Quote:
Originally Posted by devilsadvocate
Makes sense; I would like to think that's why I couldn't tell the difference between Perth and Melbourne if you paid me. On the other hand, if I visited each for a reasonable period of time, I'm sure there would be a distinct "feel" about each of them that of course cannot be described. U.S. cities are all over the place on that; NYC, Chicago, LA, Dallas, Washington DC, Miami...in fact it just dawned on me now that it's also geographically related. That'd make it tough to draw any direct comparisons between cities in Oz and the States which is interesting because it appears to me from those I've met thus far that Aussies seem more like Americans in demeanor than people from any other country with whom I've spoken at length.
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I've heard that before, yes (most often from Texans, FWIW). When I visited the US in 2000, what struck me was the variation in geography (Australia has vast swathes of similarity), but also that, whereas Australia is made up of states, with regional differences such that few could distinguish whether someone is from South Australia or Queensland (including Australians...Strine doesn't vary all that much from state to state), the US was what it said on the label: a whole lot of separate states that had united. This may seem blindingly obvious to you, but to me it was...enlightening. It changed my viewpoint of the US (I'm not talking qualitative at all...just the way I saw it). It was quite fascinating, seeing the states almost as sub-nations, with their own separate ways and powers. It shot down forever any simplistic notion of seriously starting a sentence with "Americans are..." (again, not qualitative...just those times where generalizations, useful or likely otherwise, might occur). One might as well say "Europeans/Africans/et cetera are...". There might be some generalization (useful or likely otherwise) that may cross your individual state borders, but the differences that got in the way of that...wonderful!
And you are of course right about city-differences here. I'm a (ex-) Sydney boy, and will likely always be. I've visited other city capitals, but I like Sydney best...which I couldn't say without the differences, I guess. I've no desire to move back now (seachange...it changes you, as it should
) but I still love to visit.
FWIW I somewhat visited Seattle, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Disney World (it was bloody enormous! so I'm calling it a city
). I loved Seattle. I couldn't say much about Detroit or Philly due to briefness (though we stayed in the "woods" some hours north of Detroit...beautiful, and we didn't stop driving through Valley Forge but I wish we did because it was great but instead we spent all day at a boring dog show but that's another story). I missed out on New York (part of that other story).
Shout out to my Canadian friends....Vancouver is brilliant.
Cheers,
Marc