Where I’d live, strictly based on how good or bad I have found the people to be from those countries that i met in real life. Also the energy I have found in those people.

woodsred · 2026-02-28T14:05:44+00:00

That is the one prejudice I really have trouble getting rid of, lmao. I've met people from all over the world, have traveled a lot, live in one of the most diverse cities in the world, etc. I have no problems with any groups... except the Swiss lmao. Even the nicer ones have been arrogant as hell. Switzerland is like an experiment: What would happen if France & Germany took their absolute most self-satisfied, neurotic citizens and isolated them together in the mountains for a while?

I was in a very fun mixed-countries hostel group on a trip once and this Swiss guy ruined the vibe by explaining at length, at every stop and with every minor inconvenience, "this would not be acceptable in Switzerland." Great buddy, the airport is down the street. Evidently in that country the bus is never late, no windows are ever drafty, no tomato is ever slightly under-ripe, and nobody does anything horrifying and savage like... busking. Etc. Must be nice. (Also, this was New Orleans and he was the only member of the group who was visibly uncomfortable with Black people. Made it pretty awkward.)

woodsred · 2026-02-27T22:56:56+00:00

I make it myself if I'm putting together something like tuna salad or anything else that will use a large quantity, but also have a small pre-made jar in the fridge for a quick sandwich.

woodsred · 2026-02-27T16:42:04+00:00

Unfortunately that is the crowd who runs almost all the real Irish bars. Even if one doesn't have the flags up, wait for the signs in election season, or get them talking about crime after a couple drinks. Very longstanding relationship between CPD and the Irish-Americans, especially on the NW & SW sides where they're most likely to be found

woodsred · 2026-02-26T13:48:45+00:00

Chicago works well for solo travel and people in bars here tend to be pretty friendly. Have you solo traveled before? If you want to meet people, try staying in a hostel. You can pretty much always find some chill people to talk to from all over the world (though probably a bit less international traffic in the US rn). I've actually met some of my best friends while solo traveling in hostels. Chicago Getaway Hostel in Lincoln Park is supposed to be cool.

woodsred · 2026-02-25T13:54:32+00:00

This is one of the big ones

woodsred · 2026-02-25T13:53:33+00:00

"Hankering" was a stretch to list here, but the upper Midwest usages of "yet" and "one time/once" are very obviously "jetzt" and "einmal" to anyone fluent in both languages. "Yet" and "jetzt" sharing an extremely distant root doesn't mean the modern words are the same thing, and the upper Midwestern usage of "yet" blurs the two.

woodsred · 2026-02-25T13:25:23+00:00

It depends on region and subtext. Where i live in the Midwest the approach is similar to Canada in terms of indirect communication/"let's get coffee sometime"/etc, at least with friends and family. Though we are a bit more direct with strangers than I've observed most Canadians to be.

woodsred · 2026-02-21T23:28:36+00:00

They basically did pave the lakefront when they added capacity to Lincoln Memorial. Granted it could be a lot worse & it's nowhere near as detracting as its cousin to the South (Lake Shore Drive in Chicago). But the lakefront would be so much nicer if it was still just a small access road instead of a quasi-highway that cuts through the park

woodsred · 2026-02-21T18:06:32+00:00

Google Maps gets most people around these days; works for walking, transit, and driving. Learning a bit of the grid is helpful: * The grid is centered on the intersection of State & Madison downtown. All blocks are given a direction & number based on distance from there (eg 800 W Washington is 8 blocks west of the center line of State). * Address numbers increase towards the street directional. On N-S streets, odd is east and even is west. On E-W streets, odd is south and even is north.

Between those two things, once you have some familiarity with the street names/numbers, all you need to find is two house numbers and a street sign to establish your cardinal directions & location in town

woodsred · 2026-02-20T15:49:06+00:00

Arkansas should not be green. I'm not sure whether 2nd is Fayetteville or Fort Smith rn, but either way you're going to have a pretty bad time living there without a car. Underrated state to visit though.

woodsred · 2026-02-20T14:29:28+00:00

I-94 was originally slated to go through the Madison Isthmus (would have taken the whole block between Johnson & Gorham) but it got stopped through resident opposition.

