Choose the best continent

That´s interesting. Is there some sort of "fight" / rivalry between the different states? How is that possible for the states in the Midwest like Oklahoma or Wyoming when their borders are all drawn by latitude and longitude? I mean what is for example the difference between North and South Dakota?

That´s for example fun to see in Germany, the Länder (states) were drawn after WWII with different cultures and once kingdoms, so we have a mix of different regions, like North-Rhine Westphalia which consists of different parts of Prussia, Eastern Westphalia, a kingdom called Schaumburg and Lippe, etc...

My question is actually that culture evolved after the implementation of new states to the US, which is in most cases not even 200 years ago.

Ooh, that's interesting! I didn't know that!

I am absolutely terrible at history so don't quote me on this whatsoever -- but I feel like America has a ton of different sub-cultures based on who settled where, if that makes sense? Like Louisiana has a very strong Creole/Cajun influence. I'm still new to the more western part of America, but I now live in Oklahoma and there is a very strong Native American influence here -- I think the same for like Kansas and Arizona and New Mexico, too. Then more Hispanic influences in the south west as well. I've never been to the northern states but my impression is they share a lot of Canadian culture (and definitely have the "eh" and "ope" stereotypical phrases and accent haha)

And then I grew up in West Virginia, which is the only state that is completely encapsulated in the Appalachians (they're a large mountain range in the eastern part of the country that spans multiple states -- but WV is entirely contained therein and is the only state that is). And Appalachian culture is... idk, it's hard to describe. My mom claims that we had mostly Irish and Italian immigrants settle here, but I don't know how true that is, and it's not immediately obvious if that's the case -- like, no one has those accents in the present day.

But, like, there are distinctive accents in different parts of the country. And there is a particular Appalachian dialect that is? apparently? difficult to understand? I'm not a great metric here haha because the overwhelming majority of people I can understand without effort unless their accent is super - super - super strong, and even then, I usually don't have trouble with it. But I've been finding ever since I left that people from other states have a really hard time understanding Appalachian accents. I don't actually have one because I have a speech disability and grew up with a speech therapist, who in fact forbade me from developing the usual speech patterns/accents typical for our area haha. But I don't find them difficult to understand in the least and am always very surprised when my friends will ask me to "translate" for them because they don't understand the accent haha

That's true. I once saw a map with the immigrants and how the different cultures developed from them. That's fascinating for me. I think that's something you should actually learn in school, along with the American influence after WWII. Especially how that developed.

I read that you can go hiking in Appalachia, but WV is at a disadvantage because it's completely in the mountains. But in terms of nature, the US is a gigantic sandbox of possibilities, I think that's also something that many people from Europe overlook, they only know the big cities, which all look the same at first glance, but not the different natural regions.

That is also something I would like to explore, how the dialects have developed there, which is also in a period of about 200 - 300 years. (The USA is not that old).

I´ve always read a lot that Oregon and Washington are nice states to live in and I had applied to work in Washington for some time, but because of COVID that got cancelled.

Aww sorry to hear that! I went to Washington for the first time in August of last year. It's very pretty but absurdly expensive cost of living and also very cold haha so I would never want to live there but it was nice to visit and I'm planning to visit this summer too for a conference~

Maybe this year will be better.

I prefer coldness over heat. I guess the expensive costs of living can be reduced by living in a cave with a bear. xD But yeah, Canada is also really cool to explore. I´m happy to work at a company that is nearly everywhere in the world, where I could apply to move somewhere.

But I´m also looking for a new job in a large international company to get the possibility to travel.

What conference? Something about your topic of bioluminescence?

Ooh that'd be really cool!

And kind of! It's the biggest fish conference in the states -- so a ton of different research topics are presented there. I'm not presenting this year, but I got an award last year to pay for this year's costs so I'm still going to attend. It's a ton of fun. Get to nerd out to a bunch of fish nerds about fish haha super looking forward to showing off my tattoo this year

Congratulations on that! That´s really cool.

Oh yeah, you showed your tattoo here.

Thanks! Yeah, it's a lot of fun ^-^ Last year I volunteered through a student program and it was a hybrid meeting because of COVID and so things went SO poorly hahaha it was SO stressful but it wasn't my fault but I was still embarrassed and I think people could tell because I had like 5 different people I didn't know come up to me throughout the rest of the week and tell me that they didn't envy what I'd gone through and that I held it together well and it just made me very happy that I now know people there instead of just following around my advisor hahah

Oh my. That reminds me that one day I should prepare some kick-off meetings with club managers from all of Germany when the pandemic just started xD I worked from 7 am to 7 pm without break to organise everything for a weekend. That was horror and still, it was satisfying.

In the end, I was sitting with a student that helped me at the stairs of the opera house listening to some random guy playing the violin in the evening...

That is absolutely horrific yeesh

Yes, the worst part was, that the CEO was like "I did it" and I was really mad. I usually don´t get mad at things, but that was awful and my department could see that I didn´t was in the mood to get asked anything. They didn´t speak to me the next few days out of fear.

At least some months later I lost the job due to the Pandemic and found a new better place. yay.

Definitely north America.

Do you count Mexico as part of North America or only Canada and the US?

I know you didn’t ask me haha but I count Mexico as part of North America. The fish I researched was from Mexico to Honduras and when I’m talking about it’s native range I always say “Mexico and middle America” not just middle America haha

Everybody is allowed to answer.

Nice. We learned in school that Middle America is its own continent with the Caribbean.