Sunbathing in the USA
Picture this…
It’s 12.30pm. It’s 95 degrees at the pool.
Everyone is in the shade or in the pool.
Except one crazy person. Yep, that’s right. Slathered in factor 100 (with coconut oil), lusting after the sun’s hot and steamy rays there lies one British expat, with salty sweat dripping in her eyes… yep, it’s me!
It’s lush and hot!
And why not, hey?!
Who loves the USA?
I put a shout out to my American friends to get a sense of how they feel about their country. This is Melissa’s honest and passionate response.
Melissa is also an Anglophile, and she’ll be sharing her love of the funny old Brits here soon too. Melissa writes the blog Smitten by Britain, and shares a passion of all things UK.
But she still keeps in check that the US is definitely her country, and that there is a real sense of pride in being an American citizen.
Here’s Melissa’s top five…
Why I love the USA and others should love it too!
1. The Sense of Optimism – We really are taught from a small age that we can do whatever we want and be whomever we want. Anything is possible! Maybe it’s because I grew up in this environment but I admire people who to dare to dream and then not let anyone’s opinion hold them back from achieving that dream. We tend to be a very hopeful nation, even in our darkest days, we know the sun will rise again.
2. Variety is the Spice of Life – Take your pick, the United States just about has it all geographically – beaches, mountains, deserts, plains, rolling green countryside and even frozen tundra.
3. Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free – America is known as a melting pot and even though some of us believe illegal immigration has gotten out of hand, it’s still a pretty cool feeling to know that we are seen by many as the promise land.I personally dig multiculturalism and feel the influence of different ethnic groups throughout our history is one of the things that has made this country great.
4. Ingenuity – I think as far as science and technology goes, we’re pretty forward thinking. I mean, we invented the Internet right? 😉
5. Hospitality – Overall, we’re pretty darn nice and welcoming compared to many places in the world. If you’re British, Irish or Australian, you’ll win us over at “ello!” or “G-day!” Heck, you may even wind up on the cover of Howard County Magazine. 😉 And even though our customer service skills have taken a nose dive in the last couple of decades, I would still be more wiling to complain about a lousy dinner in a US restaurant than a British one.
ukdesperatehousewifeusa 
glad you are using sunscreen while basking!
😉
Sorry, but Americans didn’t invent the internet! It is credited to Tim Berners Lee who is BRITISH! Thats why he was honoured at the opening ceremony of the Olympics…..
Oh!
Sorry Fiona, but you’re mistaken. Berners-Lee invented HTML and the World Wide Web. That is different than the Internet. Please see my comment below.
Berners-Lee referenced in the Opening Ceremony as the creator of the World Wide Web, not the Internet. I believe the confusion is caused by people who do not understand the difference. “Sir Tim Berners Lee – known by many as “Father of the World Wide Web” – is honored by being mentioned in the opening ceremony,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjXc-KiIHP4
Great video! And then you get silly sausages like me who confuse it even further by calling it the endearing name of ‘Interweb’ 🙂
Clarie, or G.W. who called it “the Internets.”
Was just surfing the web and happened to stumble on this article by an Aussie living in the U.S. in point #16 she says “The US has the best internet in the world. And why not, since they invented it.” 🙂
http://www.confiscatedtoothpaste.com/australian-living-in-the-usa/
😉
Not quite so sure America is know as the “promise land” anymore… with it still underlying racism, shootings by the dozen a day and broken economy…… I’ve noticed people are emigrating more and more to Aus or NZ or anywhere but America. 😦 And sorry but America is NOT as advanced as you think, especially where technology is concerned…… I learnt this first hand moving here from England – Phones, appliances we’re way behind England.
How were phones and appliances way behind England? I find it really hard to believe that appliances were behind England, especially since in the late eighties, when I lived in England, I had a refrigerator half the size of a U.S. one (and they’re quite common in England today), a cooker half the size of an American one, no automatic dishwasher (they were virtually unheard of in homes) and even today you find the washer/dryer combos that take absolute ages to finish a load of laundry. So do please tell me how England’s appliances are more advanced?
And phones? I assume you mean mobile phones? Motorola (U.S.) was the first company to produce a handheld mobile phone. The first Smartphone was invented by IBM in 1992 or 93 and it was called “Simon.” And this was quite a while before Apple and the iPhone, another U.S.
Now on to immigration…
” About 13% of the world’s adults — or more than 640 million people — say they would like to leave their country permanently. Roughly 150 million of them say they would like to move to the U.S. — giving it the undisputed title as the world’s most desired destination for potential migrants since Gallup started tracking these patterns in 2007.”
http://www.gallup.com/poll/153992/150-million-adults-worldwide-migrate.aspx
No country is perfect, they all have their issues including the UK which also has problems with racism, crime and a broken economy, but for many people around the world living in war torn countries, or with poorer standards of living and fewer freedoms, the U.S. is still the most popular choice.
Wrong! The internet was invented by an Englishman!
😉
Wrong! The World Wide Web was invented by an Englishman. That is different than the Internet. See my comment below.
The internet was created by Americans for the sole purpose of coordinating our nuclear retaliation strike against USSR during the Cold War. It facilitated a nation-wide war response that had to be immediately and extremely accurate.
America mostly is responsible for computerizing the world, not Europe, Russia, or Great Britain. That is why US (and not many other countries) has world-renowned corporations like Google, Microsoft, and IBM.
Americans came up with the concept of what we know as the internet in about 1961 when Tim Berners-Lee was 6 years old. The initial idea of an internet-like mechanism had been around in the US since the 1940’s, mostly in the military & pentagon. What Tim Berners-Lee invented was html, or hyperlinks, which he called the World Wide Web. That was in about 1991. His contribution was extremely important but he most certainly did not invent the internet.
This topic has proved rather controversial!!
And Jane’s reply is spot on!
Thank you Jane for your response and setting everyone here straight on this issue. (I knew it would be a conversation starter, hence the wink!)
As a I.T.person myself for the last 25 years (my career began as a computer tech with the U.S. military), I know full well the difference between the infrastructure that created the Internet and the World Wide Web, which is the interface (written with the HTML that Berners-Lee invented) that allows us to all utilize the Internet in amazing ways.
The History of the Internet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet