Culture exchange

[IsabellaTheSlut]

(05-10-2016, 07:49 PM)CBM97 Wrote:

(05-10-2016, 07:15 PM)IanParis Wrote:

(05-09-2016, 03:05 PM)CBM97 Wrote: Hello, can you give us some good recipe for good meal?

lechon ! sisig ! hot oysters with cheese ! (philippines have good footing !)

Sorry, I can't make some putas for you, I'm a bad cook.

I can make some schnitzel together with some fries and a really good sauce. (^-^)

[GuyByThePond]

(05-10-2016, 08:19 PM)IsabellaTheSlut Wrote:

(05-10-2016, 07:49 PM)CBM97 Wrote:

(05-10-2016, 07:15 PM)IanParis Wrote:

(05-09-2016, 03:05 PM)CBM97 Wrote: Hello, can you give us some good recipe for good meal?

lechon ! sisig ! hot oysters with cheese ! (philippines have good footing !)

Sorry, I can't make some putas for you, I'm a bad cook.

I can make some schnitzel together with some fries and a really good sauce. (^-^)

is it actually a strangely erotic thought this recipe inspires me ?

[Simple Tania]

(05-10-2016, 07:49 PM)CBM97 Wrote:

(05-10-2016, 07:15 PM)IanParis Wrote:

(05-09-2016, 03:05 PM)CBM97 Wrote: Hello, can you give us some good recipe for good meal?

lechon ! sisig ! hot oysters with cheese ! (philippines have good footing !)

Sorry, I can't make some putas for you, I'm a bad cook.

interesting that recipe... putas!!! that's a dish a lot of guys in Portugal appreciate

[GuyByThePond]

(Sticking back to the cultural exchange thing).

I won't speak of France...
It would be a long and probably boring subject.

I'd rather speak of my neighborhood in Paris.
I live in a place called "La Goutte d'Or" (the golden drop), the littel africa.
It's the area delimited by subway stations "Chateau Rouge", "Barbes" (on line 4) and "Marcadet Poissonniers", "Marx Dormoy" (on line 12) - notice a real parisian speaks in subway stations.
Maybe some of you got down at Chateau Rouge looking for the "Sacre Coeur", and maybe I helped you find your way ;-) (cross barbes, going up to rue de clignancourt, then right on rue Andre del Sarte, then follow...)
"La goutte d'or" is surely not the fanciest part of Paris, but it's one of the liveliest... and i'm pretty sure it'll become as trendy as Abbesses (on the other side of the "Butte Montmartre", the hill on which Sacre Coeur is, near Pigalle, our "red quarter") in a few years.

178 nationalities jumbled together.

The whole african community coming to shop african products, students, young tourists (there is a youth hostel not far), young parents and old chaps, gays, left wing activists, many artists, african designers and models, even porn actors.
Probably the only place in the world where you can find in the same street a mosque, a (very good) wine seller and a hen house that sells live chicken :-)

When you get out of Chateau Rouge, and if it is a saturday, you'll be overwhelmed by the crowd buying fake Vuitton bags or sunglasses, "carolight" (a lightening skin product), peanuts/corn/safou or ginger juices to the hawkers in the makeshift market of rue Poulet.

Other places of note: the Islamic Cultures Institute (with sauna !), Garage Mu (if you like partying in a garage), Ground Control (former train depot being converted in a bar/restaurants/gardens area - the hot place to be this summer in Paris). 

The 104 (former funeral parlors of Paris), is not so far to the east. Here you can see art shows, young people performing (dance, theater, circus, ...), have a quick lunch, sit on a transat to read a book you took in the "libraby in a van", relax doing qui gong, mingle in any event some of the start ups there set up...
If you want to eat, go to the Affre street, near Eglise Saint Bernard, to "Le tout monde" (fusion food, with good, fresh products) or "Bella donna" (best pizza I know in Paris).

