#usa vs Europe

[salmonella-destroyer-of-worlds]

[spacemulder]

Long and somewhat rambly post incoming, but I had a bunch of thoughts while driving about a much less talked about difference in driving culture in the USA vs. in Europe (or at least- the countries in Europe I've been in a car in for any significant amount of time, which is admittedly only about a half dozen).

This is doubly apparent nowadays, when there's a lot more Americans in my part of Europe due to war over our eastern border, and I'll occasionally run into "American style" communication way more often.

The main difference is this: American drivers tend to gesture with their bodies to signal, while Europeans tend to gesture with their cars.

YMMV, obviously, and there's some things, like horns, that are obviously universal, but let me explain.

Americans tend to wave at other drivers a lot, regardless of whether you're parallel or perpendicular to one another. There's a thank you hand, there's a little wave for I'm sorry/my bad, there's obviously the finger through the rear windshield.

In Europe, or at least as a mostly European driver, my "body language" while driving a car is totally different. I'm not even sure I'd particularly think to look for whether or not the driver was waving for me, or if I did, if I'd necessarily see it.

How I'd communicate:

Go on ahead/I'll let you merge/you go first = two flicks of the high beams (NOTE: also used by assholes to mean "go faster")

Sorry!/My bad!/Thanks! = putting my hazards on for a couple seconds. This applies both to thanking someone for letting me merge and for apologizing if I fuck up and cut someone off.

The only actual hand signal I'd pay attention for is if I were face to face w/ a driver, at something like a level crossing, or signaling a pedestrian: the little "you go ahead" hand slide.

I'm sure this says something about our wider relationships with vehicles and car culture, but I haven't figured out what yet.

The closest to a real observation I've come to is that Americans treat oncoming vehicles by regarding them as people to engage who happen to be driving a machine, vs Europeans tend to see the entire vehicle more as a unit to engage with as a whole. A car as an "outfit" the driver is wearing vs. the car and driver being a single unit in awareness.

I dunno. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this.

[shower-thoughts-last-responder]

Did anyone one else see that thing on tiktok a while back when some US American came on and said that there weren't more cultural differences between European countries than US states? Her argument being that the distance between European countries wasn't greater than the distance between US states, so they couldn't possibly be that culturally different. A lot of Europeans responded to correct her (some a lot more kindly and genuinely then others) and instead of being like "Oh wow, what a cool insight into these other cultures and the rest of the world" or even "oh wow that's embarrassing, I'll take the video down" she doubled down and said something like "🦅🦅If you think I, as a goddamn 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸American🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 am going to listen to a bunch of Europeans try to tell me anything🦅🦅"

That was quite funny in and of itself, but when a bunch of other US Americans joined in agreeing with her? That, that was the dumbest shit I've ever seen. Like, I absolutely know it's wrong to make assumptions about people based on nationality, but my God, US Americans just can not beat the stupid allegations

one thing I’ve noticed while running an online shop is that Americans never include their country when writing their address.

I don’t mean when filling in online forms, bc that’s obviously a required element. but when emailing me for address changes for orders, they never include a country in the updated address. but I always know the country is the United States of America because literally nobody else around the world would do that.

[avocadosalad]

For context, this comment I’m replying to was on this video, essentially proving OP’s point

[jo-sleepycrow]

Thinking about how in the usa family can teach each other how to drive - imagine Nicky teaching Andrew how to drive:

- Andrew desperately needing a way to get freedom for the first time in his life and Nicky being the one to be able to give him that

- Andrew feeling a bit scared of being in a car after the accident and trying not to shake the first times he sat down, but Nicky giving him time and security to fail and put himself together, allowing him to get the courage to do it.

- Andrew being so determined to learn and Nicky worried if he would be a good teacher

- Andrew picking up some driving habits from Nicky, like bumping his finger to the music or bad mouthing other drivers under his breath

- Nicky being there for him on the day of the exam and being * so proud * of him for having accomplished something he wanted so much!

- Andrew picking up Nicky's favourite fast food on the drive through on the way back home that day, as a thank you

I just love and need more Andrew + Nicky interactions!

[ashotasfireandasdeepastheocean1]

...

.

