h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Would you believe I've never seen the Rockies, either? I've only been west of Missouri once, and that was for a layover in Houston on my way to Mexico City.

There are lots of pretty places. Hopefully I'll get to see them all before I croak!

Guns in general is another obvious one. For the US, I mean.

And when in Europe...I'm always refreshed by the way small children are allowed to wander around restaurants etc. without anyone batting an eye. In fact - they're treated as honoured guests. If you do that, you don't need clowns or baloons.

>>Would you believe I've never seen the Rockies

I have. They're big. And rocky.

I'm lucky I live in a municipality where gun ownership isn't legal, and have managed to avoid run-ins, for the most part, with gun-toting criminal types. My dad was a cop and even with them all locked up (and the ammo locked up off premises) I never felt totally safe when home alone, with guns in the house. I can't for the life of me imagine why they'd give any law-abiding person any sense of security at all- they have the opposite effect on me.

I should qualify my Rockies admission- I've seen them in photos, just not in person. I've never seen any Appalachian mountains, either. But I've seen Montserrat.

Caballé? Figueras? Marti?

Island: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montserrat

I was in the Caribbean visiting various islands a couple of times in the late 90s/ early 00s. On one occasion, we went past Montserrat as a minor eruption was taking place. I may even have some photos, though on one such trip my camera was stolen and some photos were lost. If I can dig one out I'll bring it in to work and scan it so I can upload.

I've also seen a few other mountains- just none of them in my home country.

Just teasing

I'm more for the opera singer variety of Montserrats... Me and high altitude generally don't mix well.

I'm not entirely sure I'm compatible with high altitudes, either. Nor low ones. .

I thought you have visited this:

http://www.corazones.org/lugares/espana/montserrat/a_montserrat_monasterio.htm

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Whenever people make remarks about how silly are northamericans, I answer that it´s unfair to criticize a huge country with a lot of diverse people. It´s common sense but... we usually forget about it. Besides, the more acid critics to Norhtamericans come precisely from them: Chomsky, the Simpsons...

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About Spain many people think that we are very religious or that most people have dark hair and eyes. False.
I have green eyes, brown hair and milky skin
Beauties like Penelope Cruz are promoted in magazines and publicity, because they fit with the "classical" type a painter from the 19 century made famous. But the variety is amazing. No wonder due to the vast mixture of people who have come to this country along history.

The same variety applies to climate. We have alpine, tropical desertic, very rainy and green, continental... well, for all the likes.

ah!, and most important: tapas aren´t free in all the country

I have a friend named Nuria, she lives in Cozumel but was originally from Spain, and was as fair-skinned as I am, with blond hair and blu eyes.

Varied climate is nice, isn't it? I like that we get something resembling seasons here, though spring and autumn are shorter with all this global warming. Nowadays it seems we go from winter, to a couple weeks of bizarre thunderstorms, a few nice springlike days, and then right into unbearable heat and humidity.

Conversely, not all Germans are blonde. And we do very little goose-stepping

One of the facts that really surprises me about USAians is that so few of them have passports and have actually left the country. I know the US has pretty much every landscape and environment there is, but I just think it's quite strange. I feel bad that I haven't left my home country in over a year.

In terms of false impressions, there's a good one about my home city of Liverpool. Most people I speak to are surprised that I was so eager to leave, they thought most Scousers loved their home city and returned. However almost every Scouser I know with a degree has left Liverpool and wouldn't move back if you paid them.

It's true that a lot of people never leave the city, but if you get a decent education most leave and never come back.

There's a girl in my class from NY state. She's Hispanic, but over, people assume she's black.
She says she get very tired of being 'Token' and having to explain things. She's expected to be sensitive about all sorts of things (one example was WWII) that she is the wrong race and the wrong age to be sensitive about.

The experience that freaked me out the most was sitting in a local cops hangout restaurant, where off duty cops and their families were next to me. With their guns, just right there, out and about! There was this awful urge to reach out and touch it, although I successfully resisted.

Oh, and I don't find the UK pleasantly warm, I don't eat whale meat or herring, I've never seen an igloo, penguins live on the SOUTH pole and yes, there is (geothermal) central heating in Iceland.
It is in fact better than anything else I've seen anywhere else.

What about your educational system? Iceland is the envy of all Europe!

It´s that so good?

Iceland to me instantly means lovely little horses, sorry

(But that's because I have a one-track mind "Arabian" is a horse, too, not an oil sheikh or a terrorist )

Part of the reason so many USAians didn't get passports and travel abroad is because we didn't need passports to visit Canada, Mexico, or many Carribean ports of call until recently. Then there's the oft-mentioned fact that yes, the place is huge. I haven't set foot in half of the states. And... flying to Europe takes eight hours and costs a serious chunk of change! Cost is likely prohibitive to a number of people.

I don't really have any presuppositions about Iceland. There are a handful of places I don't.

In a way, when I imagine life elsewhere, when chatting on here with my friends from the UK, Europe, Australia, etc, I tend to imagine their lives quite similar to mine. I don't do it out of arrogance- just frame of reference, probably. So I'm always interested in learning the little day-to-day stuff.

I wouldn't call my lifestlye typically German, more typically student

Quarter past nine and I've only just cooked dinner