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Author Topic: What seemed weird when I visited your country  (Read 95732 times)

bhtooefr

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Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
« Reply #200 on: 19 Dec 2013, 07:17 »

You can get a line of credit attached to your bank account, and have overdrafts come out of there instead of having a $35 fee, but it's usually very high interest.
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Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
« Reply #201 on: 19 Dec 2013, 07:23 »

Wow, May- that would have been amazingly helpful when I was a student. Instead, I paid a crapton of money in overdraft fees. Now, I simply see the word "overdraft" and get nervous.  :-\




Maybe this is a reflection of how sad things are over here, but I actually laughed a little at this:

Surely this is only true if you are intending to buy the car or house on credit?


I have never personally known anyone that bought a house with cash and the only people I know that bought cars with cash bought ones that were very inexpensive (and typically their first cars when they were teenagers).
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Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
« Reply #202 on: 19 Dec 2013, 07:37 »

And keep in mind that any car you can find for under like $2000US is probably going to be a piece of crap. Those challenges on Top Gear where they all go out and buy old-but-decent-enough-for-being-only-$1000 cars? Ain't happening here. I don't know if that's happening in real life in the UK but it definitely ain't happening here. On Craigslist the cars under $1000 right now are mostly late 90's 'mechanics special' or 'needs work but runs and drives' POS's.
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bhtooefr

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Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
« Reply #203 on: 19 Dec 2013, 07:40 »

And keep in mind that any car you can find for under like $2000US is probably going to be a piece of crap. Those challenges on Top Gear where they all go out and buy old-but-decent-enough-for-being-only-$1000 cars? Ain't happening here. I don't know if that's happening in real life in the UK but it definitely ain't happening here. On Craigslist the cars under $1000 right now are mostly late 90's 'mechanics special' or 'needs work but runs and drives' POS's.

Because of our economy and transportation requirements, used cars are in much higher demand than in Europe, hence the higher used prices.

That said, you can reliably get to work for $1k, it's just it won't get good fuel economy. Add another $500-1k and then it'll get 30 miles per US gallon (not that that's good, but for the US it is), too, especially if you know how to drive a manual (which is a very uncommon skill here).
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Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
« Reply #204 on: 19 Dec 2013, 08:06 »

I think most people buy a house with a mortgage here, certainly. Not sure about cars but I have only heard about car payments from people in the USA. I've never bought either so I can't really say either way!

However, my point wasn't "as things currently stand, there is no need to have a good credit rating" but "if we changed the culture from Buy things on credit to Buy things with cash, credit ratings would be much less necessary".
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Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
« Reply #205 on: 19 Dec 2013, 08:19 »

May's overdraft is interest-free only because she's a student; otherwise one would be paying interest as for any credit or loan - usually at a reasonable rate.  An additional fee will be charged if the overdraft is unauthorised - i.e. if it's not been arranged in advance; but if you know you have a shortfall for a little while you can ask your bank to set up an "overdraft facility" to cover the maximum you expect to need to borrow and for the required period.  If your relationship with your bank is not so good, of course, there may be some hard bargaining to get the facility, or indeed a refusal - as with any loan.  The advantage of an overdraft is that you pay interest at a daily rate, so less interest is due than if you got a personal loan from another source, paying interest on the whole amount while some of it is sitting in your current account waiting to be used but earning nothing in return.
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Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
« Reply #206 on: 19 Dec 2013, 14:58 »

Lloyds Bank is also quite good in that if you hit your overdraft you can get away without paying any fees if you clear it by the end of the day, possibly 3pm. (IDK what bank May uses.)
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Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
« Reply #207 on: 20 Dec 2013, 21:22 »

shotties

I realize this was like 2 pages back, but it reminded me of this:



Also, May, as far as I am aware, in the US a mortgage is basically the biggest credit line you will ever take out. It's a loan, obviously, and that's what bank credit essentially is. Therefore you have to have good credit to be approved for a larger mortgage and/or better interest rates and whatnot, and a typical suburban or near-urban house that most people find "acceptable" here is probably upwards of the 1500 sq ft range and on the cheap end run around $100k; my parents' house was $325k for 1000 sq ft plus a basement, and is in a near-urban neighborhood by the Atlanta airport. I don't know anyone anymore who actually has $100,000 in their savings account that they could actually liquidate (with a check or cash withdrawal) to pay for a house, except maybe people like the Rockefellers and Waltons.
« Last Edit: 20 Dec 2013, 21:57 by calenlass »
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Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
« Reply #208 on: 21 Dec 2013, 14:32 »

