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What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

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Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#151

Post by batista »

tjic wrote: post #105
potatolicious wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only large cities - but rural areas too. The reputation for shitty food really happens in the vast stretches of suburbia that straddle the awkward territory between city and country. The US has, overall, amazing food. In large cities there is not only immense diversity (after all, the US is more diverse than most Western nations), but also a culture of experimentation at all price ranges. It's possible to eat ama…

> It's only when you get into strip-mall-landia where things start appearing incredibly boring and monocultural A famous economist / foodie has written an entire book about how you've got it EXACTLY backwards: http://www.amazon.com/An-Economist-Gets-Lunch-Everyday/dp/05... The best food, he asserts, is in strip malls. You just have to know a few tricks to find it. Great book. Go read it.

I've eaten in 48 states, including tons of malls. If that is what the book is saying, it is bullshit. Not to mention that in most malls you only find the same generic franchised BS.

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#152

Post by arvinjoar »

Muzza wrote: post #100
ericras wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American who does this in pretty much every conversation I have, this is a difference I would never have thought of. Semi-related: Do other countries have fragments of speech used as filler such as "like" and "you know"?

Alltså we have typ that in Swedish as well änna.

schjooo (ljudet en norrlänning gör då hen håller med)

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#153

Post by batista »

_pferreir_ wrote: post #77

I don't mean to generalize, but this is my own experience. Sincerely, I don't know how the US manages to be the second most touristic country in the world. Travelling to the US can be a nightmare - customs, TSA, metal detectors, body scanners, etc. As a tourist, I've never felt as unwelcomed as when travelling there. Maybe it's just a cultural thing, but I seriously got the feeling that people who work at airports, s…

>Sincerely, I don't know how the US manages to be the second most touristic country in the world. Travelling to the US can be a nightmare - customs, TSA, metal detectors, body scanners, etc. As a tourist, I've never felt as unwelcomed as when travelling there.

That is mostly a small BS business that ends in, like, 15 minutes. Then you are in the US and you can start your travel.

I've visited the US six times, road-tripping for 40 days each time, and visited (more than once) all states but Vermont (just for lack of time, next time).

You can opt for a traditional holiday (i.e pick a place, like NY, Chicago, Miami, L.A, S.F etc) or have excellent road trips, or go explore huge natural parks.

In any case, you will find great city life, places untouched by tourism at all (e.g. I remember Langtry, TX, where the nearest shop was like 50 miles away, or Avalon, MS, where only 2-3 blues buffs a year ever venture), and generally helpful and curious folk (with the occasional idiot).

Everywhere you go with a small drive you can find 99% of anything you want (just walk into the nearest Walmart for example), and you can find places to sleep ranging from $3000 a day hotels to $30 a day motels, with even the latter being just fine compared to shitholes you can get in other countries.

What I want to say is, this TSA/Airport business is an INSIGNIFICANT part of the trip. Act along with the security theater, and it is over in a few minutes.

In contrast, there are countries where you even have to bribe some officials to get in (or to avoid trouble).

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#154

Post by StavrosK »

batista wrote: post #150
StavrosK wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An aside: As a Greek, I tend to stay away from "Greek" restaurants abroad, because it's almost never Greek food. For example, people here generally eat lamb only once or twice a year, and I didn't know what hummus is until I had it in London (in one such "Greek" restaurant, no less). I think it's more about the stereotype that is expected of the restaurant rather than actually being authentic. For example, Greek gyro…

> For example, people here generally eat lamb only once or twice a year Well, as a Greek, I beg to differ. We eat lamb more than "once a year" (you probably refer to easter, but forget the mighty paidakia). Plus, this cow meat we mostly eat now is a recent development. The traditional meat until 4-5 decades ago was lamb and goat (mostly because Greek domestic cows where too skinny and the grass unfit to support them.…

Hmm, true, I forgot about paidakia... The rest of your comment is spot on, I think, thanks.

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#155

Post by lambda »

_b8r0 wrote: post #119
adrianhoward wrote: post #65

One thing I remember from a long road trip I took in the nineties across the US was, on multiple occasions, being told that I was "brave" or "courageous" when it came up in conversation that I was an atheist (okay - technical agnostic, working atheist if you want to be picky :-) Everybody was nice. Nobody was mean about it (I got a lot of hassle over being a vegetarian though) but it was felt odd for two reasons. Fir…

When I was last in the US (in 99) I was told I was brave for walking to the mall. It was only a few miles, for some reason this concept of walking was somewhat weird to the locals. To be fair, I was in Jacksonville NC, but I found it odd that they found it odd.

Yeah, I'm American (from New England) and I've gotten that. I was on my way to a small town in Pennsylvania, and my car broke down part way. It was late, so I had it towed to a garage and found a hotel for the night. In the morning, I decided to walk to the garage (it was a couple of miles). The guys at the garage looked at me like I had two heads for walking that far.

