Originally posted by warmonger
Go see the rest of the world and open your eyes abit, sport.
It's not about distance covered but differences experienced.
Traveling, for the sake of traveling - just so I can get a 'bragging list'. Hmmm, OK, just for the discussion, let's try to get PT2 out of North America... how are we going to do it...
First, I'm not really interested in being surrounded by a language I don't understand, so if we're talking about Europe, then let's go to the UK. Somewhere in England, I guess.
A.) Do I know anyone there? No.
B.) Would I be able to get around (with confidence), i.e., know what I'm doing, and how to get what I want/need. No.
C.) Would I be able to find work there? I have no idea. (Which usually means - Probably not)
D.) Do I really understand the local accent/dialect/lexicon, currency, history, culture, politics, etc., etc.? No. Not at all.
E.) Would this be expensive? Yes.
F.) Do I have any reason to be there? No.
G.) Would I be like a duck out of water there? Yes.
H.) Would people laugh at the way *I* talked? Probably.
I.) Would I even know they were making fun of me, based on what they said, and how they said it? No. (Refer to D.)
J.) Do I have any businesss being in England? No.
K.) Would I get lost as soon as I disembarked the plane? Yes.
L.) Could I figure out how they drive there? I'd be surprised if I could.
M.) Would I get ripped off, tricked, etc., by people that realized I didn't know where the heck I was, and had no clue why I was there? Of course.
N.) Would I understand the metric system that would be everywhere? Not really.
O.) Would I have the slightest idea about British laws? No.
P.) Would I therefore accidently/unknowingly do something illegal, and be thrown in jail, not know how to get help for myself, and spend the rest of my natural life incarcerated, in some dungeon? Very likely. (This goes back to D.)
Q.) Would they feed me in prison, since no one there knows me, and would bring me food? (Hey, in Egypt, you DIE if no one brings you food while your in prison, and they can hold you indefinitely, for whatever reason! - yay! let's go to Egypt, too!) Aaah!
R.) Would I ever fit in, in some foreign place? Not really.
S.) Would I be scared, miserable, and helpless, living homeless on the street, begging for 'shillings' - or something, slowly dying of starvation... unable to return to my homeland, the land of plenty, freedom, & opportunity, etc.? Ohhh, the pain. Just shoot me, please. Have mercy, good 'chap'. Put this 'bloody' 'yank' out of his horrible misery, please!
T.) Would I know what the hell I was doing in England? Are there all kinds of little things that I don't know about the customs of the country, that would make me have to learn the wolrd all over again, as if I was a little baby again? Yes.
U.) Is all this worth it, just t see A big clock tower, and a drawbridge? No.
V.) Would I be confused by just about everything around me, everything I saw, at all times? Yes.
W.) Would I be able to put up with CurtSibling? No.
X.) Would I know anything about the European economy, how to find a good job, how to invest, what companies are there, etc., and billions of other questions I don't have the answers to? No, how could I.
Y.) Would I, in desperation, try to swin back to the U.S., if I had no other way but that, or die trying? Yes.
Z.) Would the English women be intersted in me? Not if I was broke, unemployed, clueless, in prison all the time for breaking laws I don't know about, homeless, etc.
A2.) Would I feel like I was an alien, on a different planet, like from around Alpha Centauri? Yes.
E.T. phone home!
B2.) Am I going to really repeat the whole alphabet? No.
C2.) Do you get my point? I hope so.
D2.) Are there 10 billion more things I could list, if I wasn't getting tired of typing? Yes.
...but,
the final question:
E2.) Would I, if I was still in active duty, go over there with my fellow American service members, if there was a war, ass to kick, etc.? Absolutely! But then we'll come right back home, because I have no business being over there. It's a different... everything. No thanks.
My home is here, and the only way that will change, is if things get intolerable. But, as it would turn out - I have it better here than I would anywhere else. Plus, I know this place. I know how to talk to the people, find jobs, get around, do stuff, fit in, get what I need/want, family is here, friends are here, everything I know is here. Everything I DON'T know... is there. So WHY would I want to go there? Eh? I'd be at the mercy of a people that I don't know anything about, other than that they don't like Americans anyway! So, as they say in New York...
fergedda 'baut et. I'm staying here, where it's SAFE!
