Hahaha you are sweet. It's nice, helping people in that way.
I'm insanely impatient - I get super frustrated when I can't do something within a short time frame. It's something I'm at least aware of, and practice - like I might LOOK patient when I let you in the queue ahead of me, but I have an ulterior motive by giving myself opportunity to practice patience!
Do you guys just suckle a sugar beast from birth or what? That and the whole super size thing.
I'm actually 72k words into the largest writing project I've ever tackled right now. We were gone a total of nearly 5 years, plenty to say. Supersize is only the beginning.
I don't hold back what I think of cultures and that goes for my own, too. I'm toughest on my own.
Did you know everything here has unlimited refills? I thought that was normal, too, unlimited refills. Everything. If it's a liquid (coffee, soda, etc) stateside, servers won't let a cup go empty, they'll continue making rounds while you're having a meal continuously keeping your cup full.
I thought that was normal, too. Cater, cater, cater, when it's your normal it's all you know. EU, also, their menu items are weighed in grams. We had no idea how to read that at first cuz stateside they just pile food on the plate and it overflows. Literally. Wish I was making this up.
Culture shock at first was like, 'these proportions are bismal, I'm still hungry.' After about a year of that, it goes, 'I can't believe how much Americans eat.'
I saw a large pizza get delivered to a couple waiting in an emergency room here once at like 3 in the morning. Driver enters the ER through the same sliding doors a patient would with a large pozza on his shoulder, "anyone order a pepperoni?"
That's a true story.
I did a piece a very long time ago about the sugar in baby food, those little jars they sell food in. Pura and I don't have kids. Those tiny little jars have as much or more sugar than a coke.
This is a long reply.
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God. I used to feed my kid pure lentils, no salt, mashed veggies, no salt.
How is it paid for, all those refills??
Are you all diabetic or what? It's unfathomable to me. I grew up in an era and a culture where if you were thirsty, there was water 💦 in the tap. Mum would buy one 2l bottle of pure OJ for the fortnight and we weren't allowed more than one glass a day, usually watered down. Not because of money, coz of health.
I mean, I remember being horrified going to a mates place and they had chocolate cereal for breakfast so it wasn't all Aussies obviously. But for most part we are a fairly healthy culture.
But then Jesus, we don't walk around with guns either. America is probably THE most foreign country I can think of.
Guns, I'm a big fan of. The perception of us and our firearms is media-fed. Absolutely blows my mind everyone else thinks it's fair to fight with rocks while law enforcement fights with bullets. I'm a firm believer in fairness and level playing fields.
If you ever make it here and see pistols on random hips, imagine this: those are the safe people. Holstered firearms around here doesn't mean crazy, it means trained. I understand how complicated that may be for you to comprehend.
Zoom in on that sticker. I just snapped that a couple weeks ago. Can't keep a nice car around here, they're so massive they can't properly enter/exit a vehicle without hitting the one next to it.
I've had our nice car repaired five times now in a little under two years—door dings, mostly.
Whenever we're invited to a cookout or something like that, I always say "don't worry about us..." cuz we'll eat before we get there. Pura says it's a lifestyle, claims you can't just wake up in your late 40's with a 6-pack. Apparently it's something that requires continuous training for decades on end. My normal is weird, I guess.
Omg that sticker? For real?
Not if they're fat - how will they dodge incoming fire? 😜
Look I get it in principle - I've worked hard to understand it. I guess it's just as incomprehensible to you that Australia DOESN'T have guns. It wouldn't occur to us to have to fight the government with firearms. It's not part of our history but I totally understand it's part of yours. I concede always its far more complex that we can see as an outsider.
When you say 'largely media', I think what a lot of us just can't understand is school shootings. No matter how they are reported, they still happen, and if you can't protect your kids, you have an issue. The Port Arthur massacre rattled Australia so much that the immediate assault rifle ban was utterly supported. To think you've had so many more massacres since then just freaks us all out.
Saying that, I wish we could get a gun to shoot the bloody rabbits round here.
iHeart cultural differences.
Agreed, I'm not sure wtf is wrong with kids, either. Lack of parenting due to working too much, broken homes, processed food, I don't know what but, yeah, kids need help.
Little brother syndrome. I coined that, feel free to spread it around. After watching US from a distance for awhile, that's what it looks like, don't you think?
Parted ways (left the house) Big brother, little brother, always trying to outshine the other. A couple thousand years (UK) to a couple hundred years...
Everyone knows little brothers are loose cannons.
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I don't carry, by the way, just saying. Not my thing. Never has been. Loaded 12-gauge in the closet I've never fired and, if things go my way, it never will be. Don't need it. I kill'em with my mouth.
Pura carries a .38 in her purse. She's practiced and trained, cert, yata yata.
Lethal!