What I think of America

This blog post will be about what I associate with America and what pops into my head when someone says the word “America”.

Although I’m aware of the fact that America is a whole continent and not just one country, the first thing I think of when someone says America, is the USA. I have already written a paragraph of what I think of the USA (http://idangv.blogspot.no/2012/11/the-usa.html), but Barack Obama isn’t the only thing I associate with the US:

Junk food. Maybe the most common thought associated with the USA. It is no secret that the Americans eat a lot of junk food.

Gossip Girl, one of my favorite TV-shows. If I don’t picture an American person eating junk food, I picture them as rich and good looking, but devious and ruthless.

If I’m asked to tell you what I think of America round the USA, I think of Canada and then I think of bears.

I’ve been to Canada once, we spent five days in Calgary and then five days up in the mountains. My family and I really love to go skiing, and we got to see great parts of Canadian nature while we were doing that. So that’s why I think of a bear: because we saw one up in the mountains while we were skiing. The bear is also my favorite animal.

So that’s what I think of America: the USA, junk food, Gossip Girl, Canada and grizzly bears. Quite an interesting mix, I think, but that’s what makes America so exiting: a great diversity of things typical for this big continent. 

New Zealand: The kiwi bird

The kiwi bird is the national bird in New Zealand, and can only be found here. It can’t fly, just like the ostrich. Unfortunately, the kiwi birds are endangered, as it’s an easy target for other animals, and it’s often killed by cars.

There are five different types of kiwi birds: the great spotted Kiwi, the little spotted kiwi, the okarito kiwi, the southern brown kiwi and the north island brown kiwi.

Picture

The kiwi birds eat bugs and insects, and use their long beak to search for worms and other insects in the ground. It has a very good sense of smell, and the kiwi bird’s nostrils are located at the tip of its beak.

As the kiwi bird’s wings are very small and its skeleton isn’t hollow like other birds, it can’t fly. But the kiwi bird’s legs are very strong, and it sure can run!

A very cute thing about this strange bird is that when the kiwi male and female comes together, they will most commonly be a couple for the rest of their lives. They will help each other protect the egg or chicken, that’s the most important task for the kiwis, the kiwi bird only lays one or two eggs per year. A kiwi bird’s egg is actually the largest egg in the world according to the bird’s body weight!

Sources:

http://www.norea.no/malsider/artikkel/article/83262

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwi_bird

The UK: England

Basics:

Capital: London              
Language: English
Population: 53,013,000 (2011)
Size: 244110 km2
Monetary unit: pound
GDP: 16900 $
National day: 2. Saturday in June
International organisation: EU, UN, NATO, OECD
Religion: Christianity-Protestant
(wikipedia.org)

England is the largest country in the Great Britain, both in areal and population. There are more than 53 million people living in England, which is almost 83 % of the total population in GB. London is the capital of England, and also the capital of the UK (=England, Whales, Scotland and North Ireland). London is also the largest city, both in areal and in population. England is probably the first country you think of according to the language English: English is the one and only main language in England. (wikipedia.org)

This is the English flag: 

(picture from http://fotballmagasinet.no/?mode=news&query=lag%3ASpain)

…And here’s the flag of Great Britain:
 
(Picture from http://www.reiseverdenrundt.com/storbritannia-sin-historie-geografi-demografi-og-all-fakta-du-b%C3%B8r-kunne/)

England borders to Whales, Scotland, the Irish sea, North sea, English channel and the Celtic sea. 

(Picture from  http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/europe/england/)

The current prime minister in England (and the UK) is David Cameron, from the Conservative party. The parties which makes up the Government today is the Conservative party, the Labor Party and the Liberal Party. (wikipedia.org)

The English school system is a bit different from the Norwegian school system. To illustrate this, here’s a picture comparing the school systems in Norway, the US and England: 

(Picture from http://ndla.no/en/node/76071)

England has a temperate maritime climate with mild temperatures. The precipitation pr year is mostly below 1000 mm, the rain is spread troughout the year. (snl.no)

As a highly industrialized country, England has a well-structured trade infrastructure. Among other things, England as an industry produces machine tools, electric power equipment, ships, aircrafts, etc. Some of England’s major export partners are the US, Germany and the Netherlands. (economywatch.com)

The people living in England are known to be very polite. They often use the word “please”, sometimes it might seem like they’re using it at the end of every sentence. We find the most polite ones in the southern part of England, where they treat strangers politely and correctly. The people from the northern part of England are considered as more talkative and social, and refer to the southerners as snobs, while the people in south consider northerners as lazy and primitive. (ndla.no)

“The tube” is a famous underground in London (London Underground). Here are some fun facts about the Tube:

1. In London the tube route from Leicester Square to Covent Garden is the most popular tube route for tourists despite the fact that it is actually quicker to cover this distance on foot!

2. The tube system, despite being the first and the largest underground system in the world, is also the most unreliable and the costliest.

3. The 409 escalators in the London subway cover a distance every week which is approximately equivalent to several trips around the globe! (venere.com)

(Picture from http://blogabooketc.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/london-underground/)

I’ve been to England three times (all times in London), the last time was last summer during the Olympics. Me and my family are very into volleyball, so we went to 5 volleyball matches, two beach volleyball semi-finals, to indoor semi-finals and the women’s indoor final. As we had already been to London twice, we didn’t do so much sightseeing, but we did some shopping (of course!). It’s kind of fascinating to walk down Oxford Street (the most famous shopping street in London), there are so many different people there, all speaking different languages, wearing very different clothes and acting so differently.

Sources


EconomyWatch Content: "England Trade, England Exports, England Imports"
http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/england/export-import.html
Anne Scott Hagen: "The North - South divide
http://ndla.no/en/node/5583?fag=42&meny=2149
Svein Askheim: "Englands natur" (for snl)
http://snl.no/England/natur

Venere Travel Blog: "19 fun facts about the UK"
http://www.venere.com/blog/uk-fun-facts/

Wikipedia: "David Cameron"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cameron
Wikipedia: England
http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/England