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Post by Fantasma da Opera on Apr 22, 2007 8:47:01 GMT -5
Yes it would be easier to separate in Northern - Central - Southern Europe. But when I consider Finland Eastern Europe I'm just talking in a geographic point of view. The Soviet block is a thing of the Past and hopefuly will never come back. I never saw Finns as soviets...on the contrary...I love the Nordic Countries (altough I think I'm atracted by the *blond hair/blue eyes* thing...we have almost no natural blonds here...so Finland, Norway and Sweden are kind of *paradise on earth* )
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Post by Andreas on Apr 22, 2007 11:56:43 GMT -5
I think there's not a real definition for dividing Europe. But probably, all of us still have the Eastern Bloc - thing in our minds, and I know it's not right, but I'd consider each country to the east of Austria as a part of Eastern Europe. Which is definately not true! Btw, is there an official definition for Eastern Europe? Considering Finland: just call it a part of Scandinavia
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Post by Valancy on Apr 22, 2007 13:50:27 GMT -5
Considering Finland: just call it a part of Scandinavia That's what I normally do, especially since I don't care one bit whether it's Western or Eastern, but many people in my country tend to flip out if we're associated with Eastern Europe because it still has certain connotations that don't quite match with us. Though geographically, we're obviously more to the east than the rest of them. People here can just be frightfully silly about things like that. I just originally wanted to inform that I decided to put Finland into Western Europe because I wasn't sure which way it was actually intended, given that "countries originally in the EU" can be read in various ways and it didn't entirely make sense anyway because of countries like Switzerland which definitely aren't Eastern but also aren't in the EU. I'm afraid one has to be very precise with definitions of Eastern and Western Europe, no matter how one defines them, otherwise someone will always be uncertain about where one belongs. And hee, Fantasma da Opera. I on the contrary see too much blond hair around here. Am kind of glad I'm not a blonde myself.
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Post by lapislazuli on Apr 22, 2007 14:00:54 GMT -5
I also can't decide, whether Austria is Western or Eastern Europe, because i don't see it belong to any of both and a bit to each of them. I would rather like to have a section for Central Europe. BTW - to add to the discussion about hair colours I spent half a year in Sweden and there I sometimes saw people with blond hair - but almost no-one with a natural hair-colour (an if there was anyone it turned out, that he or she was not Swedish ...)
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Post by Valancy on Apr 22, 2007 15:07:41 GMT -5
Yeah, Austria is another difficult one in the middle. It would make more sense to divide Europe into at least western, eastern, central and Scandinavia, though I believe the reason why there aren't more divisions was that the board poll function didn't allow that. But definitions get tricky.
In Finland, of course, not nearly all people are blond-haired, but when I spent a year in France, I did notice that far fewer people were blond there. But it was weird once when I was corresponding on e-mail with a Russian guy and sent him my photo, and he'd scarcely believe that I was really Finnish because I wasn't blonde. Really, you'd imagine someone not further away than that wouldn't think that all Finns have blond hair! Stereotypes are amusing.
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Post by Fantasma da Opera on Apr 22, 2007 18:24:53 GMT -5
Yes they are lol... Well I guess if Finns were all blonds I would have emigrated to Finland a long time ago:P
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Post by demica on May 1, 2007 5:18:26 GMT -5
i'm from austria. what shall i vote? eastern part of europe?
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Post by Andreas on May 1, 2007 5:26:24 GMT -5
I voted Western Europe. Actually, why is it "UK & Western Europe" and not just "Western Europe"? UK is a part of Europe, isn't it?
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Post by demica on May 1, 2007 5:44:45 GMT -5
you're right.
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Post by Fantasma da Opera on May 1, 2007 10:02:10 GMT -5
Austria would be Weastern Europe...the "official" separation was made acording to the former "iron curtain". And then they continued to use it. As for U.K...I once had a friend that said: We have Europe and U.K. As if U.K was another continent lol. If U.K is not included in "Europe" because of European Union matters...then they do very well. Or then, it was just devided acording to Theater tradition: So West End separated from the rest of Europe's Theater
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Post by Andreas on May 1, 2007 11:57:43 GMT -5
Hey, the UK is part of the EU! But it isn't member of the monetary union and not a full member in the Schengen agreement either.
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Post by IchBinRory on May 1, 2007 15:37:13 GMT -5
I'll basically just say we're messed up. It really isn't our fault. In Northern Ireland we want Independance and to join the Republic in the EU. But however since we're the less valued member of the UK we don't have an opinion. It's sad really...
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Post by Fantasma da Opera on May 1, 2007 18:01:45 GMT -5
Hey, the UK is part of the EU! But it isn't member of the monetary union and not a full member in the Schengen agreement either. I didn't said Uk wasn't. I was just saying they are not the more enthusiastic member. And honestly...I think they are right. I would prefer Portugal to leave the EU but...I can't decide that by myself. As for Northern Irland...yeh I guess the situation is a bitt tricky there...at least for what I've studied in English Classes...
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Post by IchBinRory on May 2, 2007 10:08:54 GMT -5
As for Northern Irland...yeh I guess the situation is a bitt tricky there...at least for what I've studied in English Classes... Trust me it is. Even I don't know what's going on sometimes.
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Post by Valancy on May 2, 2007 15:16:13 GMT -5
I didn't said Uk wasn't. I was just saying they are not the more enthusiastic member. But if Europe gets defined by who is an enthusiastic member of the EU, then we'll soon end up with Europe consisting mainly of Belgium. Ah, defining Europe is such a tricky business. Nobody seems to really have a good definition. I'm a sixth-year student of international relations with a focus on European studies, and I seem to have mainly learned that defining Europe is a very confusing thing indeed and nobody really seems to have an idea of what it is. Ah, the joys of academic education.
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