⭐️ Social ⭐️ Get to know your neighbo(u)rs from across the pond

[eireann]

hi serious question who set up owns and pays for bluelight????? theres no advertisements or fees to anyone using this service

 

[muvolution]

The love bandit and sebastians_ghost are the owners.
XTCXTC was the longtime financial supporter of the site, but sadly, passed away some time ago.

If you would like to donate, you can make a donation to maps earmarked for bluelight.

 

[eireann]

The love bandit and sebastians_ghost are the owners.
XTCXTC was the longtime financial supporter of the site, but sadly, passed away some time ago.

If you would like to donate, you can make a donation to maps earmarked for bluelight.

thanks for the info mv

 

[Tommyboy]

Related reading

 

[shimazu]

Im going to Europe in September

Time to see first hand whats so great about it

I guess im just not "refined" enough to appreciate their far superior culture

after all I am an obese, high school drop out, gun-toting, Evangelical

arent all Americans that?

 

[Tommyboy]

Yea I'm not sure what's up with them being all about their culture and our lack there of.

 

[Vader]

I think there's an argument to be made that a lovingly crafted ale or wine is superior to PBR and that Stilton and Brie are better than aerosol cheese Still, I don't think such a hostile attitude is going to allow you to get the most from your experience. European culture might not be superior, but it's very very different. In my country, 100 miles is a long way, but 100 years isn't a long time. In 3 hours, you could probably be in a city that is pretty similar to the one you live in. In 3 hours, I could be in France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmark... Europe is dense, and it is really very old. I walk past buildings on a daily basis that are older than your country. My brother has a Kiwi girlfriend, and she cannot believe that the pub my brother used to work in is older than any building she has ever seen. Our continent was developed before the automobile, our cities don't have grids, or detached houses. Europe is chaotic and organic. We have castles and cathedrals and walled cities, a twenty minute train journey can take you to a place where the accents are completely different, it must be very different from anything you've ever known. You can keep up the yippee ki yay bollocks, but that would be a shame, because if you approach travel in an open-minded and positive way, you stand to enjoy the experience a lot more. I'm going to visit America in about a year, and I'm not having a fucking whinge about it, I'm excited. I could say "Time to see what's so great about the land of the free (where you get drug tested at work and can't get an abortion), I can't see why THEY'RE NUMBER ONE, but I guess that's just because I'm a dry effete cerebral English prick who might be gay, just like the rest of us", but I'd rather try to gain an understanding and appreciation of your culture, rather than slating it before I've even experienced it.

 

[Tommyboy]

^ I get what you are saying, but I meant it more that you guys say it like it's our fault for not having culture, when it's really just because the US is not that old, so it's impossible for there to be much culture.

FTR my refrigerator has various types of aged cheese, and I have a nice wine variety. I have a nice summer ale from a local micro-brewery in the cellar (before that it was a toasted lager, and before that a Belgium ale), and walking down my block (about 16 homes) you will hear at least 4 different accents from families that have immigrated here and speak a foreign language. If you venture out to the countryside though you will have the more stereotypical Americans living there, who drink their bud light, consider american cheese to be real cheese, and everyone sounds the same. Certain suburbs are like that too, but others have a very large population of immigrants. I'm actually the minority in my area, and I don't mean it's mostly black, it's all South American and European (I don't want to specify for the sake of keeping my location unknown).

 

[shimazu]

at my work today I was in the bathroom and a Vietnamese man who barely spoke English and a Colombian man who barely spoke English were having a conversation about the weather in very broken English.

but it was still a conversation

America

 

[Tommyboy]

^ I always found it funny that I needed the Colombian and Salvadorian guys at work to tell me what my Italian boss was saying to me. He spoke English but it was hard to understand, and since they had worked for him for a while they understood him better. One time that stuck out to me was when he was telling me to get him the ladder, and I was asking him what numbers, because I thought he was saying the lotto haha.

 

[RecklessWOT]

So yeah, I'm not even gonna get into the PBR discussion. Yeah I'm a hick, but sure not like that.

Anywho, I've actually got a real question. What's the deal with the English and their tea? Like is that just a huge stereotype or is everyone really just all about the stuff? I guess Americans have their coffee and whatnot, but it seems like from what I understand that tea is a must have for everyone over there. Any truth to that? Any significance to it or is it just something that for whatever reason people like to drink and somehow came off as a stereotype?

 

[Tommyboy]

^ I legit want to know if the women wear white gloves when they drink it. And also if they have crumpets with the tea.

 

[Vader]

Tea is the drink. If someone's just arrived at your house, you offer them tea. They might ask if they could have a coffee instead, but they probably won't, because tea is fucking delicious. I'm going to make myself some tea right now. Nah, women don't really wear white gloves these days, they drive cars and wear trousers and vote and everything Crumpets are pretty amazing, but they're not an everyday foodstuff, you'll have them once in a while.

Certain suburbs are like that too, but others have a very large population of immigrants.

