[quote=njtosd][quote=spdrun]Sadly, I had the great misfortune of being born in the US. Fortunately, I’m a dual citizen so this will be corrected next year.
I don’t need drugs. I need a one-way plane ticket, an apartment lease in Berlin or Prague for a half year. Every day spent outside of the US is like a breath of fresh air.
Most Americans have never stuck their noses outside of North America — only something like 35% even hold passports, so they don’t know what they’re missing being stuck here.[/quote]
Happy people are happy wherever they are, and the opposite is true, too. I, for one, have stuck my nose out many a time. My husband worked for a large French company and has travelled more than most. Both of us prefer it here (by far). Europe is interesting for a visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there, as the saying goes.[/quote]
Yeah, makes me want to trot out this parable again:
An old fella is sitting on his porch. A guy who’s thinking about moving to the area is driving by and stops to ask the old guy about the area. “What are the people like here?” The old guy asks in return, “How did you find the people where you came from?” The response is, “I found them to be generous, caring, kind, and fun.” The old guy says, “I think you’ll find them the same way here.” A different guy drives up later and asks the old guy the same question, and the old guy asks him the same question he asked the first guy. The second guy says, “I found them mean, backstabbing, and phony.” The old guy says, “I think you’ll find them the same way here.”
The same probably applies to what country you live in.
Sure, if you move from a disease-infested, famine-stricken, war-torn third-world country to a first-world country, you might be happier. But I doubt that a move from the U.S. to Europe would be enough to overcome the level of bitterness and anger that spdrun seems to be experiencing.
