Fast food is a bit different in my country. We have pizza and burgers (pizza is popular, hamburger not so much) but the three undisputed kings of fast food are: falafel, shwarma, and humus. Falafel is veggie balls deep fried and shoved into a pita with tehina humus French fries (or is it freedom fries now?) and an assortment of toppings. Shwarma is the same as falafel but instead of veggie balls it's roosted meat. Humus is... well i like Adam sandler's description: "a delicious Diarrhea like substance."
Falafels are pretty good. When I was in Israel in '96 I went to a mall, and we had Burger King! It was almost the same. The fries tasted different because they tend to use olive oil, where we use grease. But it was still good. My fav was the bread in Israel. Any bread I had there was totally awesome! (I love bread, can you tell?)
Well, it can either be vegetable oil, or some other stuff I prolly don't want to think about. We use a variety of oils for frying in the US, conola, peanut, etc. I am hoping that none of it is actually lard or something, but it still makes me think sometimes....LOL
Our chips are fried in sunflower oil Huh, (thought I'd chip in here..) - they've taken over the world! Like a bloody Starbucks on every street. Or a McDonalds in each sodding city, even the small town in France we go to 'le fast-food' has plonked itself down to stay!
I'm going to be honest here. I have a tendency to go into detail when I'm asked that question, but I'll try and not do that here. I don't much like the 'modern' America that preaches about rights and humanity, then goes and acts against those rights, pretends to be in control of the rights of nations and countries to exist, especially now its fun in the sun is coming to an end. I don't like hypocrisy, especially not hypocrisy that results in deliberate ethnic cleansing, cultural oppression, and ineffective wars that always bring accusations of genocide. I fully sympathise with the moral code on which America was founded, and with the people who founded it, but I highly doubt it was ever practiced by the people. I know they're not the entirety, but I am reasonably sure that ignorant, racist conservatives are a large group, and things such as this (www.thestar-spangledbanner.webs.com) are scattered across the entire Internet. I have a negative opinion of America for various reasons. A very negative opinion. No country is perfect, but few pretend they are. Even fewer pretend to be perfect looking down from bomb debris. Sure, Obama has tried to change that image of America, but it's too little, too late. He's going to have to do a lot of work, and quickly.
The right wing conservatives are becoming a minority here, thankfully. Hell, the republican party is on the verge of collapse thanks to that fact.
True, but at least this means we're getting rid of one of the two major parties. Now maybe one of the other parties can step up to the plate, like the libertarians or maybe we could get more independent candidates into offices.
I vote a social-democrat party makes a place for itself in the American political scene. Libertarians are, frankly, idiotic with the emphasis on unregulated capitalism. And we really have no true leftist parties, as noted by our resident Brits. The Dems are just centrists and anyone who seems to have an inkling of leftist thought is crushed by the amazing backlash that the very mention of the word "socialism" (and its derivatives) seems to court.
I think we would be better off with all the parities gone, and a normal American was president. I think it would be great to get back to the original foundation of our government, and forget all the things that control our politicians, like donations and all that stuff. Could you imagine having a president that loves the US, and won't bend to everyones whim, just so that he can stay in office longer, and get more votes. But to actually do what is best and right for the American people? Never gonna happen, but would be great to see.
Political stuff makes me want to hang myself. We are so rapped up in it's mumbo jumbo we forget about wha'ts important- the love my friends. LOVE ONE ANOTHER!
The public transportion is pretty good within the major cities. In Boston, the 'T' is the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority), operating a network of bus routes and rail transport throught Boston and its immediate suburbs. The MBTA also supports a Commuter Rail network covering the eastern third of the state, but the coverage is much sparser. There are also high speel Accela trains that run commuters back and forth between Boston and New York City. and Boston's South Station is a major terminal on the nationwide Amtrak passenger railway system.
