Oh the Places You'll Go

[Zeta]

Why do Americans never leave their own country?

Size, really. England is only a small part of a continent. The USA takes up half a continent. I've heard England is like the size of Florida (at least, so my British aunt tells me).

So I assume that Europeans get around to other countries more because all of their countries tend to be smaller. And Americans live in such a large place, they never really find a need to leave it.

Plus, the average American sees any country that's not America as being a bunch of starving, smelly, foreigners playing in a puddle of mud and rocks.

[Esrever]

I've lived in the same place my whole life: Victoria, BC, Canada.

I've visited every Canadian province and one of the three territories, as well as Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii. I've been in some other states too, but that was really just driving through them to get somewhere else so I won't count that.

Excluding Hawaii, the only time I've ventured off the continent was when I went to France. If you live in North America, your travel options are kinda limited unless you feel like paying thousands of dollars in plane tickets.

[Popcorn]

I've heard England is like the size of Florida (at least, so my British aunt tells me).

The USA has lakes the size of England. Anyway, that's besides the point: it's outright depressing that some of you bastards have never seen the sea. Obviously there are definite practical reasons for the average bible-humping, gay-bashing, Iraq-invading, non-passport-owning American having not travelled around a lot, but either way, the yanks seem to be a singularly insular people.

[Zeta]

I had an online relationship with a guy in Sheffield, and if we had stayed together, I'd problably be in England with him right now.

But it turned out that he was really into me, and really liked me - but he was too damn horny to wait 3 months to see if I was going to show up.

Last I heard, he's still trying to find a local guy to get laid.

Hormonal asshat.

The USA has lakes the size of England. Anyway, that's besides the point: it's outright depressing that some of you bastards have never seen the sea.

Yes, everyone should see mountains, and everyone should see an ocean - at least once in their lives. But I've grown up on a coast, and I'm living in some mountains right now. I've seen all I want to see. I just want to settle down in a city at this point. I wouldn't mind traveling around just for the journey itself. But there's not really a destination that I NEED to see right now. Like the way some folks feel with the ocean or the mountains or the arctic or whatever.

the yanks seem to be a singularly insular people.

The whole world is out to get us. We don't need anything from them. We have everything we need right here. Wanting to go to someplace outside the US would imply that the USA was lacking in some way. It would be a sign of weakness! And America is NOT weak! *chugs a beer and smashes the can into his forehead* Packers! Whoohoo!

[Ngangbius]

Why do Americans never leave their own country?

Size, really. England is only a small part of a continent. The USA takes up half a continent. I've heard England is like the size of Florida (at least, so my British aunt tells me).

So I assume that Europeans get around to other countries more because all of their countries tend to be smaller. And Americans live in such a large place, they never really find a need to leave it.

That and it is pretty dang expensive to travel to a foreign country here that is not Canada or Mexico.

I was born and still live in Cleveland, OH.

The earliest trip to a different place I can remember was Texas when I was 2 or 3 years old.

Places I've been on vaction:

~~East Liverpool, OH(relatives live here--mostlyfrom my father's side)
~~Columbus, OH
~~Kings Island, OH(You can guess why I went there)
~~Cincinnati, OH
~~Williamsburg, Virginia(thanks for reminding me Spazz)
~~Hershy, PA
~~Orlando, FL
~~Boston, MA(relatives also live here)
~~Atlanta, GA(yet more relatives live here)
~~Chicago, IL
~~Minnenapolis, MN(the farthest I've gone to the western part of the U.S.)
~~New York, NY

This doesn't count all the places we drove through by car. Though, I'm probably forgetting a whole lot of other places I visited.

And the only foreign country I've been to is Canada--specifically Toronto, Ontario and Niagra Falls.

[Dunjohn]

I've lived in four different parts of the west of Ireland. Furthest I've been abroad was the Med.

[j-man]

Nowhere special...besides travelling all four countries of the UK, I've briefly visited France (like England, but you can't order beer as easily and everyone is a jerk), Canada (like France, but with more snow, Americans, and Mountain Dew), and the Dominican Republic, which has the greatest rum ever. They run their motorbikes on it. Yosh! Apart from that...meh.