I don't know what it's like in the UK, but in Norway, a loan/mortgage doesn't equal a credit card or credit. I don't even know what having good credit means, I have a MasterCard that I never really use and that's about it, most people here use Debit cards as their default. If you need any type of loan, your bank will assess your income, current other loans you may have and anything that might affect your personal economy in general, and figure out if it's feasible for you to deal with the loan.
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Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
« Reply #209 on: 21 Dec 2013, 15:03 »

WRT US pricing I'd like to point out that:

some goods are priced before they reach a store (clothing and books come to mind)


Are you really saying that a bookstore (or clothing store) in the US has no say in how much they charge for a book or an item of clothing? That's not how I thought the free market works, but whatever - surely you know this better than I do. I just would have thought the store buys in stuff at whatever bulk price they can negotiate, and then charge whatever they see fit.

My culture shock things about US (IIRC):
  • You couldn't buy stationery at a mall bookstore (they would advertise marital aids on yellow pages though)

It depends on the store you go to. The boutique stores and the higher end used book stores don't sell anything but books but the lower priced, "cheap" and big chain book stores do sell stationary alongside other non-book items.

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  • You could buy stationery, items of personal hygiene and candy at a pharmacy (aka a drug store)

Over the last 135 years pharmacies had to expand their sales to include food and personal hygiene products along with first aid supplies and prescriptions to stay in business. They have cut back on some of their non-medicinal sales stuff, many no longer are also ice cream parlors.

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  • These people actually use bank cheques for paying utility bills and for shopping? Is this like the 70s or something?

There are many, many, many people who don't have a computer or who aren't computer savy or don't have an online bank account who have to rely on paying their bills by check. [/list]
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Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
« Reply #210 on: 21 Dec 2013, 15:16 »

    There are many, many, many people who don't have a computer or who aren't computer savvy or don't have an online bank account who have to rely on paying their bills by check. [/list]

    Depends where you are.  Cheques are hardly used in Germany, for instance, and the UK started the process of phasing them out - as a first step, cheque guarantee cards are no longer valid.  (Mind you, they have also stopped the process of phasing them out, but cheque guarantee cards will not return.)
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #211 on: 21 Dec 2013, 15:33 »


    There are many, many, many people who don't have a computer or who aren't computer savy or don't have an online bank account who have to rely on paying their bills by check.

    We stopped using checks way before internet and on-line banking existed. There are other ways of transferring funds. A standard protocol for me authorizing the bank to pay various bills in advance (i.e. the authorization lasts for an indefinite period) is all that is needed. So power company sent two copies of the bill. One to me (in case I want to contest it), and another to the bank. If I don't react, on the due date the bank will transfer money from my account to that of the power company. The emergence of on-line banking has improved this system by removing the need to mail anything. It's a win-win. I don't need a checking account. I don't need to worry about forgetting to mail my check. The company gets its money timely.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #212 on: 21 Dec 2013, 15:35 »

    I have a checking account, but the only time I ever wrote checks was for rent. I used a debit card for everything else, including getting cash.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #213 on: 21 Dec 2013, 17:43 »


    There are many, many, many people who don't have a computer or who aren't computer savy or don't have an online bank account who have to rely on paying their bills by check.

    We stopped using checks way before internet and on-line banking existed. There are other ways of transferring funds. A standard protocol for me authorizing the bank to pay various bills in advance (i.e. the authorization lasts for an indefinite period) is all that is needed. So power company sent two copies of the bill. One to me (in case I want to contest it), and another to the bank. If I don't react, on the due date the bank will transfer money from my account to that of the power company. The emergence of on-line banking has improved this system by removing the need to mail anything. It's a win-win. I don't need a checking account. I don't need to worry about forgetting to mail my check. The company gets its money timely.

    There are other ways, but there isn't necessarily the best way for many people. And there are people who prefer the paper trail that checks provide to cover their backs in case of problems as photo copies of the cancelled check are sent with monthly statements(online and paper) to both accounts.
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    Loki

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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #214 on: 21 Dec 2013, 23:13 »

    If I overdraw my account for any reason (e.g. because I didn't have enough funds to push throug the direct debit authorization), I get a notification too. And of course all transfers show up in the paper trail.
    Pretty much everything in Germany has a paper trail :roll:
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #215 on: 22 Dec 2013, 02:36 »

    copies of the cancelled check are sent with monthly statements

    My bank stopped doing that in the early 1970s...  but they were just a minor organisation (called Barclays).
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #216 on: 22 Dec 2013, 04:32 »

    And of course all transfers show up in the paper trail.
    Pretty much everything in Germany has a paper trail :roll:
    The bank used to mail me a bimonthly summary of all the transfer related to my savings account (never had a checking acoount here) until may be a year ago. The same information is available to me on-line, so it would be kinda pointless to continue sending those. My choice actually - my bank also has customers who are not used to using the internet, so they probably opt to do it in a more old-fashioned way.

