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[DeathDude]

Yeah I'm shocked as well when I hear from some Americans, who still believe that Canada is mostly igloos, snow all the time, cold weather etc.... It's annoying to say the least, thankfully that stereotype is slowly disappearing so that'a good thing.

[TheVoid]

Originally posted by R Havell+Apr 6 2005, 01:25 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (R Havell @ Apr 6 2005, 01:25 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> It does irritate me when Americans say Ben Franklin invented electricity, it was Ampere and Voltare - Italians! [/b]

Ampére was a French scientist who made fundamental discoveries on Electromagnetism.

Alessandro Volta was an Italian physician, the first one to build a working battery, called Pila di Volta(Volta's battery).

And now, yay! Going for other nations' oddities.

1- I find it weird that people put pineapples on pizza. This is just wrong.
2- I find odd the butter-on-sandwiches thing. When I spent 10 days in Germany in student-exchange, every sandwich had butter in it. I have to admit they didn't taste bad, but heck.
3- I think mayonnaise on french fries or chips or fried stick potatoes is quite weird, but they do it even in Italy. I'm a barbecue sauce lover, tho.
4- I find it odd that Americans and LOTS of people around the world are able to eat by McDonalds more than once a week. I think it's just insane. And btw last time I went to a McDonalds was three/four years ago.
5- I find it weird the fact that British rarely (or never) clean their moquettes. I may be wrong here since I've never been to UK myself, but 96% of people I know were there and told that can't be ALL wrong.
6- I find it weird that in many foreign countries there isn't a bidet in the bathroom/toilet (e.g. in France)
7- Tubular pillows. I have experienced them in Germany and France, we use rectangular ones so I wasn't used to it. They're not bad.
8- <!--QuoteBegin-taikara @ Feb 7 2005
Jeez, what do they feed Italians? blink.gif

When I went to Italy, everybody looked like a supermodel, just walking down the street like it was normal to be ridiculously attractive without trying.[/quote] are Italians so well considered abroad? Weee.
9- I find it odd and personally cruel that Japanese eat whales and other sea mammalians such as seals.
10- Peanut butter.
11- That black water they brew in America and dare calling "coffee".
12- I find it weird that Icelanders eat puffins. Puffin eats puffins as well.

Nothing yet comes to my mind at the moment.

But to Tai for such an interesting thread!! k:

[Omuletzu]

I don't get many things from over the ocean.From political issues to social ones, many many things puzzle me... America is an interesting country, to say the least...
First off, what's with those american jokes? I mean i'm watching a comedy, and all of the sudden, the character makes a comparison with someone i have never heard before.I realise that the person may be famous in the states, but still movies are universal, and should be so in their jokes also..
Second, i don't understand why 95% of the college attendants in America have/are consumed/consuming drugs... i mean god it's 95%... for all we know, the principal could smoking something in between lessons...

[Evad]

Originally posted by Zarkumo+Apr 6 2005, 05:42 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Zarkumo @ Apr 6 2005, 05:42 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-R Havell@Apr 6 2005, 11:24 AM
Actually, Pizza was invented by Italians who had immigrated to America...

Do you seriously believe this? Pizza has been around in Italy itself for centuries man! There have been pizzerie as we know them today in Napoli since the beginning of the 19th century.

How come Americans think they have invented everything? Ford did NOT invent the car, he invented the belt conveyor and was therefore able to produce cars at an insane speed (for the time). The car itself was invented by German Daimler. Ferrari is an Italian and Porsche a German brand, they are not American.

When I spent a year in at a US high school people kept asking me whether we had electricity in Europe. Someone claimed we only eat bread cause we didn't have any vegetables.

Oh yeah, and French fries (also known as freedom fries ) come from Belgium, not France!

And why are the British so obsessed with Hitler? It emebarrassed the living muck out of me when I was in England (Bolton) and people kept asking me whether Hitler was still politically active and whether I would vote for him in elections. They talked about him infront of me, they must have thought Germans today still see a great leader and a great German in him, like as if we would take pride in that shitbag. [/b][/quote]
um..isn't hitler dead?

[Rogue]

Puffin eats puffins too? :blink:

Omelutzu, not sure where you got that statistic, but trust me that it does not look like that. Most of the students I know do not consume drugs. I believe that ratio might be close or eaqual to any west european contry.

Mayonnaise taste indeed good on french fries, same as ketchup.

What the heck is remoulade? :blink:

As for electricity, people were able to reproduce and use it before those 'discoveries'. (they used grape's accid to create some sort of bateries)

I hate 50Hz television. (PAL system)

[Evad]

Originally posted by Anubis@Apr 6 2005, 06:31 AM
Electricity is a bit older then that... It was used for plating metal...

ancient Greeks no?

[Flop]

Originally posted by Anubis@Apr 6 2005, 05:38 PM
What the heck is remoulade?* :blink:

Here is a link I found to a recipe

And here is a picture:



It looks good, right? Riiiight?

[Rogue]

Originally posted by Evad+Apr 6 2005, 10:40 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Evad @ Apr 6 2005, 10:40 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Anubis@Apr 6 2005, 06:31 AM
Electricity is a bit older then that... It was used for plating metal...

ancient Greeks no? [/b][/quote]
Greeks discovered static electricity around 500 BC.

But the one I was referring to is when it was first used. There is some profe of so called Baghdad Batteries, and it was used somewhere between 250BC and 640AD.

EDIT:
Flop,
I am able to get most of European food here. Will check for this one, as it looks interesting. Thank you!

Rescently bought wassabi mayo. It goes well with french fries.

[Zarkumo]

Originally posted by TheVoid@Apr 6 2005, 03:25 PM
6- I find it weird that in many foreign countries there isn't a bidet in the bathroom/toilet (e.g. in France)

1 I'm not an expert on this kind of stuff, but heard from people who sould know (medicine students) that bidets are actually counterproductive or in some other way not good for the vaginal flora or something. So maybe it's weird that you still have them? :blink:

2 What are moquettes? Can't find it in my dictionary...

3 Yes, Hitler is dead. Like most of the Nazi elite, he couldn't face the consequences of his actions and shamefully took his own life.

4 Chips with ketchup AND mayonnaise ("Pommes Rot-Weiss") are awesome! especially in combination with a lovely currywurst!

5 What's so confusing is that some words mean completely different things in American and British English. (e.g. fanny) :blink:

[Kon-Tiki]

Well, with the car-thing, I meant to get the mail from the mailbox, to visit somebody down the street, etc.

As for calling fries French fries... what the heck's up with that, indeed? 's Not like it's haute cuisine... which's something I don't get either. How can anybody seriously concider a giant plate with a minuscule drop of mashed potatoes or steak concider that a whole meal and pay three times as much as a real, full meal?

And why's it that Americans think they're funny if they start yelling at the part that's supposed to be funny? Or, when they come to other, non-English speaking countries, they yell at the people, pronouncing every word s l o w l y? And why don't German tourists have any dignity, and why do they let them run loose?

@the pizza thing... From what I've heard, they used to eat pizzas back in the ancient Roman empire at births, the pizza representing the placenta.

Edit: I forgot to mention... I think there aren't bidets 'round that much cause toddlers tend to pee in them. I know I lived my first five years in an old house which still had a bidet... and I remember frequently peeing in it, not knowing it was for something else. The potty was too high for me back then, anyways. Now who wants to use a bidet when they know there's kiddypee in there?