Hey everyone

[travelingmonkey]

Hiya. I just wanted to first make a little introduction post. Obviously, I'm the creator/maintainer of this 'ere comm. I have long been using the various comms over on LJ, and I searched and didn't see any here, so I sought to remedy that. If you make one yourself about some other area/aspect of travel, I'd be happy to include it on the info page so we can spread the word around about all the travel-y goodness! ^__^

Anyhow. About me. I'm a female, in my late 20s, American, and enjoying my new life in Europe (and hopeful to be a Belgian citizen in a handful of years). I was bitten by the travel bug early in life, probably due to the fact that every school break my parents would take me on some vacation, whether it was to visit family in the next state, or go to a theme park in sunny Florida, we went somewhere. As a teen, I started having the dream of seeing the rest of the world, outside the US, one day. I didn't fuss over it though, as I didn't really think it would ever happen, and didn't want to be let down about that! But lo & behold, here I am, living in Europe! So, since moving, I have traveled a lot (12 countries & counting!), and will continue my explorations as time goes on. There is not really anywhere in Europe that I wouldn't like to see, and really I'd like to see most of the globe! Only time will tell how far I'll get. ~_^

I think that's probably about all the "important" stuff about me, as pertains to this comm, at least. Feel free to introduce yourself in the comments, and then get posting about Europe! ^___^


Oh, "business" related notes; I will be making tags & tagging guide soon. The rules are in place on the info page, but it's pretty much your standard no-brainer stuff - don't be a dick, tag posts, ask/post relevant stuff, you all know how it goes. Suggestions are always welcome, as are questions. Don't hesitate to contact me on my own journal page with suggestions/questions/comments/anything else, too. Am I forgetting anything?? Let me know!

Comments

[moem]

Ha! No one but an American would speak of living in Europe, or of European citizenship. There is no such animal as a European citizen. You'll have to pic a country :-))
All of that aside, nice comm idea! I'll join, and post some pics of my most recent trip. Activity is good, right?

Anyway, I'm Dutch and I love to travel. See you around!

[travelingmonkey]

...Once I am a Belgian citizen I will, on the larger scale, be a citizen of Europe, of the EU... As of a year and a half ago my Dutch husband is an "EU citizen," which gives him more rights than his Dutch citizenship did. A national of a country in the EU who leaves their country to become a resident elsewhere in the EU, becomes an EU citizen, soooo no, it's not quite how you're saying. Maybe I'm being overly defensive here but to me it sounded like you were being rather derisive of my being an American, and like I have no idea what I'm talking about. I've lived here for a year and a half, I've dealt with the moving & residency process, and I'm not an idiot. =/

[moem]

Yeah, sorry to be starting off on the wrong foot.
The vibe I was going for was 'I'm mildly amused', not 'you're an idiot'. I'm sorry that it came across that way to you.
In my defence: I'm commenting in a foreign language here. I'm sure you know how hard that can be... you must be doing it elsewhere, too?

In the Netherlands, we generally don't use the word 'Europe' to mean 'the EU'.
It's a bit of a problematic word anyway, since it has several different connotations. Europe in a geographical sense is not the same as the EU: different set of countries.
I would have responded differently to 'EU citizen'.

That said, yes, generally speaking Americans do tend to talk about Europe as a whole, whereas we Europeans (ha!) tend to speak of individual countries.
So in my view, your US roots were showing. Is that a bad thing? Not as I see it.
We're all different, and that's okay.

Please don't be mad. You're not being attacked.

[travelingmonkey]

I'm not mad, no worries, was just feeling a bit...OK I can't come up with a good word for it haha, but, like I said, a bit on the defense, since the comment came off being a little derisive, to me. I definitely understand the language issue; my residency stuff is only just now *finally* being completed (gotta love bureaucracy! It's the same worldwide! Slower than a snail!! haha), there were no issues or anything, they just take a million years! So due to how long it took them to complete everything, I haven't formally started learning Dutch yet, but will begin a course in 2 mos, at last! (I imagine I probably could have gone to the Huis van het Nederlands on my own before the appt with the Inburgering office, but I didn't realize that at the time. blah.) So yeah I get the difficulties of trying to express sentiments in a language you're less familiar with, I can't even begin to do that yet! ~_^ That, added to the internet without getting the feel for the attitude things are expressed... totally easy for things to be taken differently than intended.

Annnnnyway ;P
I know the EU =/= Europe, I was just speaking more broadly there, I suppose that's my fault, heh. And yeah I imagine unless the subject was the whole of Europe or the EU, it's more common to speak of an individual country. But because it's so far removed from the US, it's just more natural for Americans to say "I'm going abroad to Europe/Asia/Australia" rather than name a specific location, that tends to come after a little more questioning and whatnot.

[moem]

it's just more natural for Americans to say "I'm going abroad to Europe/Asia/Australia" rather than name a specific location
I know, right? All my US friends do that.

Anyway, it's still a nice comm idea and I'm happy that you started it.

This comm might be relevant to your interests: nederland
It's not active right now, but with the recent flurry of new users, who knows.

Good luck on the bureaucracy and Inburgering fronts!

[travelingmonkey]

Yeah, like I said, I think it's mainly due to the fact that it's so far removed from the US. It's incredibly different (both as a whole, and then each individual country has it's own differences, of course; but countries here are far more similar to each other than they are to the US ...excluding the UK. heh), and across a huge ocean, and everything... so even though we of course know it's comprised of many individual countries, it's just natural to view it as one large foreign thing, until getting more specific. *shrugs*

Thanks ^_^ I've found the travel comms really useful, and I know tons of others have also. When you've never been somewhere before, getting tips from those who have is nearly invaluable! ^^

Ooh, kool, I just joined. Hopefully lots of comms will get active with this new surge of users. ^_^

[yvi]

Ha! No one but an American would speak of living in Europe, or of European citizenship.

Um, really? I certainly do. I think I am pretty much as German as they come. I certainly feel more 'patriotic' about living in Europe than I do about living in Germany.

[travelingmonkey]

My husband, too, feels more that way about the EU/Europe than he does about the Netherlands. I imagine it's a simply personal thing that varies from person to person everywhere. I can definitely say I am much more proud of being a Chicagoan than an American! heh.