To be a bit envious of this lifestyle? (USA)

[ThePinkPonyClub]

I've just watched School Swap: UK to USA on Channel 4 and have ended up feeling a teensy bit jealous of the kind of lifestyle that's possible over there.

Even normal, non wealthy families seemed to be able to live really outdoorsy lifestyles where they can hike and hunt and boat amongst the gorgeous scenery. I feel like in the UK, even rurally it isn't possible as everywhere is so densely populated especially when the weather is nice. The weather is also a limiting factor!

I'm obviously not jealous of the MAGA/Trump craziness or the crappy healthcare and all the rest of the political stuff but purely the lifestyle side of things, it seems so much more possible to live in that free, outdoorsy kind of way.

And the schools seemed to have a much more positive, enthusiastic culture with things like school sports and dances, compared to the UK teens in their drab uniforms staring at their phones the whole time in their miserable, run down secondary school.

aibu? Anyone live this kind of life in the UK? If so, where?!

You can hardly compare one country to fifty countries in terms of language! Hardly a fair comparison!

Poor little bear 😢 There he was, playing in the forest, and along comes Ddraig and eats him!

Guess what, the various states within the Rockies can look pretty similar too. Because they're right next to each other! And part of the same mountain range. Nature doesn't care about straight lines on maps.

But then I could show you the Swiss Plateau and and it would look completely different to the alpine parts of Switzerland. Talking of Switzerland, there's a huge cultural difference between the different cantons, to the extent that the trains have noticeably higher fare evasion in the French-speaking part than the Swiss Germans do.

You're the one telling us that the US is more diverse than Europe. Now you're saying that it's an unfair comparison.

Never said anything about languages till now.

Well, I'm sure if you look closely, there are differences. But mostly it's all the same, isn't it? 🤭😂

You should just come to Colorado. If you wait until sanity returns, you might age and drop off your perch before that happens. 😭

Actually, the vistas in different ranges of the Rockies look very different and contain rock of varying origins and age. This is partly due to the forces that created them. Some parts are volcanic. Some parts were formed by tectonic movement.

More 'Alpine' looking sections, such as the Tetons, are newer than the weathered and glaciated slopes of the rest of the Rockies. (The Tetons are alsonyounger than the Swiss Alps). There are significant landforms created by volcanic activity in Colorado and in the Yellowstone area of Wyoming and Montana. The plateau and canyon landforms of the SW including parts of Colorado are the remains of ranges much older than the current Rockies.

Consider that your boring geology lesson for the day.

One of my DDs managed to absorb the local comedy accent. I don't know how; the rest of the DCs escaped childhood unscathed. Anyway, off she went all bright eyed and bushy tailed to a university about fourteen hours east by car (two more hours than Google said it should take), and only her fellow Americans who came from the same metropolitan area could understand anything she said. Many others asked what country she was from. She now sounds like people who read the news.

Even if the orange muppet achieves his aim of becoming everlasting dictator, he's a lot older than I am so he will be expiring first. There's too much uncertainty at the moment. Prices are unstable and border officials appear to be on secondment from the Stasi.

Plenty of other places in the world to visit in the meantime.

I can do boring geology too. Rigi is not part of the Alps, being composed of molasse.

Point is though that the landscape of the Rockies does not change instantly at the state border. Nature doesn't respect lines on maps. So "but the Swiss Alps look just like the French Alps" is an idiotic argument. They're right next to each other.

Not to mention the Somali and Hmong populations of Minnesota, the large middle eastern Muslim population of Michigan, the Polish speaking swathes of Chicago...

Yeah, but they're in separate countries. Which is what I've been saying all along - many countries in Europe look like other countries there!

But you'll agree that it's not all much of a muchness, right? Obviously the western states have straight lines for borders, but the Rockies themselves are a hugely diverse region comprised of many different ranges and featuring an enormous amount of geological diversity.

Just like walking down Brook Street in Chester then (if anyone is local to there I can well recommend the bread in the Polish bakery). The US isn't exceptional in having immigrant populations.

The point I'm making is that "France is basically the same as Switzerland" is an utterly nonsense argument.

But nobody's said that.

The US doesn't just have immigrant populations - everyone is an immigrant, except for the very few Native Americans!

@DdraigGoch Stuff the Stasi, you should come here and travel around. You might be surprised at the diversity.

As a British citizen (I assume) nothing will happen to you. It's non-citizen legal residents and illegal immigrants that they're after.

How old is she? I think the nurse should stick to nursing and stay out of medical billing… she has no idea what the bill will be. And I would side eye any nurse that would offer this kind of helpful information… she’s way out of her lane and talking out of her ass.

Oh wait, I missed that it was the nurse who said that. Oh! Mystery solved. Hospitals employ entire departments for billing and the negotiations that go on between the insurer and hospital are extremely complicated and specialised. That nurse will not have a clue! She won't even know what insurance plan MIL has. Jeez! I knew something wasn't right!

These are uncertain times. Even US citizens have been detained at the border (in the case I was aware of it was at the Canadian border in Vermont). Obviously they're let go once lawyers get involved but they still had to go through a five hour ordeal before being released without explanation.

I don't particularly want to be selected at random to have my phone examined - however small the chance is, it's still bigger than if I visited Australia or Canada.

Even if nothing happens, I don't particularly fancy the hostile attitude at border control where I have to prove that I'm definitely not trying to sneak in under false pretences (there seems to be a delusion among many in the US, particularly among border officials) that everyone is absolutely desperate to live there). It's not a new thing, border agents in the US have always had a bit of a reputation, my father got questioned years a go on why he was travelling on single tickets (he would be returning from a different place to the one he arrived in). The worst officials (like that one in Texas I posted upthread) have now been emboldened. Never mind what the law or the constitution says, this lot have been defying court orders with impunity.

Though I would have flown out of Dublin as I'm not far from the ferryport, it offers a wider range of destinations than Manchester, and you go through clearance before boarding. Which would probably have helped.

Besides, I have Canadian friends and family. And I'm pro-Ukraine. The administration's attitudes are disgraceful and spending money boosts their economic figures and legitimises them. No thanks.

Funnily enough there was an American in my dorm in Stockholm. Lives in Boston but has spent most of his life in various states in the Bible Belt. He did joke about hoping that he would be turned back at the border.

I just went back and reread… She said medical staff not nurse, Mea culpa. But medical staff, as in clinicians, of any kind would not have the knowledge. So yeah my comment stands.

If America is so bad, why do more people want to move there than any other country in the world?

@OonaStubbs because like the UK and those coming in via illegal means ( or attempting too) - many buy into what they ‘think or have been fed’ what the country is -rather than the 100% reality for those on low earnings- for those with professions and high earnings then it’s usually the chance/opportunity of even higher earnings !

That's absolutely disgusting, OP. If I could afford, I'd be getting a new mattress and all new bedding, and I'd never see him again, of course.