my favorite thing in the whole wide world is when white people try to give interesting facts about themselves and try to make themselves sound worldly
and the best they can come up with is "I studied Japanese in college" or "I lived in China...for two months."
like IDK I lived in Japan for a year on my own where I had to work and pay rent and get healthcare but it doesn't feel like something to brag about so much as a fact of life that usually gets dragged out of me unless it's relevant to the conversation
like you want a cookie for venturing outside the US to some ~exotic foreign land~?
@guerrillarain this feels like it must be a fairly american thing. like, there's definitely annoying clueless white guys who do this here too, but most people have the good sense to realize it's not a huge deal. but I get the impression most people in the US don't even have a passport?
@nergdron @guerrillarain I'm nearly 30, and I've never had a passport.
@ajroach42 @nergdron @guerrillarain Blimey!
I've had one since I was 14, and that's considered quite late compared to my peers! (Package holidays in the Mediterranean are all the rage in Britain)
@bobstechsite @ajroach42 @nergdron Not sure about cost in other places, but the passports here are also absurdly expensive. I think I spent about $160 to I get mine when I was a college student who also had to miss work for the appointment. (and I only got it bc I needed it to finish undergrad and the travel was via scholarship 😫)
@guerrillarain @ajroach42 @bobstechsite That does seem very high. It costs $160 Canadian here (roughly $125 USD), but that's for one good for 10 years. so $12.50 a year isn't too onerous. certainly if you can afford to travel you can afford that.
@guerrillarain @ajroach42 @nergdron For us it's £72.50 for adults and £46 for kids under 16.
https://www.gov.uk/passport-fees