Ok, so this is an offshoot of the "japan vs. your hometown" thread, and I hope everyone can write about where they are from cos it would be really fun! i will talk about wisconsin, where i am from, and try to keep it breif cos it's the most boring place in the universe!!

wisconsin is in america!! here is a map of the state!



here is another map that shows where it is located in america! it touches two of the "great lakes", which are kind of like water barriers between america and canada, or in our case between WI and michigan / canada.




the city most people associate with WI is madison, the capitol. wisconsin is known mostly for our cheese! i never really thought it was exceptionally good, but i'm not really a cheese person... anyways, WI is the largest cheese producing state in the usa... its really common to see cheese stores, and usually they will sell jerky or sausage. its a real "old country" vibe..



i don't actually know where this from, but i found it on google images... this is something you would see a LOT of in wisconsin.. there are old country style cheese stores EVERYWHERE



so basically, WI is CHEESEMANIA.

as a side note, it is about a 5 hour drive to chicago, which is where MDM scheduled a concert in their canceled US tour in '06. just to give you an idea of where WI is in relation to other major cities, it is about 18 hours drive to new york city and over 24 hours away from california.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I CAN TELL YOU ABOUT MY HOMELAND!! W00T!

OK OK

I live in a country called Wales. It's a constituency of the UK.

This is where we are in relation to the UK


WE ARE NOT ENGLISH

And this is a Map of Wales itself...


Our Captial city is Cardiff. But I think its only been the capital for about 50 years or so.

We have our own language which is called "Welsh" - its an ancient language, been around for approximately 1400 years.
The Welsh are believed to originate from France (as part of the migration of the Gauls, hence our country's name in french "Pays de Galles") and the Iberian Peninsular.
We have a lot of Roman and Viking settlements- it is believed we helped against the Anglo-Saxons XDDD

The English tried to kill off our language on several occasions. One method was the "Welsh Not" or "Welsh Note" - it was a piece of wood inscribed with "WN" and it was hung around the necks of children to stop them speaking Welsh in school.
The Language is slowly gaining numbers in speakers.

Our flag is called "Yr Ddraig Goch" which means "The Red Dragon" (its a really cool Flag)


Our National Anthem is called "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" which means "Land of My Fathers".
The National Anthem was written by Evan James. He lived in my hometown! :D
Theres a memorial to Him and his younger brother, James, in the War Memorial Park in my town.
Anthem
Its not Amazing Quality... but just to hear us sing at our Rugby match in Cardiff.
You can hear this all over the City on a match day - Brings tears to our eyes!

Our National Flower is the Daffodil
We wear them on March 1st, which is St. David's day - He's the patron saint of Wales, Along with Traditional Welsh Dress. Its quite a European feature of our culture to have a traditional dress.

^This is Mainly a School (yes, I dressed like this every year in school :P) thing now or maybe a festival like the Urdd Eisteddfod but more than likely the 6 Nations Rugby matches.... Dear England... Another one for good ol' Sospan Fach!!

People wonder what Welsh Rarebit is... don't be fooled by "RARE"bit. Its a slur. In England Rabbit was considered peasant food, whereas in Wales rabbit was a luxury. Cheese was peasant food to the Welsh, so Welsh Rarebit is Cheese on toast as its basic ingredients.... XD

Wales also has the smallest city in the UK. Its Located in Pembrokshire, West Wales, and is believed to be the Birth Place of Saint David. It has a population of 2,000 people.

ASK ME IF YOU WANT ANY MORE INFO!!!

Interesting topic though my home state in America can be pretty boring.

I live in Maryland. Unlike most people in Maryland I live in a very useful spot in the state. I live in the far top right corner of Maryland. It is great because it is very easy to drive to states like Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York. In fact I do most of my shopping in Delaware and never in my state unless it is for food or that trip to Wally World I take from time to time.

The one thing about Maryland that is great is that there are 2 captials in the state. Maryland's captial is Annapolis. My nation's captial is not a part of the state of Maryland but it is located here. Washington DC is a great place to visit on weekends especially for the Cherry Blossoms and the museums.



Our State flag is this



Our state bird is the Oriole



Our State flower is the Black Eyed Susan



Maryland is a very rural area. A lot of small towns to be found while driving through. Baltimore and Washington DC are the only places can be considered cities though I only go to Baltimore for Otakon and if I want to go to the Inner Harbor, which is a very nice place but only during the day. Not much to do here especially in my hometown. It is boring to a point that all the teenagers found it amazing to hang out at a Wally World parking lot. So I spend most of my time at home or with my friends if I have time off from work. I wish not to say my hometown or talk about it much. I hate my hometown with a passion because it is such a disgrace. My hometown has a very violent racist history and the racism has not escaped from it. Anyone who is not white or an outsider is sadly viewed as someone who can never be trusted. So yeah my hometown sucks but I cannot change where I was raised.

