After 2mths in espana, things in a typical supermercado in France seem very expensive to me. A small sandia for €8 vs a big one for €4-5 in espana. Maybe I am too poor to visit cote d azur
That's definitely subjective. Europe has nice chicas but they're typically in the East. Personality-wise it's a minefield over there though. I thought southern Spain was particularly sad in this aspect. Asia is far ahead, chica-heaven to continue with your terminology. But you are correct that due to unhealthy lifestyles, many age faster than in Europe.
When I brought my doggy from japan, I thought the japanese agency was inefficient for taking 1hr to fill 5-6 forms. Now I have been waiting for 2+hours in barcelona for the relevant agency to fill 1 form. I can't take Spainish efficiency anymore, happy to be leaving
Glad to be back in a developed country after 3 months in spain, which I have come to view as a marginally developed country like greece/cyrus/morocco/turkey. Had to take a late flight and waited in barcelona airport from 10pm-12am, many apparently non-travelling low-income locals (semi-homeless) hang out and sleep there at night (maybe for the free AC), pretty depressing and wonderful the airport doesn't care homeless people using its space
How come I don't see anything as trashy and terrible in a developed country like Netherlands as I saw in spain/italy? This part of Europe is what I expected for a developed EU country, not 3rd world spain
I live in Belgium myself, here and in the Netherlands the "problem" isn't as wide spread, yet, however there are some areas better to be avoided, up until a few weeks ago a large group of refugee's took over a part of the train station in Brussels North, camped there for multiple weeks, peeing, smoking, ... everywhere inside, harassing other people, ... Another area to avoid is Calais in northern France, i am sure there are some problem areas in the Netherlands as wel but for now here they can contain it somewhat and even if there are some issues, like for example with this warmer weather there are a lot of issues at public pools and lakes where you can swim, always with the same groups of people, but they rather ignore it than do something about it. Another "large" problem is that "we" are forced to change our traditions for these refugees because some of them might be offended, for example there are a lot of very nice Christmas markets all over the EU during december, but now in Belgium we are going to call them Winter markets because some people don't like Christmas and that"s just one example of many. No wonder votes are going more and more to the right wings all over Europe. Politicians are only protecting there own jobs and fear that if they act to hard they will be seen as racists and lose votes next election. The situation is unsustainable as it is right now, it will get out of control. Most of these refugees coming to Europe aren't running from war or violence but are hoping to get money and a house, all for nothing. The problem is there are way to many people coming over, a few Belgian politicians even made a video a while back targeted at Moroccan people who are thinking about coming to Belgium to "please reconsider" ... I mean, like that's going to work.
Reading this thread is kind of funny, you present as almost the stereotypical Asian who thinks that math, science, and perfect SAT scores are what get one ahead in life, and creativity is something easy to teach a kid who spent the first 18 years of their life cramming for the SAT. The funny thing is that top schools in the U.S., even top engineering schools in the U.S. like Stanford are quite proud of how many perfect SAT score perfect GPA students they reject every year in favor of kids that have demonstrated the ability to think broadly and synthesize information which you can really only do with a broad based background. The true irony is that Asia is turning out so many quant aces that it's pretty cheap for us creative folks who build businesses to simply hire them to do the tough quant work without having to share any equity, something I've experienced first hand. My kids have a solid background in math and science, as do I. That's a necessary but not sufficient requirement for success beyond just a 9-5 solid job. What will get them ahead, and certainly what got me ahead, was an ability to think creatively and a huge range of experiences which make that much easier. And based on my experience, that's nearly impossible to teach someone who had a very narrow, technical focus for the formative first two decades of their life. If your kids actually are savant level math or science types, then by all means they can and should focus nearly exclusively on that. If not, anything beyond a solid background is doing them a disfavor. And by the way, some people enjoy music. And sports. And other things that have nothing to do with a single minded obsession with success. Maybe those banker friends are on to something?
Was it because the notes wouldn t be recognized by the machine and might be fake or the shops just didn't t accept 500euros notes? Cash use in France has been going noticeably downhill in just a few years. Shop keepers and other business owners get a lot of questions it seems from their bank over each 500notenote (a couple of friends there related how it got worse recently) and even smaller businesses now need to abide to the cash transaction limits in France, including luxury hotels where Parisians just a few years back used to spend their undeclared cash on lavish vacations/week ends. Germany and Switzerland seem much more cash friendly at the moment, and last I checked they still didn't have limits on cash transactions( i think the max transaction amount is between 1000and 1500 euros when it involves local residents in France and Spain) That s one reason I enjoy visiting Germany and Switzerland, hate getting a hard time when trying to pay cash