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Maybe it's just because I live car-free on the north side of Chicago and work downtown, but I don't agree with this personally at all. There's always stuff going on here and I'm always about and about walking somewhere in the neighborhood to meet up with friends, go watch a cubs game or hit the gay bars till 5am, etc (not that I do the last one ALL the time!).
Just depends on where you are. If you're living a really boring life and you hate that everyone seems to be with families, working or on the couch - then pick up and move. There certainly are places around the USA that are not like that at all. For smaller areas try a college town, otherwise there's always something going on in many areas like San Fran, Chicago, NYC, Boston, Philly, etc.
Imo gay Americans fit the European lifestyle far more than the average American. Many like to live in urban areas with lots of amenities and enjoy arts, cafes, culture. The average straight American outside urban downtown areas tends to be a conservative, religious, anti-urban, anti public transportation get rid of govt type. They like to barbecue in their fenced in backyard with their family and tend to be suspicous of those they deem "different". Europe is just not like that even outside urban areas. In their small towns and villages Europeans are always out and about. In America, not so much. I went to a movie on a sunday night in Ambler, PA a few weeks ago. I came out of the theatre at 9:30pm and couldn't find one single place to get a coffee or have a snack. The main street was dark and deserted. By 10pm every place was closed. Pathetic, but Americans being the religious bunch they are shut down on Sunday night.
I happen to like Cowboys. I live in a big city but on the edge, on purpose, and there's ton of fairs and festivals in the small towns around here. We just had our big rodeo back in February and now it's Fiesta! Siclovia was recently held downtown and I'm assuming they had the Rock and Roll Marathon already as I think it's in January. We had a Christmas River Parade and they dye the river green for St Patrick's Day. I'm sure there's been plenty of other offerings but I'm busy with kids and sports at night and on weekends. Another thing cowboy towns have- Friday Night Football. Nothing like it on a Friday night in Texas.
I'm pretty sure a lot of people are busy with things other than just going to work and going home. They may not be at every fair, festival, or pub crawl because they're at soccer practice, their kid's softball game, or karate. I'm guessing it's the same in a lot of European countries as well.
What I'm more talking about is things like street life, festivals, walkability, and so on. America has very little of that. Even though the US is a well populated and highly developed country people still live like cowboys.
In Indiana at least, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis both have festivals almost every weekend during the summer. Some of those festivals last a week or longer. According to the Indiana State Festivals Association, there are over 600 festivals per year in Indiana. Granted this counts county and state fairs and things like the Indianapolis Boat Sport & Travel Show, but still. Somewhere in the state there is something going on every single day from April through December and almost every weekend during the winter months, too. And that's in a state with only 4 cities with greater than 100,000 people, two of which are barely above that. I can't imagine its much different in other states. So there are certainly a lot of festivals that take place in America.
Two key differences:
1) US cities are very spread out and suburban, so most cities lack vibrant walkable areas. This is little by little changing as cities redevelop their cores. But 50 years of disinvestment won't change over night.
2) The US is a much larger country with lots of land between our cities. England has 50 million people in an area the size of a (geographically) mid-sized US state, like NY or North Carolina. You can't easily city hop as much as you can in Europe.
Living in the North East is somewhat like European living in the US with 5 dense cities in close proximity. You can easily take the train or bus and in a couple hours be in another lively city center.
\The average straight American outside urban downtown areas tends to be a conservative, religious, anti-urban, anti public transportation get rid of govt type.
To be honest, I didn't realize how anti-public transit folks could get until recently. People are strange.
We don't have the more "interesting" architecture or built environment overall as Europe I suppose. Even the smaller towns/cities/metro areas there seem more vibrant and have better/more interesting architecture/urban design. I don't think that necessarily makes the USA "boring" though, just different.
Having something or living in a certain place it feels blah. I live in the las vegas is it as exciting as it shows in those travel commercials? It could be if you have the money to pay for all that. Many people have the thought of "the grass is always greener on the other side". For those that live in America might want to travel outside the country because they might experience, see or do something they can't here.
Dude, this forum is the biggest circlejerk since reddit... Everything is fine as long as you agree with others and don't bring up any negative topics
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