Thats enough my state until I maybe decide to update later.

Umh... I live in Estonia.... (ex USSR country:O)


(so tiny :o)

If I look out of the window... i see..... some houses and allot of trees (not kiddin)

Anyway... Bout my country... One of the most known part of my country is the Tallinn's (capital) old part of the city ><. (allot of Japanese and Chinese [not Korean T_T] tourists there) PLUS... In there you can walk with you Loli outfits or anything because ppl are more open minded there.



Estonian fag Flag



National flower



And bird :o [i donno what is it's name in English ]



Cosine - Mixture of the German cosine an the Russian cosine... Mostly German :D



Yum... Cabbages (L)


Bout Padise (Thats were i live) Padise Parish (Estonian: Padise vald) is a rural municipality in Harju County, It has bout the population of 2 thousand ppl. Padise is mostly known for it's Monastery.



Just a short walk away :D.

Okay I'm from Paisley. Though I was born in Glasgow.....so Paisley! This will be difficult.

The town got famous for this:

(Paisley Pattern btw)

Lets meet the locals! Paisley and it's nearby town are considered to ned capitals of Scotland!

(attactive huh? -_-)

This is the Paisley Abbey. The only spot in paisley I find beautiful or remarkable in any way. It is believed that this is where William Wallace was educated. I was also favoured by the Bruce and Stuwart family. It is also believed that the abbey was founded by Saint Mirren in the 12th centuary.



This place is very anti-english, which still stands today. I think thats a very notible part this town. Scotish independance ftw. Not just anti-english but very anti-non-conformist as well. (is that even a word) Like I said it's a ned town.


Aw'rite then, I think am gon'tae leave it here or now. A don no what else tae say.

^ A sample of how we (most of us) talk Might add more later. I don't know what to say. I never go to Paisley.

I live in New York City! It's a party everynight here!


Just kidding, it's actually quite boring here.

http://mclabs.com/FacilityMaps/new%20york_city.gif

Our Flag:
http://www.gettysburgflag.com/images/NYCFlag.jpg

This is Time Square, the whole place is like a giant shopping mall:
http://www.freefoto.com/images/1210/19/121...rk-City_web.jpg

NYC is basically about shopping, prostitutes, and booze XD

I'm from Denmark. :)
More precisely Trige, a small suburb north of Århus.

Map of Denmark (Trige is about a pixel or two above Århus):


Our flag:


Århus, and one big harbour, one of the largest in Europe as far as I know:


My university (not showing the department of computer science where I'm hanging out):


We used to be fearsome vikings, sailing around plundering women, burning cities, and ravaging houses. Great fun. :P
Then we became Christianized in around 965 AD, and since then we haven't really been able to harm anyone.
Oh well. :)

Anyhoo...
Some ten years ago foreigners would have described us as being like a marshmallow on the outside with a steel core on the inside. Meaning we were easy to talk to, and friendly, but it wasn't easy getting to really befriend us.
Now a days it's the other way around.

Apart from that what does Denmark have to offer?
Hum, good question.

Erhm, we got bloody high taxes (highest in the world, or second highest can't remember).
We got free education (woohoo!).
And rugbrød. Lots of it! :D

you made me lol so hard

Hi all! I live in Seattle, Washington, one of 50 states in the USA! It can be wonderful up here, good weather for lolita wear.....but the summers are just plain awful.

We are serious about our coffee, and our fashion "rules" are so relaxed, peole will squeal in delight when you wear lolita.

We have many Japanese immigrants up here and their so much fun to hang out with because they actualy identify with me....unlike the average gangster children that make up a heafty %.

:dix: was actualy supposed to come to Seattle for their American tour in 2006....but ever since it was canceled, I have eagerly awaited their return!

My only problem with Seattle, are that the politics are just not good. :(

I live in Rouen, France, world-famous city because of Joan of Arc who was tried and burnt at the stake here in 1431. There's a modern statue of her at the exact (?)place where it happened and we have thousands of tourists coming all through the year, and more and more Japanese each year. I recently found out that a Roman Catholic chief yakusa came incognito to visit the cathedral (I swear it's true!) and now I look at our Japanese visitors with a slightly different eye, hehehe!

Rouen is 130 kilometers down the Seine from Paris and the population is 100 000 inhabitants (400 000 if you include the suburbs). There is a university which draws students from many countries.