    A useful by-product of on-line banking is that the identification provided by banks is used elsewhere as well. For example, once something went wrong when I was renewing my password to my university computer account. I was able to restore my credentials on-line, when my identity was certified by the bank (so while following the renewal instructions, one of the steps was done at the bank's web server, and somehow the university's server could use that confirmation message - I'm unfamiliar with the technology). Nifty, eh?
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #217 on: 22 Dec 2013, 05:10 »

    copies of the cancelled check are sent with monthly statements

    My bank stopped doing that in the early 1970s...  but they were just a minor organisation (called Barclays).

    Most if not all banks here in the US or at least in the northeast US stopped sending the actual cancelled checks back to the sender about seven or eight years ago. We have accounts out of a RBS subsidiary and have had ones out of a TD subsidiary and Bank of America so the banks aren't exactly small but not exactly Barclays size...
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    calenlass

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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #218 on: 28 Dec 2013, 02:44 »

    I remember being pleasantly surprised by the discovery of tiny electric water heaters in the UK. We have them here in the US, I have since found out, but we also tend to only use them in fancy expensive houses or remodels, which is stupid.

    Also, maybe this was more of a Glasgow-flat specific thing, or maybe this was a "student-housing" thing, but in Scotland I remember being much less pleasantly surprised by the fact that the showers were basically just walled off with a half-wall functioning as a splash shield, without curtains or a glass door or anything. How do you keep the heat in, you crazy fucks? My butt was so fucking cold every time I showered! I realize baths are way more popular than they are here, but still. Hands down the worst part of every visit, including the one where I had bronchitis/walking pneumonia.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #219 on: 28 Dec 2013, 07:34 »

    Wait, that's what glass doors and shower curtains are for? I thought they were just to keep water from splashing. Interesting.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #220 on: 28 Dec 2013, 13:41 »

    Both actually.

    I find the "shower curtain inwards bulging phenomenon" fascinating and annoying at the same time.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #221 on: 28 Dec 2013, 15:22 »

    Ughhh, my Glasgow flat has a terrible shower, it does actually have a glass panel, but the water pressure is awful. My last flat in Glasgow didn't have a shower at all, just a bathtub and a shower head (not attached to the wall) that could produce either scalding hot or ice cold water. When my flatmate's mom visited, she turned both the hot and the cold tap on at once and the boiler exploded.

    The flats are also terribly insulated (single glass windows!), because the buildings are old and you're apparently not allowed to change anything due to the historic value. I guess tradition is more important than being warm,comfortable and energy efficient?
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #222 on: 28 Dec 2013, 15:54 »

    Even in listed buildings secondary glazing can be used, so long as it is removable without damage.  I know, 'cos I've lived in one.

    The main reason for poor showers in the UK is that our domestic water systems are still often limited to the pressure provided by a header tank in the roof space.  This is a legacy from the time that we had mains water before it was commonplace in other countries, and having a storage tank covered unreliability in the supply or even the fact that it would be turned off at night.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #223 on: 28 Dec 2013, 16:09 »

    I'm not sure how exactly the boiler and heating in my current flat works, I've never seen anything like it anywhere else, but we have to flick a switch in the kitchen in order to have hot water in the boiler, and also for the heaters to work. The heaters will start working right away, but if you want a shower you'll need to wait an hour. We usually don't keep the switch on since it makes our bills go through the roof and is probably crazy wasteful (I assume it keeps heating and heating instead of stopping when it's hot enough? I don't know how these things work). The whole system seems really archaic and annoyed me a lot when I first moved in, but I don't really mind now.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #224 on: 28 Dec 2013, 16:14 »

    We did that while living with family before we moved to our current house - they had a natural gas water heater that they only turned on when it was needed. It was kind of a pain. In our house we have natural gas as well for the heat, but there's no switch for it here. Actually, I wouldn't know how to shut off the gas if I had to - something to look into...
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    bhtooefr

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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #225 on: 28 Dec 2013, 16:30 »

    Water heaters here tend to be 40-100 gallon tanks that run on a thermostat.