We have a great transportation network, though a busy one. Buses, are still the most popular sytem of transportation. We have an extensive system of road routes. The whole country is connected by a Natiotional Highway and State Highways mettaled roads and a department(P.W.D, my Dad works for it), which keeps everything in order. In a vast country like India, roads provide the most efficient means of transportation. In the remote corners where rail network cannot access or airline operations are few and far between, buses ply over the roads to reach there. Buses in India carry a large number of passengers and prove cheaper than private cars. Being a huge country, railways are a compulsion since majority of raw materials are transported through them. We have one of the largest networks of the world. According to me Geography book(Rita Rajen):IR owns over 200,000 (freight) wagons, 50,000 coaches and 8,000 locomotives. It's controlled by the Government of India. Also the metropolitan cities all have metro trains, a real cheap, and clean way of going around the cities. Trains can be one the cheapest sytem of transport, though tiring. If you're travelling from Dehradun to Chennai alone it'll take you at least two days of travelling.! International airports of India are found in 15 places in India,and travelling is as affordable as for any other country. On the other hand, most urban places have national irports...the last decade esp. has seen a large boom. It's good for public transport because the costs are quite low, any person who can afford to travel by A/C coach in trains can easily travel by economic class. Fast and cheap, though a bit busy. Then we have ships. India being a land of many rivers, ships here are especially used for transportation....and exporting and importing. The coastline in the South is quite long, and we have many ports. In the North, it's the tributaries and Distributaries of Ganga and Yamuna that allow for easy transporting, thus allowing for the transfer of bulky raw materials like coal etc. for iron and steel industry. Waterways here, almost are at par with the ones in Bangladesh(which are the most developed).
We don't have any local train transportation. They have special rides once in awhile, but not often. They are talking about the possiblitiy of making passanger trains in Ohio. They want to connect Cleveland and Columbus. It is supposed to cost a lot of money. I don't think it is worth it, because I don't think enough people would use it to make it worth while. People here seem to like to drive their cars. In Zanesville which is actually the closest big place to me, have a bus route set up, but it is mostly for senior citz that can't drive or don't have anyone to take them places. From what I hear that works good. There is also transport buses for people that can't make it to the hospital and Drs appointments by themselves. They have to pay a small fee, and they will run them to and from medical stuff. We also have parking lots called 'Park and Ride', where you car pool with friends or co-workers, so that not everyone has to drive. We have one close to almost each town, along major roads. We have a local railroad (that my hub works for), but they don't do passanger trains (except the Chirstmas thing). They haul metal to recycle, good from any factories that are still open. Take corn and coal to the ethonol and power plants that are local. Unfortunantly most of the factories in the area either are shutting down or cutting back, because of the economy. So the coal and whatnot are the only things keeping the railroad going. The company my husband works for just got bought out by a bigger railroad this past Sept. They are the only railroad that this company owns that is making any money. They are keeping this multi-national railroad afloat, which is pretty sad.
It's easy to get around here with a good system of railways and motorways, and airports in all the major cities. Out East it gets a bit more sparse I guess. People use the coaches most, they are still the best. The attendant still come down the middle of the coach sprinkling cologne even though mostly there's air conditioning, and they stop for meals and tea frequently. It's very modern and comfortable in fact, but travelling in Turkey was more colourful in the old days!
Funny thing, I found out a couple of weeks ago that my great-grandma was a Scot. I knew I was part Scot but I never knew I was a full quarter! The weird thing is that her first language was some Celtic one (It had a weird name but I forget) and apparently she had an accent. This is something I can't remember. She wrote too! She had some short stories published in a magazine. I honestly had no idea that her first language wasn't English! Personally, I believe that English should be everyone's first language because it's the most wundabar language in the world! Although I have a friend who's half-greek. He likes to say random sentences in Greek to remind us all. We, the English-speakers, shun him because he is not ONE OF US. (Stupid, curly haired, four eyed sop.) Although, I don't mind the Irish. They're ok. EDIT: I should like to point out that he's actually one of my best friends, we just like to take the p*** out of his Greek side. What the hell, English humour means taking the mickey out of everyone.