I am hopeless with the internet so I can't include pictures but you'll find many sites where you can see how it is.

We also had recently a new Armada : it's an event where great ships from many countries gather every few years and it brings crowds of visitors. This year we had 4 ships from the Japanese Navy, first time ever, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Franco-Japanese relations.

Normandy is a pretty part of France, but the climate is rather depressing because it rains a lot. I rather like it here, though, but I am from Brittany, which is to the far west, across the Channel from Cornwall.

I've been to Rouen!!
Its an amazing place!
It has the Cathederal, which Monet painted!
I loved it there sooo much! I'd love to go back one day!!
There's something about Normandy that I love - its like, when I'm there, its like I been there before.
Same goes for Brittany. Sign posts there remind me of home. I'm Welsh and Breton is in the same language category (Celtic). Its nice :)

I updated my Homel;and post too ^^ :)

Us former vikings used to pillage and plunder Normandy. :P

Now we just go there for a vacation.

@Izumi : Yes, the cathedral is world-famous too, but I didn't like to mention it, because too many things are world-famous in France and it's boring really because it's like we stopped living quite a long time ago, hehehe! Also, I can't think why I should boast about it, because although I rather like being French, I did nothing to deserve it and we just inherited all those beautiful monuments, so I'm just happy, not proud. Brittany is indeed quite similar to Wales and I remember my father talking to the father of a welsh penpal in Breton because he didn't speak English and the other father didn't speak French, and they did understand each other quite well! Only trouble was that the rest of us didn't have a clue what they were saying!

@Xit : Are you planning a new invasion, or just nostalgic about the good old days? Are we not the best of European friends now?

I live in Lithuania, it is a small country in Europe.
We have a long history and Lithuania in middle ages was one from the largest countries in Europe. Later Poland and Lithuania created one country and after that we were ocupated by Rusia. We also were a part of SSSR...Now we are here:



My hometown is Jurbarkas, but now i live and study in Vilnius.



Here is our oldtown:


And here is my university:



It is boring to live here, lithuanians don't smile a lot and they are pesimistic people... They are interested in basketball:


(basketball fans)

There are no people here that don't like to watch basketball and if our team wins or loses lithuanian throw furnitures through their windows.

We have a weird traditional food. It is FAT. The most popular traditional dish here is cepelinai. They are made from potatoes and meat.



Lithuania is famous for beautiful girls. Almost all girls here are thin and tall and they have beautiful features and light brown hair xD

Blondie girls are very popular here:

It's more like I find it funny how the times have changed. ^^

Would like to visit Normandy though (with no pillaging). :)

AHH!!! you are from Lithuania!!! I am Lithuanian too!!!!!!! *HUGS!!!*
I am German-Lithuanian!!!!!

Baltic Mana-sama fans rule....

We rule :P :P :P :P

I love this thread, makes me want to visit all of your countries. Nowadays, we tend to think everywhere is the same, but what you say shows everywhere is still different and interesting. We all seem to think life in our town and/or country is boring, but that's only because they hold no surprise for us and we see them with bored eyes... In fact, it's each nation's history and their interactions that shape who we are and how we look upon the world in general and each other in particular. The more we know about history, the more we can understand and like each other, because, to say the least, some have been much luckier than others!

Sorry for boring you all, but this is no preaching, just my way of looking at things and people.

@xit : I hope you realized I was joking! In fact, I am either dead serious or joking, and unfortunately people tend to believe I am always being serious!

hehehe... I never get bored of telling people where I'm from. Most people don't know it exists and we are in fact the best country on earth XD

I went to visit my mother and stepfather in the States, my mother is welsh, and they have American friends who love her accent. They think she sounds like she's singing, or reciting poetry, but when I came there, my accent is way stronger than hers, because she has to adapt a little to the way people speak there, people don't understand how i speak. Theres little things in my speech that i became so aware of when i was there... its kinda alienating, but people thought it was great.

It was a big sigh of relief to come home and be able to speak normally though XD

Yeah language barriers can suck....
Sometimes I retain a strong German accent and people think I am trying to be Hitler....

As for the best country in the world, I think Taiwan kicks ass.

I love Seattle= rain, rain, rain........ :love:

Porcelainmaiden, WHAT? really? You live in Germany, right? But it is so great i am not the only one lithuanian here!^^ *hugs* *jega*

I am German and Lithuanian but I live in America.

oh ok... can you speak lithuanian?

Yeah, a little bit as well as French and German because Kalbų niekad nemokėsi per daug!

Waiii I like this thread!! :D

Ok first I'll talk about my birthplace, then the first 10 years in Germany and at last Slovenia where I live now.

