US versus Europe

Living in a city with several major universities has meant I've hung out with more foreigners in the last five years of my life than in the previous 31. Of course considering those 31 years were spent in two of the whitest states in the country that's not saying much. But I digress. I've chatted a couple of times with a European fellow who works at the large-n-fancy university and he's told me that in Europe they say Americans are mean and dumb (I'm overgeneralizing a bit because I'm tired) but his experience has been the opposite.

He also talks a lot about how much he loves the woods here, partly because there's different plants and critters to see, but also partly because there are woods here. His country of origin, the Netherlands, has mostly farmland, and not a lot of it. He said much of Europe is no longer forest and hasn't been for many years. And by many years he means Roman-era.

(I remember Dr. Moo getting irritated by this dairy royalty guy who'd flown in to try and woo her. She took him hiking in the White Mountains and he didn't say boo. She felt like she'd been personally insulted, because, hey, have you ever hiked in the White Mountains?)

Anyhoo. Team woods!