    And around here, in rural areas, the electric companies give significant discounts on water heaters if you get an electric one and let them install a box that remotely cuts off the water heater power during periods of high electrical demand.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #226 on: 28 Dec 2013, 19:39 »

    We had oil heating originally and had it replaced with natural gas. Much money has been saved.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #227 on: 29 Dec 2013, 02:33 »

    having puny water pressure from a rain barrel doesn't mean the rest of the shower has to be unbearable and unpleasant and "bracing", though, paul
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #228 on: 30 Dec 2013, 04:50 »

    I'm not sure how exactly the boiler and heating in my current flat works, I've never seen anything like it anywhere else, but we have to flick a switch in the kitchen in order to have hot water in the boiler, and also for the heaters to work. The heaters will start working right away, but if you want a shower you'll need to wait an hour. We usually don't keep the switch on since it makes our bills go through the roof and is probably crazy wasteful (I assume it keeps heating and heating instead of stopping when it's hot enough? I don't know how these things work). The whole system seems really archaic and annoyed me a lot when I first moved in, but I don't really mind now.

    What you're describing there is an immersion boiler. It should cut out once a preset temperature has been reached in the hot water tank. There should also be separate controls for the heating and the hot water supply.

    The switch in the kitchen is just the master on/off switch for the system. There should be more controls on/near the boiler itself.

    If you can locate the boiler tank and take photos of it I can probably offer more advice on setting up the system properly. Usually fairly easy and might be nice to have more functional heating for the next two months of winter, especially in Glasgow.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #229 on: 30 Dec 2013, 08:56 »

    I find the "shower curtain inwards bulging phenomenon" fascinating and annoying at the same time.

    This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I can go into the shower a perfectly happy individual and exit it a raging lunatic if the shower curtain adheres itself to my leg too many times.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #230 on: 30 Dec 2013, 16:56 »

    This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I can go into the shower a perfectly happy individual and exit it a raging lunatic if the shower curtain adheres itself to my leg too many times.
    According to my father, this problem is caused by incorrect mounting of the curtain-rod. His idea is that the rod should always be far enough "outside" the open perimeter of the bath/shower-tray that the water-proof curtain "breaks" on the inside edge of the shower, and the optional outer curtain hangs straight. I'm not so sure myself, but I prefer a shower cubicle with a door anyway.

    Another thing that struck me as weird in the USA was "sticks" of butter. In Australia, butter usually comes in 250g blocks.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #231 on: 30 Dec 2013, 17:35 »

    Is that an actual difference, or just semantics? What's the difference between a stick and a block? If memory serves, the stick is about half that size, but it wouldn't be wrong to call it a block.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #232 on: 30 Dec 2013, 18:36 »

    We have cylindrical sticks of butter in the supermarkets here, roughly the size of two fists; is that normally how a 'stick' of butter is shaped? I don't know anyone who buys them, we just have blocks of butter. Margarine (and other butter-esque products that aren't butter) is sold in plastic tubs, but since it turned out margarine is disastrous for your health, my family doesn't buy it any more. (Also, margarine is disgusting.) Blocks of butter are preferable to tubs anyway, because the paper-wrapped butter (which you unwrap and put in a butter dish) is way more resource-efficient than the plastic tubs.

    Question: Do you refrigerate your butter?
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #233 on: 30 Dec 2013, 18:43 »

    On my side of the pond, sticks/blocks of butter are rectangular prisms.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #234 on: 30 Dec 2013, 19:04 »

    Another thing that struck me as weird in the USA was "sticks" of butter. In Australia, butter usually comes in 250g blocks.

    It's all about portioning and recipes. Eachbox is one pound which is also two cups and also is 16 ounces. Each of the sticks is a quarter of a cup as well as four ounces as well as eight tablespoons. Plus it is a lot easier to store single sticks than it is a whole block.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #235 on: 30 Dec 2013, 19:06 »

    Apparently a "block" of butter is an entire box, so each stick is a quarter block.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #236 on: 30 Dec 2013, 20:00 »

    Question: Do you refrigerate your butter?