I get what you're saying, I'd be an idiot to suggest that New York isn't diverse, but there's a big difference between being around Spaniards and actually being in Spain. An hour flight can take you to a place where the architecture, language, food, religion, etc is totally different, and I think that's pretty special.

 

[RecklessWOT]

An hour flight can take you to a place where the architecture, language, food, religion, etc is totally different, and I think that's pretty special.

That is pretty cool I do admit. If I travel for an hour or two I'll be in another state, you'll end up in a different country/cultural region. Hell I can stay on the same highway in the same direction for 3000 miles and still be in the same damn country. I would like to see Europe for that reason I think it would be awesome to see so much packed into such a small area

 

[Sepher]

^ I get what you are saying, but I meant it more that you guys say it like it's our fault for not having culture, when it's really just because the US is not that old, so it's impossible for there to be much culture.

Isn't there a similar sort of attitude between east and west coast, or north and south in the U.S. also? I was always under the impression that your east-coast WASP types tended to have a slightly superior attitude to pretty much everyone else because their money's older, or their houses are older or it takes them longer to trace back their line to the generation that first set foot on U.S. soil when they jumped off the Mayflower or something? I was always under the impression that your east-coasters felt like their culture was superior, almost aristocratic even, being a little nearer to old Europe and European influence than that of the more democratic and youthfully dynamic west. Is that a stereotype too?

 

[RecklessWOT]

Well, yeah there is some old money up here especially in New England. Not all northeasterners are like that though, I live in Connecticut which is both a pretty old and wealthy state and there are some areas with very large old homes with some very old money here, but there's also a lot of white trash and rednecks too. I don't know if I'd say anyone up here thinks they're superior just because they're from the northeast, maybe the rich pricks think they're better because they're rich and from a wealthy area, but I don't think it's because the culture is older or anything. I will admit though it is very different out in the midwest being that a lot of the towns are only like 80 years old. The people down south and out west seem a lot more laid back, there's a bunch of stuck up and just plain rude people here. It's also a lot more expensive to live up here and the infrastructure is a lot less planned out, more old world style than out west where everything's a grid and numbered and newer. The southerners do view the north to be pompous though

 

[shimazu]

There are a lot of snobby people in the Northeast, but theres also a lot of good people too.

I dont know how to explain this any other way, you really cant even lump geographical regions together unless you get down to a neighborhood by neighborhood level.

Like where I live is probably like 40% working class whites, and the rest is split between the othe races. Yet if I drive 2-3 miles in a certain direction (not gonna name any names to be respectful) I'm in the jungle baby.

and by jungle I mean the ghetto

 

[Tommyboy]

When I think of Connecticut I think of people like the ones portrayed in this video. I used to deliver to fancy restaurants on Long Island Sound, so I really only saw the wealthy areas there. It's the same as the north shore of LI, or the Hamptons, and it's only the rich areas that are like this, so the majority of the people aren't like that.

Another portrayal of the wealthy families in the NE with old money would be in the movie 'Wedding Crashers.' They act was different than the wealthy families on the west coast, and a lot of them definitely sail and enjoy nice wine and probably own a vineyard (although the west coast has a lot of vineyards as well).

Once you get into the suburbs in the Northeast it's all kinda the same, other than maybe certain areas with a large population of immigrants from a specific country. Accents will be different as will the food and how people act, but not to the point where I would feel completely lost if I were to move to another suburb in a different state around here.

 

[felix]

Anywho, I've actually got a real question. What's the deal with the English and their tea? Like is that just a huge stereotype or is everyone really just all about the stuff? I guess Americans have their coffee and whatnot, but it seems like from what I understand that tea is a must have for everyone over there. Any truth to that? Any significance to it or is it just something that for whatever reason people like to drink and somehow came off as a stereotype?

I'm a Britisher (Scottish ), and I don't really like tea. Coffee's where it's at.

Im going to Europe in September

Time to see first hand whats so great about it

I guess im just not "refined" enough to appreciate their far superior culture

after all I am an obese, high school drop out, gun-toting, Evangelical

arent all Americans that?

The US has tons of culture, but it's often overshadowed or forgotten about. Your gun culture is based in history, from when y'all had to shoot what you ate and to protect yourselves from all those injuns and outlaws. About a third of the US used to belong to France (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase) and another third used to belong to Mexico (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Cession). Your "Republicanism" is not based on idiots like George Bush who have completely ruined the definition; it's based on "small government" back in the day when people didn't want the federal government interfering with their lives. ("Don't Tread On Me!")

You had the gold rush, along with probably the largest influx of immigrants the world has ever seen, ever. Ellis Island, the railroads, the telegraph, mass produced automobiles, genuine multiculturalism, failed colonies as well as successful ones... I could go on.

I'm just scratching the surface here. Don't act all insecure about it please.

(Try imagining that all 50 states in the US speak a different language.)

US history is a fascinating subject for me - sorry if this is all obvious stuff...

 

[Johnny blue]

Then where are you from?

Who?

Most people in this thread are either from the US or the UK. "Across the pond" is an old phrase some use that really just means across the Atlantic. For Americans itusually refers to the UK.