Canada then.

I missed my home town so badly though,and the family I had here

eventualy, we moved back, I was aged 14 then, and now I refuse to leave, not now, or ever!

 

it`s my home [/quote']

 

You live in England right? Where did the Russian come from?

 

[edit] as of your last post you had 6666 posts. Totally wicked.

 

 

Get it?

[YT2095]

I have friends over there, and so I decided to go visit them for a few weeks and consume Vodka

[Anindya]

Hey I am from India...BEautiful place, beautiful people, terrible diseases...We made the cliche taking the bad with the good..

But that aside it is a very fascinating country..THE most diverse in the world...

The 'Promise to the Bearer' note on ou currency is displayed in 16 languages!!!

Each state in the country has a different culture, dialect if not a different language altogether.

Also the weather pattern in India is unique to it ...It rains profusely for 4 months in a year (Monsoons) and is largely sunny otherwise...