Friday, July 11, 2008

Stuff I Love in the U.S., Part 2

Emboldened by the huge response to my last post on this subject (OK, it wasn't a huge response, but three separate individuals commented!), I have decided to tell you some more things I love in the United States.

1. Libraries. A public library is an amazing thing. Books, magazines, movies, music, tax information, all kinds of information - all free. All available to anyone, no matter how much money they have, whether they are citizens or not, whether they are educated or not. Seriously, it makes me tear up just thinking about it.

2. Showers. Yeah, we have showers at home. But the ones here are hot, and have amazing pressure, and I don't have to worry that the water on the roof might run out. (Not that I waste water, of course. I couldn't bring myself to be that relaxed about it.) The water is also clean, so if I get some in my mouth I don't have to worry about that either.

3. Roads. The roads are way, way nicer in this country than they are where I live. They are smooth, well-maintained, nicely signposted. It is a pleasure to travel on them. Which brings me to another thing I like here...

4. Cheap gas. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. Gas costs at least two dollars a gallon more where we live than it does here in the U.S.

5. Trees. The country where I live is very deforested, and while great efforts are being made to reverse this, it's still a huge problem. It never stops making me happy to look around and see trees everywhere.

3 comments:

Amy said...

A road near us was recently repaved. Adam was a little disappointed. He told me he'd really been feeling nostalgic driving down that stretch because it felt like home.

I'm glad you're enjoying the library. The ones here aren't free, at least, not for anyone who lives outside the city limits. It costs us $150 a year for borrowing privileges.

Ruth said...

Wow. I never heard of having to pay for a public library. And that's a LOT. So you're saying that people who live inside the city limits get to use it free?

Anonymous said...

We don't have to pay for a library card from our county library. But we're just a few miles outside the county that has the system that includes 4 counties, so we pay to be a part of that. It's $30 a year. The very first pile we checked out far exceeded $30 worth of books, so it's well worth it.