[bitterfrosts]

Will say tho a lot of European people are sitting there judging America while also simultaneously going through far right political shifts themselves

[linogram]

everyday europeans find new ways to piss me off

[mylyannasnow]

Last night my boyfriend and I were talking about children and pregnancy while I was looking at my period app and I realised something. My cycle is normally 34 days, it is actually very often even longer, going to even 40 days sometimes. That is what's normal for me, so if my period was late I wouldn't even think of taking a pregnancy test until day 45ish. If the test came back positive, because of how pregnancy is measured, I would already be 6 weeks pregnant and it would be illegal for me to have an abortion in 20 USA states.

[babygirl1841]

On the first night you saved me from anxiety and sadness, helping me out when I almost had tears in my eyes.

On the second night you made me laugh and smile and tingle and most importantly, taught me some important things.

However, one of those things isn't soccer. It'll forever be football and any good football fan knows that. And we are not talking about American football here ;)

How has it only been a few days...

[mfelewzi]

Visitare la città più OBESA d'America

You can find English subtitles.

It's a bit old this video, but I have to say to all americans: Is It correct?

Yes, It isn't my usually post, but I find very important this subject, cause here in Europe could take a similar way for the poor people.

[ttvidarchive]

I love looking at tourists fashion !

[unorco]

[head-post]

Elon Musk calls for peace talks amid risks of World War III outbreak

The head of former Twitter S stated that World War III could arise either because of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip or because of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Musk spoke out about the world situation on his platform X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.

We need to figure out peace in Ukraine, and I think we need to restore normal relations with Russia.

The billionaire called preventing war a key priority of global politics.

“World War III is a civilizational risk that we may not recover from, so we need to prioritize avoiding World War III; that’s what actually matters. And not what happened in World War I and have a regional conflict rapidly become a global conflict.”

Read more HERE

[pazziville]

because i adore pazzi to the bone and have them on my mind 24/7/365 i shall present my pazzi roman empire list

part two here!

pazzi state fair tradition

azzi's mom liking a post about pazzi and paige

azzi greeting jon a hbd ft. paige

azzi saying paige has a great heart

paige lockdown defense aka hugging azzi

pazzi reserved 💗 for each other compilation

azzi calling out for paige

pazzi horseback riding

paige being touchy to azzi while playing with kids

azzi's lock screen that is allegedly paige (other angle)

the ornament

drake concert

paige is a fudd confirmed

azzi's amazing nap with paige

pazzi bench getty images

paige being azzi's number one fan and the president of azzi fudd fan club

infamous ice live ft. pazzi

europe air

pazzi touchy moment near the bench

matching for halloween (video clip)

paige calling azzi bighead

paige's crush

down bad in europe

paige being a menace while azzi studies

azzi annoying paige after their cool handshake

paige watching azzi with a baby

taking the fair to paige

matching/borrowing of necklace pt. 1

azzi twerking in front of paige

allegedly jealous azzi

iconic 'wife' clip

paige one sided staring contest with azzi

the goddamn sza concert wherein paige allegedly looked at azzi in the lyric 'i don't wanna see you with anyone but me'

team paige or team azzi

team doing a tiktok and paige allegedly pointing at azzi and looking at her during the lyric 'i'm saying that i love you everyday'

lifting clip

totally unnecessary holding of hands

sharing of clothes pt. 1

europe boat together

ice suspiciously smiling when paige mentions azzi

no one can stop them from teasing each other

matching shorts

together before mavs vs celtics game 2

paige staring at azzi hard

azzi saying it's good that paige isn't scared of the dark cause she is

compilation of interactions for team usa u17 part 1 part 2 part 3

paige sleeping in azzi's bed [video]

cruise clip

moments during 2018 girl's capital classic all-star game at st john's

lowkey flexing each other

paige fixing whatever was on azzi's outfit during the wnba draft

taking photos of each other

them in each other's ig comments

THE pazzi hug

crazy eye contact in sue bird's show

matching pants

young azzi slapping paige's forehead

azzi staring lovingly at paige

azzi wearing pazzi slam shirt and covering paige's face with a sticker

paige hovering over azzi while she works out

sleeping on the couch

her partner in crime

paige in azzi's tiktok comments

azzi's relationship with paige's family (another one)