I'm visiting New York City next year for a supposed "educational" trip with my class (BND Media Year 2 represent), which just means I'll go to FAO Schwarz and spend $300 on toys while pretending to care about some American guys talking excitedly about "being in the business".

[Spazz]

Born and raised: Metairie (New Orleans), LA

<b>Been</b> (no particular order):
Various places throughout Texas
Various places, Mississippi
Mobile, Alabama
Jacksonville, Florida
Orlando, Florida (actually did <b>not</b> go to Disney World =Þ)
Daytona, Florida
Tampa Bay, Florida
through Georgia
through South & North Carolina
Williamsburg, Virginia
Jamestown, Virginia
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Grand Canyon, Arizona
Las Vagas, Nevada
through Oklahoma
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Cañon City, Colorado

[plasticwingsband]

Nice leeching, PWB.

Them's fightin' words. I'm putting a Jihad on you.


I've lived in two States (California and then New Hampshire and then California again) and spent vacation time in Maine, Arizona, Massachussettes, and probably some other ones as well. When we were driving across the country back to California, we were in Oklahoma City on the morning of the Oklahoma City Bombing. Coincidence? Yes. Yes it was.

I've also visited England and Scotland.
London owns me.

[Grant]

Why do Americans never leave their own country?

I also have rich parents.

Answered your own question. Not everyone has rich parents.

[-wyvern]

Lived:

Nottinghamshire (Robin hood country! Yay.)
Wellington, New Zealand

Of the two, Wellington is the greatest. It's built in the crater of a blown out volcano so it's REALLY mountainous, most of the houses are on stilts including the school I went to. Since it's comparitively small for a capital city it's clean and safe and full of things to do. It is truly the Green Hill Zone of the world.

I've visited...

Argyllshire, Western Highlands of Scotland (Repeatedly; it's where my family is from. Best scenery in the world.)
Dunoon, Scotland
Deadham, near Colchester in England (Constable painted the Haywain there. In case you were wondering. Not really a holiday, since I was working there.)
Hobart, Tazmania
Sydney, Australia (Both while we were living in NZ; we stayed with a mad aunt in tazmania. Fun. I went to Sega World Sydney, and it was great. I hope it's still running.)
Los Angeles, Florida (Home of the Anehiem Plaza, the best hotel in the world)
London (Full of those horrible loose paving slabs that shoot water up your trouser leg when you step on them. Otherwise great.)
Whitstable, England again.
Foiteventura. We were sick all the time.
Ellat, Israil (In a brief period of calm about eight years ago. I loved it there - sucks that they blow people up nowerdays. The Club Inn is reccommended for it's icecream, if it's still standing.)
Barcelona, Catalunya (Interesting Sausages.)
Normandy Ypres etc, France/Belgum (on a school trip. Ate some very nice chocolate, saw the big cemetary, was shot at by angry mob in macdonalds. The French in normandy deserve their bad reputation, by the way. We met three nice french people there, the rest of them either glowered at us or stole our chocolate. They also can't brew a decent cup of tea.)

[Popcorn]

Answered your own question. Not everyone has rich parents.

I was wondering if anyone was gonna take me out on that issue, but it's still not the answer. If I lived in a country as huge and varied as America, I'd hop on a greyhound bus and cruise around for a few months before even thinking of looking into other countries... it can be done, and with very little money. Instead, I've been to France and around the place a few times with friends, and it's cost us next to nothing.

Of course, none of you guys are as bad as Dache, who's been to Disneyworld Flordida something like 9 times and has 'no interest' in going anywhere else.

[Dache]

I wondered when I'd pop up in this thread.

I've been to France, Germany and Belgium a few times as well, anyway.

[Baba O'Reily]

Anyone else a military brat or did you just move around for the hell of it?

Military.