Actualy I moved 7 times, but it would be to much work ^^ and in was just in countries.

Heidelberg, Germany



Actualy I dont know much about this town, cause I lived there the first year of my life and returned just once after 18 years.





I'm not sure, but I think I heard somewhere that Mana and Gaku both were there once ...

Oberhaching, Munich, Germany







Today we went to Munich for a shopping tour. We drive sometimes to Munich to meet friends or other things. But its 4-5 hours in one way!

Today I went also to the shop called Neo Tokyo and bought 2 big tour posters on M10M, 2 GLBs and the Gothic & Lolita Book <3

Ok, back to topic.









Ljubljana, Slovenia






Ljubljana, the capital.

symbol of Ljubljana:










Bled is also a very nice place in Slovenia




lol, nice instructions how to come to my school:






"Cradle of all the Lipizzaner horses and the major riding centre of Slovenia. World-known Lipica stud Farm represents with its opportunities for sports, lodgings and gambling, the primary tourism in the municipality. Besides the stones and bora winds, Kras area is also known for its prosciutto and Teran wine."

OMG! Slovenia looks amazing! I wanna go visit!

You're welcome!!! ^.^

Immortal Angel, you are definitely lucky to be living in Slovenia!

Every time I see pictures or a doc about Slovenia, I simply want to pack my bags and go!

But there is a big minus for Slovenia: Nothing is happening here. For everything I have to travel to Munich or Paris, and that happens maybe once per year.
Here are no visus, no lolitas, ... nothing ;_;

I live here in North Carolina.



http://cache.virtualtourist.com/1724538-Tr...th_Carolina.gif

Nothing to special about the general food here, just normal american food. But there are foods of other cultures in some places here.

The USS North Carolina battle ship. I went there once, creepy though cause there have been reports of the ship being haunted.

http://www.highgallery.com/Taylor/NorthCar...0_8097-a-FP.jpg

My hometown, Chapel Hill
http://www.terrycrook.com/files/225095/Cha...0St.%20%232.jpg

Another place here in North Carolina that I've been to is Grandfather mountain.
http://www.planetware.com/i/photo/grandfat...ville-nc105.jpg

I really don't live in much of a city area, more like in the country side.

Ok, so I recently moved a few months ago from little ol WI and now I live in California. Ignore the arrow on the map... I just stole this pic from google :) If you look towards the bottom where the compas is and then go directly to the right, you will find Long Beach, where i live :) it looks close to LA, but it's really a bitching drive in traffic...



CA is probably the best known state in America, because it's where all the famous people live (even though I haven't seen any yet) and alot of immigrants come here when they enter the US. There are alot alot alot of Mexicans here, but there are some Asians too... the cultures kind of fuse together and there are alot of Asian grocery stores that sell Japanese and Hawainn food. I went to one once but I was turned away because I didn't have a member card :(

There is a place called Little Tokyo and I was really disapointed by it. It's really small and there are almost no stores, at least from what I saw.



These are the worst things ever: parking meters. It costs money to park in public, anywhere, anytime. Usually it takes about a dollar if you plan to spend an hour or two in LA, but it depends. And if you have five minutes left or less, you get a ticket. I'm not even joking. SO STUPID. And you can't get your money back, so if you put in money to go to a store for an hour and come out after five minutes, you don't get a refund.



Homeless people all over the place. It's really bad. I never thought it was such a problem. In fact, even in my shithole hometown I never saw one once.



An ipod vending machine. I shit you not. This was at the GROCERY STORE. This is just a picture I found on google, but the real one is about twice as wide and it has all the new ipods and all sorts of accesories, but oddly enough no itunes cards... huh.



In WI there were two traffic lanes on the highway and a third only for merging. In California, there are four and a carpool lane and they are always cramped full all day long. The carpool lane is for two or more people. If you drive alone in it, you'll get like a $500 ticket or something lame like that.

Other then that, everything is at least $2 more here then anywhere else in America... seriously. A loaf of bread is like $8. Lame. Long Beach is half rich, half poor, and I actually live in a decent area so I haven't been exposed to much violence yet :)

My last post in the "happy birthday" thread reminded me that I still haven't posted here.

I'm from (and still live in) Montréal in Québec and even though I'm thinking about moving to Europe eventually I'm still proud to be a Québécoise <33 .

This is a map of Québec which also shows where it is located:



And here's our flag:



Even though it's officially part of Canada, Québec is different in many ways.... the most obvious being our language. Yes, most people here speak French.