azzi spanking paige

paige's eyes are glued to azzi

paige favorite a semi-pazzi edit

young pazzi enjoying a party together

matching/borrowing of necklace pt. 2

azzi hugging paige's mom

reading in front of kids

airport fetus pictures

camping

princess was rizzed

borrowing/matching clothes pt. 2

paige grabbing azzi for a hug

factimes

azzi trolling paige's reading ability

matching outfit

a bueckers bantering with a fudd

gentlewoman paige

soft pat pats

borrowing/matching clothes pt. 3

story of the olaf lego [one] [two] [three] [service]

paige heart eyes

azzi heart eyes

part of the family

azzi speechless after looking at paige [backup]

since i've hit the link limit in this post, time to make a second list which i'll be linking in this post! 💗

a/n: submissions of worthy pazzi roman empire moments will be accepted and shall be continuously added to this list. 🫶🏼

[kedreeva]

Okay, I haven't wanted to talk much about the peafowl lately, been just kinda dealing with Stan's passing, but! I have news I don't want to keep quiet, so here we go with a little announcement.

I've been helping a friend of mine with a bunch of peafowl genetics work lately, as he's trying to prove out a really neat phenotype of speckled and white peafowl that showed up in his breeding stock, and he just spent tens of thousands of dollars importing two new morphs from Europe: European violet (aka, my dream morph) and Ultramarine (pretty and only otherwise being produced by TWO breeders in the WORLD). When Bill heard about Stan, he asked if I was going to go to a large farm auction that's a few hours from my house. I don't, normally, since it's a few hours from my house and the auctions usually make me kinda sad when it comes to peafowl (they stress out SO MUCH) even though it's cool to see how much they're going for at a wider audience auction.

Then he told me he would be going, and that if I wanted to come down the day before the auction, he'd bring me another male, to replace Stan. I had already made plans to hang onto Bismuth, at least for a few years, and to pick up babies from Indie x Arcana/Eclipse this november, including a male, so I didn't really need another male, and don't have the cash for one anyway. He said no, he meant one of the split EUV males from last year's first-USA breeding. For free. As a thank you for helping him.

To put this into perspective, importing the birds is a ~$10k affair, per bird. I had fully resigned myself to never even SEEING one of these birds in person, much less ever owning one. Even if someone else got them imported, they would remain thousands of dollars for the first few years, and quickly become mixed with other stuff, potentially even be lost by people breeding to purple. He went in on a group import with another breeder and they have both just started selling the full-color birds for over $2k apiece (alongside Ultramarine, which before their import was bred by TWO people in the WORLD, and babies from that are going for almost $7k each, but EUV is more widely spread). Splits (like the one I will be getting) are being let go for $750. This is also the color I have desperately wanted since I first saw them 8-10 years ago (though I believe they've been around slightly longer), but that I had resigned myself to never actually having.

To put it mildly, I'm probably going to burst into tears when I see Bill and this bird. It's going to be super embarrassing. And then I'm going to have to build more pens. And then I'm going to have to get as plain-blue, pure-indian blue hens as I can find, and become one of the most serious curators of plain pure EUV in the US, because I know the other two who have them currently will be outcrossing to other patterns/colors immediately and the people buying them will likely be doing the same, and everyone will be clamoring to make them into high Spaldings ASAP, or won't know not to cross them to purples and wreck the color.

Here's the sire cock, the one imported:

You will notice that this bird is purple in full sun, from the sunny side. That's the main difference between European violet and US purple- a US purple looks blue until you get the right angle on the sun vs the bird vs the camera, and you have to get the bird between you and the sun, so the purple is often in the shadow side- visible to the eye but not the camera. EUV is just purple. Even from the sunny side!!

And the Ultramarine, in case you were wondering about their color:

(pics reposted w/ permission from Bill)

The breeder is Spring Creek Peafowl, and in case anyone is secretly a peafowl breeder or knows other peafowl breeders with too much money that want in on a new color morph, he DOES have UM pairs and EUV hens (and more split males) for sale currently, for less than the only other person in the US that has them. They're still pricey, but cheaper. I WISH I had the extra to have my friend add on an EUV hen, but alas, I will have to wait to make my own in a few years. Even just the opportunity to do so is something I never expected to have!