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#156

Post by AYBABTME »

carlob wrote: post #55
AYBABTME wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Quebec's french, we will replace nearly any word by a swear word (criss/osti/tabarnak/caliss), which can be used as a noun, a verb, an adverb, and adjective, etc. Basically, like smurf-talk. Also there's a one-to-one relationship between english's use of "like" as a filler by our use of "genre". In this case, "genre" means "similar to". So one could say "J'ai genre... mangé une criss de grosse poutine" in the same…

It's really interesting how all of the swear-words you mention are communion-related and how in France's French you'd be hard pressed to find any swearing other than somthing-Dieu that is religious in nature. It's really telling of how religion has been removed from French culture during the Revolution.

All those swear are in violent reaction against the Catholic Church which was prominent at the beginning of the century. This is before, nowaday, people just use these words by habit and as a cultural identity. I'd say that a vast majority of young Quebecers are agressive atheist.

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#157

Post by xtracto »

batista wrote: post #153
_pferreir_ wrote: post #77

I don't mean to generalize, but this is my own experience. Sincerely, I don't know how the US manages to be the second most touristic country in the world. Travelling to the US can be a nightmare - customs, TSA, metal detectors, body scanners, etc. As a tourist, I've never felt as unwelcomed as when travelling there. Maybe it's just a cultural thing, but I seriously got the feeling that people who work at airports, s…

> Sincerely, I don't know how the US manages to be the second most touristic country in the world. Travelling to the US can be a nightmare - customs, TSA, metal detectors, body scanners, etc. As a tourist, I've never felt as unwelcomed as when travelling there. That is mostly a small BS business that ends in, like, 15 minutes. Then you are in the US and you can start your travel. I've visited the US six times, road-t…

>That is mostly a small BS business that ends in, like, 15 minutes. Then you are in the US and you can start your travel.

Uuhhh... I don't think so. I travelled around Europe in the 7 years I lived in two countries there, and I found it very easy to go from country to country (even to Eastern Europe countries like Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia).

Now, due to my job, I must go the US and man... all the stuff we have to put up. For starters, to get a VISA I have to go to the ASC to give my fingerprints and photo (and I am afraid they'll ask for a surprise anal probe). THEN I have to go to the embassy to convince the officer that I am not going to stay there (who would like to, when they treat you like that?).

In contrast, going to live in Germany was a breeze, no photos, no fingerprints, a very straight and to the point questionnaire (not the huge online form in which I have to specify when was my great-great-great grandmoher in the USA).

Anyway... I have ranted too much. Now I am just hoping that it is worth it and that the visit I must do to the US is so great that I forget all this stuff.

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#158

Post by xtracto »

Udo wrote: post #69
ericras wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American who does this in pretty much every conversation I have, this is a difference I would never have thought of. Semi-related: Do other countries have fragments of speech used as filler such as "like" and "you know"?

I'm from Germany and it's absolutely the same here. There is no conversation without a lot of "uh"s, "yep"s, "nope"s, "nahh"s, "huh"s, and the ones that are actual German words but are really just fillers or shorthand for (dis)agreement such as "naja", "nun", "also", "aber", "klar", "schon" and so on. The equivalents of like (="irgendwie", "so", "halt") are used all the time and we have a few such constructs for you…

You forgot "oder". The time I was living in Germany I found it very amusing that colleagues always finished some sentences with "or" (e.g., "I think we should add this format, or?") or the equivalent in german "oder" ("Ich glaube das is gut, oder?"

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#159

Post by tripzilch »

StavrosK wrote: post #79
simonsarris wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but visitors that buy guidebooks do not go to your mono-cultural hometown. They go to New York! Even in my (relatively) small-medium town in New Hampshire[1] there's an amazing variety of high quality restaurants. A lot of people abroad in their own similiar-sized towns don't get to ever try authentic Mexican, or Cajun, or American comfort, or sushi, or Greek, etc, all of which are available here. For most touri…

An aside: As a Greek, I tend to stay away from "Greek" restaurants abroad, because it's almost never Greek food. For example, people here generally eat lamb only once or twice a year, and I didn't know what hummus is until I had it in London (in one such "Greek" restaurant, no less). I think it's more about the stereotype that is expected of the restaurant rather than actually being authentic. For example, Greek gyro…

You should be thankful. Some people never discover the wonders of delicious, delicious hummus.

Re: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

#160

Post by carlob »

AYBABTME wrote: post #156
carlob wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really interesting how all of the swear-words you mention are communion-related and how in France's French you'd be hard pressed to find any swearing other than somthing-Dieu that is religious in nature. It's really telling of how religion has been removed from French culture during the Revolution.

All those swear are in violent reaction against the Catholic Church which was prominent at the beginning of the century. This is before, nowaday, people just use these words by habit and as a cultural identity. I'd say that a vast majority of young Quebecers are agressive atheist.

While the French are secular to the point they don't even need to be aggressive about it. :)
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