As a north american who lives in Europe, agreed. However, the gypsies do not help their own case. They show up in my region every summer, illegally camp wherever they want on private property, and leave huge piles of trash wherever they’ve been. I’ve personally seen them getting into all sorts of debauchery, including breaking into people’s mail boxes and stealing bikes in plain sight. I have nothing against them and I’m sure their culture is extremely rich and interesting, but no one has the inherent right to just rip off the rest of society without consequences. Also, of course they aren’t all stealing and misbehaving, but I understand where people’s preconceived notions come from.

You must be fun at parties.

Totally. I forgot all about expanded tryna, as I almost never hear it outside of television. You may be on to something there.

This might be a regional difference, but when I say it out loud, ‘tryna not kill myself’ is by far the more natural construction. But I agree that in writing, ‘trying not to kill myself’ feels more natural, while ‘trying to not kill myself’ feels stilted and intentionally awkward. Man I love language.

I guess the joke is on me, I’ve had a sinus infection or something for like a month so my nose is always either running, or clogged. Sometimes both at the same time!

Couldn’t agree more. Destroying our planet faster just so people don’t have to write their own emails seems insane to me. Google literally wants to use private nuclear reactors to power their AI projects… Do people really think that won’t be expensive, both economically and climate-wise?

My brother and I quote this money to this day, such a classic.

“How could he see me?”

Inyalowda!

Mine does that too. It’s usually only for around 20 seconds, so it doesn’t really bother me.

I did the opposite lol.

No, good guess though!

This is all excellent advice, especially regarding France. Where I live, which is only 20 minutes from Geneva, you’d be lucky to find anyone outside larger towns who can speak English confidentially. And forget about it if you have an accent other than very standard British or American.

Europeans in general appreciate the small things in life much more than Americans. Like everyone has already said, try and relax and take it all in, rather than rush from place to place trying to cram as much as possible into your trip. Have that second glass of wine, or that dessert that looks amazing, or even that afternoon nap after a long lunch. Trust me, you remember those moments just as fondly as the big ones.

As an Anglophone who lives in France, I agree. Although where I live (east / south-east) English is not very widely spoken, even in bigger cities, but the people are generally very friendly.

Guitar pedals. My collection is fairly modest (20-30 pedals) but I have some neat pieces, like a couple Japanese Boss pedals from the 80’s. They are functional so I don’t feel like it’s a waste of space per se. Also they look cool, so there’s that.

Mildly on topic: I recently moved to France from Canada, I’m not an EU citizen, and google isn’t really sure if I’m on vacation or if I’ve moved permanently.

Every single website now asks me about cookie settings. Most have a reject all button, but occasionally I have to manually uncheck some sliders to protect my data. Time well spent.

My parents back in Canada always think it’s some voodoo magic when Facebook shows them ads about stuff they’ve recently been 'talking about (AKA searching on Google.) Duhhh. Thanks EU!