So, next time you get lost at Chateau Rouge while looking for Sacre Coeur, don't be frightened by the rumble on this side of boulevard Barbes. Embrace it. Take a walk.
And if you're really lost, probably this big guy who speaks good english with an awful french accent will help you ;-)

[Cath]

Hey! Hey! Hey! Don't let this thread die! Why isn't there someone to share some culture with us? Come on! Don't be shy!

[Barbiesque]

Just a little video of my fav. town in my region (Transylvania) of Romania.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpn2zLediB8

[busyman1]

Howdy, y'all.
Moscow, Russia here.  A rather strange place for an american to live, I guess.  Although I was born in Russia, in it's Eastern reaches, right on the border with China (Amur river).  The country spans 11 time zones.  Has just about every type of climate possible, depending on location.  Monstrous reserves of natural resources, mostly inaccessible (rather, too costly to access for industrial purposes).
Pretty unique culture - on one hand, rather like the British (as per one of the previous posts), where trying to talk to a stranger (in a large city, at any rate) will get you a nasty look, and you have a 50/50 chance of being totally ignored.  On the other hand, if you are not ignored (or if you are in a smaller town, village, etc.) - after striking up a conversation you will probably learn the full history of the person you are talking to, all his immediate and distant relatives, the town you are in, the country in general, their political views, personal problems, etc....  You get the picture.  Somewhere in there you may actually get an answer to your original question of "how do I get to..."  
Russians make the best friends and worst enemies.  With hardly anything in-between.  One of a few cultures (may even be unique in this) to have never started a war of conquest.  And to have never lost a war, to my knowledge.  
Used to have a really good education system, until the introduction of the standardized testing (equivalent of american SATs) which turned education into business and severely affected quality.  Despite that, Russians continue being among some of the most ingenious folks, able to reach their goals using strange and non-standard methods.
Russians en masse are patriotic to a fault, bordering on racist, yet at the same time - very accepting of any race, creed and culture, as long as they do not offend their sense of patriotism.  This is probably best described by the saying "He who comes to us with a sword - dies by the sword".  How this fact can co-exist with so many Russians who belittle their own country, government and heritage at every opportunity sill astounds me.
Russia is a great country to visit, with plenty of interesting things and places to see.  It is also a great place to live, provided your income is above middle-class (by Moscow standards, which means "friggin rich" by the standards of any other city below a couple million population).
I live in the Moscow suburbs, about 12 miles outside city proper, and cost of living is definitely lower here than even on the outskirts of Moscow.  Having lived half my life in US, I find living in Russia simpler, easier and cheaper.
Not sure what else to add    Oh...  Don't believe everything you hear in the news    Russians aren't war-hungry monsters.  We're actually very laid-back, and extremely slow to anger.  If one does manage to truly piss us off, though...  Well, it's best to be as far away as possible until we calm down.  And that tends to apply to separate individuals and the nation as a whole.

[Simple Tania]

Very good explanation busyman, well whatever the country there are good and bad persons, unfortunately we tend to 'catalogue' a country by his bad persons instead the good ones, something that really sucks! as for losing a war, hmmm...maybe in Afghanistan, sort of, but that's because the Americans send Rambo, hihihi (just a small joke to relieve the heavy theme).
Big kiss

[Cath]

By he way, do you know where you can find a mercenary training school in Russia? I know there are some.

[busyman1]

Afghanistan was not exactly a war, and was not exactly lost It was the one bungled attempt a playing the same game US is playing, "peacekeeping" and "helping the oppressed". After a while it became apparent that there is no future in that, especially in the Afghan terrain, and Russia simply picked up and left, cutting its losses. Really, the only reason for that "war" was preventing NATO and the US from gaining control of Afghanistan and establishing it's military bases close to the then-Soviet borders. And that was, in fact, accomplished, as history shows, so whether it was won or lost is a big question.
CBM - private military contracting is illegal in Russia, so you would not find any legal PMC training facilities here. And do try not to refer to PMCs as mercenaries, they tend to dislike the moniker.