National character

[Umbran]

One thing my companions are considering doing is very Italian...a cooking class.

Oh, my wife and I did that while in Rome! It was awesome!

Well, we didn't do it in Rome, per se. We were taken out to a little village some distance outside Rome, in steep hills - you could still see the caves used as housing in Medieval times (and still used by artists in the summer) across the valley. We shopped for groceries in these *tiny* little stores in the village, and then retired to a small apartment for cooking.

We made several kinds of pasta, sauces, a chicken dish, bruschetta, and a fine tiramisu variant (which, given that I don't like coffee, is saying something).

A couple of pics:

The village:


The pasta (including ravioli, gnocchi, "strangled priests" aka strozzapreti, and fettuccine):

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hmmm...looks good.

I may yet find myself in eternal servitude to cookware after this.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Briefly back to that whole "raveling 200miles for work" thing: just found out today that 2 sisters I know- and their families- are planning on moving to Durant, OK., but are keeping their jobs here in the Dallas/FW Metroplex.

That's a 100 mile one-way trip, daily. For work.

Peeps be cray-cray.

 

[Janx]

Briefly back to that whole "raveling 200miles for work" thing: just found out today that 2 sisters I know- and their families- are planning on moving to Durant, OK., but are keeping their jobs here in the Dallas/FW Metroplex.

That's a 100 mile one-way trip, daily. For work.

Peeps be cray-cray.

that's nuts. Surely Denton is hick town enough and still closer than anything in OK.

 

[Morrus]

Briefly back to that whole "raveling 200miles for work" thing: just found out today that 2 sisters I know- and their families- are planning on moving to Durant, OK., but are keeping their jobs here in the Dallas/FW Metroplex.

That's a 100 mile one-way trip, daily. For work.

Peeps be cray-cray.

See, you find that crazy; I know tons of people who commute that far without a second's thought. Maybe that saying should be reversed!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, consider that a 26 mile commute to their jobs would be @2hours of driving, one way, during rush hour. Their jobs are in law enforcement and medicine, so they'll be in rush hour traffic for at least some shifts. Even assuming that most of that drive is going to be out in the countryside, that's still going to add close to another 1-2 hours each way.

IOW, they're going to be in the car 6-8 hours a day just going to and from work. Add an 8 hour shift plus 6-8 hours of sleep, and what do you have left?

And they have kids...

 

[Morrus]

Well, consider that a 26 mile commute to their jobs would be @2hours of driving, one way, during rush hour. Their jobs are in law enforcement and medicine, so they'll be in rush hour traffic for at least some shifts. Even assuming that most of that drive is going to be out in the countryside, that's still going to add close to another 1-2 hours each way.

IOW, they're going to be in the car 6-8 hours a day just going to and from work. Add an 8 hour shift plus 6-8 hours of sleep, and what do you have left?

And they have kids...

Yup. That describes it about right. I couldn't do it. Some people just don't even think about it. It's a particular skill, I think!

 

[Staffan]

Here in Sweden, the term "un-Swedish" is considered positive. We see ourselves as fairly stiff, regulated, and dull, so when someone does something spontaneous, straight-forward, or exciting, we exclaim "how brilliantly un-Swedish!"

 

[tuxgeo]

Briefly back to that whole "raveling 200miles for work" thing: just found out today that 2 sisters I know- and their families- are planning on moving to Durant, OK., but are keeping their jobs here in the Dallas/FW Metroplex.

That's a 100 mile one-way trip, daily. For work.

Peeps be cray-cray.

Yeah, I couldn't do that either.

I know -- I was faced with exactly that dilemma: I had bought my house in Springfield, OR ("Hi, Simpsons!") in 1979, but got a job in Hillsboro, OR in 1992. Yes, that's more than 100 miles each way.

I kept the house, but rented an apartment in Washington County so my daily commute would be sane.
I rented that apartment for 10 years before I was downsized out of a job.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Depending on the job, doing that makes sense. One of my cousins' dad is a master carpenter currently living in Lancaster, Texas. He relocated there from New Orleans a few years post-Katrina. While he does do work in Texas, he still does a lot of jobs in New Orleans.

But it isn't a daily thing.