[Grant]

I was wondering if anyone was gonna take me out on that issue, but it's still not the answer. If I lived in a country as huge and varied as America, I'd hop on a greyhound bus and cruise around for a few months before even thinking of looking into other countries... it can be done, and with very little money. Instead, I've been to France and around the place a few times with friends, and it's cost us next to nothing.

It takes time and money, Popcorn, and they're not mutually exclusive.

This past summer, some of my friends were going to spend a couple of weeks taking a road trip down south and just kind of going where ever. Obviously, I really wanted to go, I'd been calling for something like that all through out high school for us to do. However, realistically, I knew I couldn't go. I was still working a lot of hours at the radio during the summer and I needed to help pay for college.

They had a pretty good time, I guess, though it wasn't so much a "road trip" as it was a "trip down to visit one of the guy's cousins in Florida for a week". And now they're hurting pretty bad for cash and one of 'em is actually really struggling to pay for this semester of college.

I mean, we're not dirt poor or anything. We're all middle class folk, but as nice as it would be and as fun as it sounds, you can't really just "hop on a bus" and go where ever and certainly not for "a few months" with "very little money".

Unless you're saying we should just sneak into boxcars and travel the country as hobos. Maybe that's what you meant.

[Segaholic2]

Maybe that's what they do in Europe.

[Squirrelknight]

I've been to 3 states (New York, New Jersey, and finally California, where I live now). LA itself is boring as fuck but it has alot of cute girls (Korea Town pwnz joo), NYC was pretty fun, alot of great import stores there, and San Francisco had, um, nice weather and a lot of really polite gay people. Jersey City on the other hand, was interesting because it sucked so much. The KFC there has their cash register behind bullet proof glass, and they give you your chicken through this slot in the wall.

As for other countries, I've been to the Philippines, which was cool because everything there is so cheap cause all the sweatshops that make your clothes and electronics are based there, so they're much cheaper if you buy them there. It's like cutting out the middle-man. I also had a brief stop over in Taiwan, but that place seemed cool. In the 2 hours I was over there, I saw more cute girls that I did in 3 weeks in the Philippines.

I also got violent diarehha from eating some ice cream from the Philippines.

[Crazy Penguin]

I had an online relationship with a guy in Sheffield, and if we had stayed together, I'd problably be in England with him right now.

But it turned out that he was really into me, and really liked me - but he was too damn horny to wait 3 months to see if I was going to show up.

Last I heard, he's still trying to find a local guy to get laid.

Hormonal asshat.

I ended up moving onto girls, sorry about all that.

[plasticwingsband]

Ho ho. Online relationships don't work.

That is all.

[chix0rgirl]

I also had a brief stop over in Taiwan, but that place seemed cool. In the 2 hours I was over there, I saw more cute girls that I did in 3 weeks in the Philippines.

I still vote for Korean girls as (stereotypically) the most consistently attractive ethnicity possible. Even though I'm technically Taiwanese.

[Segaholic2]

Korean girls are, from my experience, the chubbiest/roundest of the three major Asian races. And I don't mean that in a nasty way to anyone here; I'm just half Korean so I've seen my fair share of Korean girls.

[Grant]

As a Korean girl, I resent that.

[plasticwingsband]

Your mom resents that.

[Squirrelknight]

Korean girls are, from my experience, the chubbiest/roundest of the three major Asian races. And I don't mean that in a nasty way to anyone here; I'm just half Korean so I've seen my fair share of Korean girls.

Like, 80% of the Asian population where I live is Korean (Stupidly enough, the white people around here still assume you're Chinese or Japanese), and I've noticed (around here, anyway), that they have a greater chance of being cute than others. I mean, some of them even pull off the rare, nigh-impossible feat of being cute and hot.

It makes me want to get one of those funky Korean hair cuts (long ass bangs, only a single highlight in the front), wear some bishounen man-makeup, and run through the streets screaming "Sarang Hae".

[chriscaffee]

Cute and hot is easy. Half-Japanese, half-caucasians pull it off 50% of the time. That was probably the best part about living in Japan during my high school years.