An american internet friend just asked me

Does your toilet spin backwards?

Sometimes I like to pretend the stereotype of the stupid fat American isn't actually true

I have also been asked this. Well, not in such a presumptuous way; more a curious "Do you guys change the date of Christmas so you can celebrate in winter?".

I responded "Why is Christmas generally celebrated in December?" and got nothing but a confused look in reply.

To be honest, I wondered about that until my early teens.

The northern hemisphere is sort of the arrogant WHERE'S MY EMPIRE WHAT SORT OF AN EXCUSE IS THAT WELL CONQUER THEM FASTER IMBECILE CONQUER THEM NOW FOR ALL MUST BOW BEFORE ME AND DO THINGS MY WAY WE ARE THE SUPREME BEINGS EXTERMINATE EXTERMINATE EXTERMINATE hemisphere.

Americans dont celebrate Boxing Day

That might possibly be a point in their favour.


I mean, we celebrate a holiday for which no-one - not even the most ardent historians - can explain the origin. Is that a sign of national sanity?



Australia also gets a public holiday for the Queen's birthday two months after her birthday. And Victorians get a day off for a horse race. But that's neither here nor there.

Djiboutians don't celebrate Defender of the Fatherland Day.

I told an American I was from Denmark, and she asked me if it was in Colorado. She may have misheard it as "Denver" though... A lot of people do.

My American friends thought I was from Greenland, because on the class map, it had the word Denmark in parentheses under it.

And my Danish friends thought I was from England despite my heavy American accent, and me having told them so.

Was that Cammy? Please tell me that was Cammy.

Leto, you aren't exactly superbly lithe yourself. Your face looks like an adorable ham.

It's sort of weird for us northerners to think of getting off school for summer just before the biggest holiday of the year.

The silliest part is that Jesus was born in the spring.

Christmas is a time chosen to celebrate it; not the time it happened. It's a celebration, not an anniversary.

And yes, the date was chosen to sit on top of a pagan festival as part of a plan to convert said pagans.

Ach, ye daft proselytisers. Shed be moor like them Zoroastrians, ye ken.

No, Cammy has a brain.

Awww.

Well...he wasn't adorable then D:

So why did she need to ask you the location of Denver? Clearly a geography fail on top of a auralfail.

I fail to see how that's a problem. I mean, you're going to be off school anyway. Doesn't it just make sense for the school year to line up with the calendar year?

It's weird for me at least. I've always associated Christmas with winter, not in the summer when you're off school. I've also always known Christmas is celebrated at the same time round the world (unless you're orthodox), but it still feels kind of strange. I guess it's an easy misconception to make for someone with less common sense. I only just found out that most schools in Peru have their vacation months during our winter months. However, my original misconception was supported by a few things when I first got here.