    Always. Unless you are preparing it for baking, in which case you let it rest at room temperature for a while to soften. Reclining chair and fuzzy slippers optional.  :-P
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #237 on: 30 Dec 2013, 20:01 »

    Yeah, I always do too.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #238 on: 31 Dec 2013, 00:44 »

    Shower area perimeter: Ours is surrounded by walls from two sides, and a glass pane from the third. The open side does not need anything to stop splashes, because the bathroom floor is tiled, and slightly sloping towards a drain 2-3 feet in the "open" direction. If you don't sweep the residual splashes after a shower, the next person using the sink area may get wet socks. The bathroom is relatively large: room for a washing machine at the opposite corner, and (of course) a separate sauna section. Nothing fancy though - we're middle class. Hotels/motels? It varies a lot, the available space being the biggest constraint.

    Butter: half kilo chunks is the norm over here. I found the US style of individually wrapped sticks quite convenient to use when baking. They soften a bit faster (surface area to volume ratio), and my style of baking meant that I would use an entire stick at a time.
    « Last Edit: 31 Dec 2013, 05:58 by Skewbrow »
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #239 on: 31 Dec 2013, 01:22 »

    I remember staying in a company lodgings in Norway where my shower (high in the house, with a sloping ceiling) was in a waterproof room - shower, toilet, sink, all together with no dividers, and a drain in the middle of the floor.  It was curiously liberating.

    At home now we have a walk-in shower with no door or curtain, just a dogleg arrangement of panels to keep the spray in.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #240 on: 31 Dec 2013, 04:31 »

    and (of course) a separate sauna section.
    That's awesome, but hardly an "(of course)"!
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #241 on: 31 Dec 2013, 05:50 »

    Having a sauna IS a high priority to me (and other Finns). Comparative stats about Finland: 3.2 million saunas, 2.5 million cars, 5.4 million people. Cars overtook saunas in the 80s/90s and the country was fucked up for a while. But now that modern flats have their own saunas (as opposed to one or two saunas per a housing complex), the saunas have recovered. I was elated to learn this bit of trivia just now. Warm thanks to you for making me google it up.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #242 on: 31 Dec 2013, 05:54 »

    One sauna over here, please!  :-D




    Paul, I had a similar style shower when I was in a suite-style dorm. There was a shower curtain and a small (about 5" high) splashguard at the bottom of the shower, but the shower and floor were tiled the same way and there was a drain in the middle of the floor as well (and another in the shower area). A whole open room sounds awesome.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #243 on: 31 Dec 2013, 11:09 »

    Ha, that's interesting!  I had a friend in college whose family was from Finland (They live in the US now), and they had a sauna.  I visited him for a few days, and it was glorious.  I had no idea it was a cultural thing - I just thought they were fancy, because I'd never known anyone with their own sauna before.  You really only see them in spas here.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #244 on: 31 Dec 2013, 12:38 »

    I wish I had one.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #245 on: 02 Jan 2014, 17:12 »

    About Finns and saunas, I couldn't help but think of this.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #246 on: 02 Jan 2014, 22:16 »

    I have never done the roll in the snow. It is actually meant to be a winter time substitute for a dip to the lake/sea. Once classmates sawed off a hole in the ice, and we took dips. I'm not sure I want to do that on a regular basis.

    Vihta OTOH definitely adds to the enjoyment. Early mid-summer birch branches are commonly used. Connoisseurs recommend also oak and eucalyptus, but those a hard to find. Anyway flogging yourself with it adds a lot to the relaxing experience. Legs, arms, face,... A saunamate should do your back (and you should return the favor). It doesn't hurt one bit, because we let the branches soak well in advance to soften them. Cleaning up loose leaves the day after is a bit of a nuisance.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #247 on: 05 Jan 2014, 13:16 »

    My dad's bathroom is basically just one large room with a sloping floor to a drain, but there is a glass half-wall to separate off the shower, presumably so that the toilet paper doesn't get wet? It doesn't serve any other purpose.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #248 on: 06 Jan 2014, 07:25 »

    In Cuba, everyone said Merry Christmas on Christmas eve.  I've been told that's fairly common in hispanic places, though.
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    Re: What seemed weird when I visited your country
    « Reply #249 on: 06 Jan 2014, 08:33 »

    In olden times, the day was generally reckoned from sundown.  Therefore Christmas Day started at sundown on what we would call Christmas Eve.  When the reckoning of the day changed to midnight, the churches retained the effect of the earlier reckoning by starting the celebration of any day on the previous evening - hence the "Eve" terminology, and the celebration, for instance, of the first mass of Christmas on the eve.  In many communities (especially Roman Catholic ones, I suspect), this has spilt into secular life, and into treating the whole of the day before as part of the celebration - but strictly it should only be from sundown.
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