Family Book...Forum Style

[Tony G]

Countries to avoid whilst traveling the world

http://www.upworthy.com/want-to-travel-the-world-look-at-map-to-see-the-countries-you-may-want-to-avoid

[Jdoggie]

I went to Turkey last year and it seemed safe. How do they get those stats. Is that yearly because that seems rather high?

[Malto Marko]

I went to Turkey last year and it seemed safe. How do they get those stats. Is that yearly because that seems rather high?

Safe because you converted currency and was an obvious American spender.

Unsafe because the Political system knows the importance of their sovereignty and are wiling to make you an enemy if the US Government does not keep doling out your tax dollars to make their Leadership rich.

[LionsFanInJapan]

"Mandarin and Cantonese are the two main dialects. Mainland China & Taiwan use Mandarin, so that's probably the way to go."
---------------------thanks LFIJ. I worked with a Chinese woman at the wtp. For a short time, maybe a year, we had a Chinese male working there. They were both immigrants and not children of immigrants so their main language was Chinese. They were of different dialects though so they couldn't speak to each other in "Chinese".

According to the info I looked up, people from Hong Kong speak Cantonese. This would skew the #'s in favor of Cantonese if one were staying in the U.S. With the rise of mainland China though, I think anyone approaching language learning from a career standpoint would want to learn Mandarin.

[mason reese]

I turned 50 last August - I got fed up with my government telling me I wasn't paying my fair share when the government was making (over 5 times as much) more from my work than I was. So I shut my business down, sold off the assets and I'll spend the rest of my life living off the proceeds. The government won't make a dime off of my work ever again.

Wait...in protest of the amount of taxes you had to pay in the US you moved to "Socialist" Europe? Does that count as irony?

[Tony G]

Wait...in protest of the amount of taxes you had to pay in the US you moved to "Socialist" Europe? Does that count as irony?

With China to follow?

[CGVT]

Let it go guys, it's the Family Book. Don't screw it up with this shit.

[mason reese]

Let it go guys, it's the Family Book. Don't screw it up with this shit.

Sorry...wasn't intended to be political, just thought it was funny.

[dwt1]

Wait...in protest of the amount of taxes you had to pay in the US you moved to "Socialist" Europe? Does that count as irony?

I didn't "move" here - just traveling through - seeing the sites and enjoying the people.

[Marko69]

Good for you DWT, sounds absolutely amazing. Let me know if and when you reach Edinburgh, me, sacha and you guys can maybe meet up for lunch.

[dwt1]

We are planning Scotland and Ireland next spring, we'll look you up

[Marko69]

Excellent DWT, we look fwd to it.

Few pics:

Yesterday at Elie in Fife, Scotland. 40 miles north of where I live. We are inside a Roman ruin on the coast. Gorgeous day and we went for the famous fish and chips in Anstruther afterwards. Sacha and her boys, me and the stepsons, and me, wearing my Marillion North American/Canadian tour T shirt.

And then a few at Hampden for the tragic soccer match.

[CGVT]

Nice!

[LionsFanInJapan]

Great pictures, Marko!

[SeattleLionsFan]

I was under the impression that the Romans didn't make it into Scotland. Learn something new everyday!

And dwt, I can't speak to Ireland, but Scotland was simply amazing.