I'm from the US and I was at the mall early this morning and I saw a bunch of mall walkers. If yall don't know what mall walkers are, they're basically these people that drive to the mall (usually older) just to walk laps around it and get exercise in a climate-controlled environment. I was wondering if this was just an american thing (because our cities aren't pedestrian friendly) or if people in other countries do this as well.

Me and my friend were wondering what are the best way or websites to find the cheap busses and trains to travel around europe, already know about flixbus and omio but i feel like its always way pricier than what people say

Of course some societies are more private and others less private in general, but I mean relative to that baseline, how much privacy do teens and children get?

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So I live in a part of the US where you have to coat yourself in bug repellent from April through November or you're gonna contract a fatal disease any minute now.

I know you have bitey bugs where you live, but I'm really curious how, in your movies, people roll around in tall grass, lounge on bare ground and generally don't have any adverse bug affects. This question is based on my centuries of watching British movies, just fyi.

I asked this in a UK subreddit and ended up reading all sorts of memories, from school discos to family holidays and ordinary moments people hadn’t thought about in years.

I’d love to hear how this differs across Europe.

What’s the track, which country are you from, and what memory does it bring back?

I know this will vary wildly by country, but what do finances look like for an average person where you are from? How much savings, investments and debts do people generally have? Do people even invest and can they, or do they generally rely on some kind of retirement system from companies or the government? Do people save tons of cash over their lifetime when they don't have to pay outrageous healthcare costs and college tuitions? Curious to see how the other side generally lives and survives.

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Or why not cast votes toward a candidate of your choice that wants to reform the system?

I will use France, Italy and Poland as examples, although I have nothing against these countries. My aim is simply to understand how the system works.

I do not understand why countries with enormous public debts, such as France and Italy, have to contribute more money to the European Union than they receive, while countries like Poland, which have lower levels of public debt, receive more EU funding.

This does not seem logical to me. How are these contributions and payments decided?

In my view, countries with high levels of public debt should not be expected to finance countries that are less wealthy but have lower levels of debt. If Poland needs more money for development, why can it not borrow the money itself rather than rely on contributions from other EU member states?

Because with this system, France and Italy will be bankrupt in the future while Poland will thrive.

More specifically Norway, UK (Scotland), or Sweden. I’ve been to Europe a few times now already and will be visiting family in Frankfurt next month.

It’s truly a place I’d love to live in long term, was sad to leave London and Paris. There’s more I wish to explore.

The goal is to stay long term, so I don’t see any point to youth mobility if they’re going to boot me out after 1-2 years is x country.

I’ve worked in public service for over a year now and completed post grad studies in information management this year, after completing BA a few years beforehand. I work in the IM sector too now

Do you have any advice or suggestions moving forward? Thanks

Hungary has a few strong candidates, but pörkölt is my winner. In photos it can look like brown sadness in a bowl, then you eat it with nokedli and suddenly life makes sense.

What’s your country’s version?

If the democratic institutions do not respect the will of the people nor serve their interests, what's the legitimacy of them and of the laws issued by them? If there's no justice why should the people respect the law? In those cases do you believe violence is justified or for you it is never justified?

If it's not justified, what forms of peaceful protest do you suggest to achieve protestors demands?

Could you explain why they're just not competitive and is it even possible to make them competitive?

As a ordinary nobody, zazen coach, my observation is that, in Zen Buddhism, true peace begins when we cultivate non-reactivity and compassion, questioning the cycles of fear and violence that often drive human primates conflict.

​Given the changing geopolitical landscape across Europe, the conversation surrounding military spending and rearmament has shifted dramatically.

​From a civil liberties perspective:

​Do you feel comfortable and safe taking to the streets or speaking out publicly against war and militarism in your country?

​Have you noticed a change in how public anti-war or peace protests are perceived or treated by law enforcement and the general public?

🙏

I wonder what this would even look like given different accounts of the same event given who was a “victor”

I live on the border of tornado alley, this is as close as I’ll get. I’ve lived in the Midwest all my life so tornado warnings and watches follow basically every storm I’ve ever experienced. I’m always terrified and in awe about the power of tornadoes that are produced in tornado alley, but I think them being normalized has made me go “oh that’s wild, anyway”.

So I’m curious on any European takes or experiences (if you’ve been lucky or unlucky enough to get caught in a storm that produced at least one).

Thanks!

Hello there!

Welcome to our daily scheduled post, the Daily Slow Chat.

If you want to just chat about your day, if you have questions for the moderators (please mark these [Mod] so we can find them), or if you just want talk about oatmeal then this is the thread for you!

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The mod-team wishes you a nice day!

As an American with some fears and doubts about the upcoming election in the USA (from ICE at polling places, to conspiracy theories about Elon's Starlink changing the votes via battery back up devices, to Trump's loyalists in positions to oversee elections in many states), I was wondering what other developed democracies do to make elections safe from meddling?

Do any of your countries use voting machines without paper trails, like some US areas? Do you do mandatory audits? Do any of you feel like there's a way Russia or China could hack your voting systems, or is the problem of safe voting solved somewhere?

Portuguese here: would have to be Miguel Torga's Contos da Montanha for me. He wrote it in the early 1940s when Portugal was submerged in a dictatorship and so much of the country was living in abject poverty. It's a collection of short stories set in a small town in the Northeast of Portugal and the tragedies, sacrifices, struggles and faint hopes of their lives. It's very funny but also just so heart-breaking. It was banned in Portugal and had to be published in Brasil.

You can read an assorted collection of the short stories from it and the second volume, Novos Contos da Montanha, in English here, although I can't vouch for the translation.

I don't think that she is as bad as some people claim her to be. She seems to be quite level-headed, yet it seems that a lot of people in the EU hate her.

Are organised sports part of the curriculum in your country’s schools or do you join clubs in your spare time in your local communities?

Also, do sports play a prominent part in university life or are they just recreational activities independent of the academic institution?

From my own experience, I went to a private boys’ school in England, which was quite academic and yet there was almost more emphasis on sport! I also went to one of our older and more traditional universities. It was divided into colleges, which competed against each other in a wide range of sports. Sports were entirely voluntary (unlike school, where they were obligatory), but I continued with Rugby and Cricket.

The experience of some of my friends from other European countries had been quite different and so I would be interested to hear your perspectives.

For example in Greece that would be a toast (τοστ in Greek) and a toaster (τοστιερα in Greek).

In Greece a toast (τοστ) is a hot sandwich usually with ham and cheese. And a toaster (τοστιερα) is what you would call a panini or sandwich maker