Back in the 16th century, not long after the early French explorations France claimed this land as theirs and started to build a colony. It was then known as Nouvelle France (New France). That was just a few years after French explorer Jacques Cartier planted a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula and took possession of the territory in the name of King Francis.

New France stayed a French colony for centuries and mainly focused on the trade of natural resources and became quite large by the mid 1700's:


(New France is shown in blue on the map)

But as New France was territorially huge the British colony kept growing in population which made it an easy target for the English. In 1759, after a few battles, the French lost the colony to the British troops in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.

That's when we became a British colony. However, even though we lost that battle, we still kept our culture and language which still lives on now.

(If you want more info about History of Québec you can check out this Wiki article)

During the 19th century people that were called Patriotes still fought for it and for our independence.

This is their flag:

<

A lot of them were hanged in 1838 at the Pied-du-Courant in Montréal....

I know I shouldn't start about politics so I'll just say... even though the political situation here is quite stable compared to some other countries there are still people here who wish for our independence (and I'm one of them).


Sorry about the whole historical and political preamble...

To conclude.. here are are few pictures of Montreal cause a picture is worth a thousand words:




(Old Montréal)


(Yes we can get a lot of snow during the winter....)

We have parking meters here too...



But I don't have to deal with them since I don't drive and take the metro instead... way more convenient:

i love yr sites, specially love Europe... and Germany, Slovenia, Lituania!!! Astral and porcelainmaiden yr country is really beautiful!!! :love: one of my wishes is going someday to Germany, if i'm able to do it someday i'll be surely visiting Lituania and Slovenia, i love the Baltic <33

and so Ludivine, that is Quebec, it's beautiful! a piece of Europe in American continent!!! <33

well, as some of you know, I'm from Mexico, i live in what we know like the metropolitan area: Mexico City and one part of El Estado de México, i live in El Estado de México borderlined with Mexico City...



all the blue boarded area is Mexico City, i live in the purple part...

Mexico city is really big and there are lots of people all around all the time..

here's a panoramic watch from Mexico City...



One of my favorite places is the Historical Centre cause I can find everything in there, since old baroque buildings as the Metropolitan Cathedral



or the Palace of Fine Arts… it’s really beautiful…




There’s also the National Museum of Art



The inside


And we also have our own castle The Chapultepec Castle…



And the flag...



in september 16th was the independency day... but something really horrible happened, in Michoacan state someone that no one knows who is (terrorist suspicious), threw a few grenades to the crowd that was feasting in the Michoacan square... :tears: and 8 persons died... :tears: i just wanted to say it cause, i can't believe the violence is growing to this point...

OMG! I never showed you all the wonderful state that is Washington!!!

This is the beautiful skyline at night, it REALLY does look like that too!


This is the Pike Place Market, one of the world's largest outdoor markets! They will throw fish right over your head, it is soooo cool!


We are the lords of Starbucks coffee!!!

i am currently living in huddersfield (they only town in the world not to have a starbucks!!) but i have only been here for two weeks so ill tell you about my home town of southport.

Southport is on the north west coast of england about on hours drive north of liverpool.



Most of southport was built in the victorian times when trips to the sea side became very popular. But alot of the sea front and the pier have been renovated. southport pier dose not reach the sea, which only comes in one every two weeks.



as you can see there is ALOT of sand, southports main export is sand!!

these are the two main types of people that live in southport


old people


and chavs

some chavs are ok but alot of them dont like people who are different to them, so feel the need to shout at you in the street and through things. alot of southport chavs use coins or biscuits, normally custard creams.

southport has many different festivals and events throughout the year such as the jazz festival, the flower show and the air show.



it is also one of the only places that still has these little guys


in a very nice place where me and my friends tend to go alot called the pine woods.

that is all i can think to say about my home town.

the end

So not true.
I haven't seen a single city in Denmark that has one. :)

well im never moving there then. im really missing me peppermint soya latte

Never heard about any Starbucks in France either!

Thanks so much to each of you for introducing your city and country, it's so interesting and makes one want to go, even if nowhere is perfect, obviously, and social problems (mainly growing inequalities and all they bring about) are more or less the same everywhere.

A special "Hello!" to Ludivine from one of those "maudits Français", hehehe! And a fond thought for Luc Plamondon, great friend and partner of one of my favorite French singers and songwriters, Michel Berger, whose premature and sudden death broke his fans' hearts.

lol.... no starbucks here eighter...XD

Only thing we have here "from america" is mc donalds but we preffer hesburger because ...... Its like home XD...

btw in here bread (white bread) costs from 60 - 90 cents....
lol XD


- sorry for spelling errors ... my spell cheker is missing.. XD