I'm gonna grab a couple of these, as I've seen the East of the US, UK (obviously) and Japan
> Also I have heard it is very fast-paced there (London) > culturally and I find our culture here in Canada > already too fast-paced... > On the other hand obviously all of England is not London... We live 10ish miles outside of London, so it's not exactly "fast paced", but we're not country-side either - I really like where we live as it's close enough to London, and close enough to the country-side > Britain seems wonderful to me but I have heard that London is > pricey, no? London is pricey, for some things - but other things are FAR cheaper Wine is cheaper in the UK than the US Cheese is cheaper Gas is more expensive (something like $5 a gallon) As we're not the centre of London, it's not bad where we are - but we're moving further out once we find a place we REALLY like... > I'll be missing a thousand nuances here I'm sure, but > someone who lives in the UK was telling me that she felt kind > of oppressed by the weight of cultural tradition given that > Britain has as a much older society than Canada and the > States, and she perceived North America as a place where we > are freer to make up our own rules due to our relative > youth..... not to mention the whole class-consciousness thing. > (I think that's especially true of Canada and one of the > things I like about it.) I wouldn't say we're "oppressed" by the weight of the culture, but we do have TONS of history - you can ignore it if you wish, or you can embrace it - Erika loves going to old places, so we've been to Henge and a couple of castles, and we're members of the National Trust and the English Heritage - we can go Castle visiting whenever we get the chance I've seen less "freedom" in the US that I've got here - I personally feel more opressed when I see police with guns visible - it might be a "foreigner" mentality, but I get a little nervous around people who could pull out a gun and shoot me, even by accident... > If you consider the high population density in Britain as > well I'm sure there must be a romanticizing of the sense > of wide open space that America evokes. I haven't looked > at any of the studies but it wouldn't surprise me if > personal distance and space were closer in the UK as well > - though less dramatically than in, say, Japan. This is a perception thing: If you think of London being crowded, then look at New York... In the area we live, it's fairly heavily populated, but you drive out 15-20 mins and you're in the middle of the country-side - there are areas where you can drive for over an hour without seeing anything but farms... We have the same population as say New York State (if memory serves) in roughly the same area - but we don't have big waste-lands like the middle of the states (Arizona etc.) Sure, some areas are less populated, but some are more - the US has more land-mass, so the people are more spread out, but overall, it's not "squashed" here After seeing Tokyo, we're positely spaced out - the centre of Tokyo's shopping area is just insane - the buildings go down 3-4 levels and up 6-7... And the roads are smaller than they are here (which are smaller than the States) > Also I heard an English music commentator remarking on the > relative lack of British influence in music today compared > to the heyday of the Beatles and the Stones... due largely > no doubt to the dominance of the rap/hip-hop or whatever > you call it scene. Maybe that is affecting people's > perception of their culture there.... We don't have the global influence, but that's mainly because of the amount of stuff produces State-side If you consider bands like Queen, Oasis, and a few others, we've got some BIG bands which are world famous, but a LOT of the charts at the moment is filled with manufactured dross rather than "real music" - we tend to listen to the radio stations that cover the slightly older stuff than the "rap/hip-hop" or "pop" music... Just our personal taste I suppose :-) Philip Arnold Technical Director Certified ColdFusion Developer ASP Multimedia Limited Switchboard: +44 (0)20 8680 8099 Fax: +44 (0)20 8686 7911 www.aspmedia.co.uk www.aspevents.net An ISO9001 registered company. ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. ********************************************************************** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