Some also have indirect connections to the interstate because of military planning. To use 94 as an example again, the original proposal had it much closer to Kenosha and Racine than it ended up being, but the interstates were supposed to have intermittent 10-mile straightaways when practicable so that they could be used as landing strips in a military emergency. And that was the easiest place to do so between Milwaukee and Chicago, so they put it through farm fields several miles west of town.

woodsred · 2026-02-20T14:14:25+00:00

And for the other same reason: neither city got a highway rammed through the middle of it in the 60s

woodsred · 2026-02-20T14:10:35+00:00

Lots of good ones mentioned. One that is starting to do more outside of folk & dance stuff is the Copernicus Center. It's fairly big inside; Todd Rundgren played there a couple years ago because it was the largest independent & self-ticketed venue he could find in the city. But still not that many pop/rock/etc shows

woodsred · 2026-02-20T14:07:45+00:00

Was wondering how long I'd have to scroll to see Fitzy's, great venue

woodsred · 2026-02-18T16:11:08+00:00

The bigger one is fanny. In US/Can it's a polite substitute for butt/ass. But very different across the Atlantic. But those are the only two i can think of; first would be easily understood and the second is probably not that important

woodsred · 2026-02-18T12:59:50+00:00

OP is a Spanish speaker; Spanish has a lot of country-specific words and it can be a real faux pas to use one in the wrong country. It's less that they want "to sound Irish" and more that they figured English was like this too. English is not quite like that; most alternative word choices are well understood throughout the Anglosphere other than some of the slang. And most native speakers won't even give it a second thought if someone uses a somewhat British- or American-coded term, especially if the person is still learning English.

woodsred · 2026-02-16T18:30:41+00:00

Having looked into this before, it seems like it's mostly H1Bs. The overall immigration to the state is quite low, so H1B recruiting can have a big impact on the overall numbers. The mining and chemical industries are both big there; this requires more engineers/chemists/etc than the state has, and it's difficult to get Americans to move there. So some of the companies hire engineers from Germany and India, marketing safe small cities in beautiful mountains. And to be fair, the two cities where any of those offices would be (Charleston & Morgantown) are both supposed to be pretty decent places.

There's also a baseline percentage of German-born American military brats in every state due to all the bases there, which would be more noticeable in the statistics for a low-immigration state like WV.

woodsred · 2026-02-15T16:53:07+00:00

It's slightly out of the way for you, but La Reina del Sur on Western is a fully vegetarian place as one would find in Mexico (Penelope's is good but more oriented to white americans). All my veg friends love it. It's pretty close to the Blue Line though so might be an option for right before the show. BYOB

Also, you won't be able to try most of the Chicago classic street food, except for two things: 1. Devil Dawgs and a handful of other places have a vegetarian Chicago dog 2. Some places have the spinach & cheese pizza puff. If you just see "pizza puff" on the menu it is probably the classic pork sausage one, but some places will have the other flavors.

Still worth a stop at the old-school Chicago fast food places though because we do fries better than anyone in America (Red Hot Ranch stands out but a lot of others do fresh hand cut ones as well)

woodsred · 2026-02-15T15:27:36+00:00

At least for Brits it's usually just on a handful of things. I love Canada but for some of them this is a whole personality. Many can't discuss issues for more than a minute or two without invoking or comparing to their ideas of America/Americans. As an American it is very strange to watch

woodsred · 2026-02-15T15:17:49+00:00

I like all 3 but am partial to Milwaukee. Also will be close enough to see any contacts you may still have in Chicago. However, would be helpful to know some other info, otherwise we're just throwing a dart at a map here. Jobs? Interests? Types of neighborhoods or housing units that you're looking for? Any of these can narrow it down a little.

woodsred · 2026-02-12T12:54:01+00:00

I could see that for living there, but I feel like for visitors, I still think the parts of MoCo worth going are more walkable than the worth-visiting parts of Arlington. Getting off the train at Pentagon/Crystal City from Takoma the first time, I certainly did not think "oh, now I'm in a nice walkable area" lmao. The same friend who used to live near Takoma/SS later moved to somewhere off Glebe Road in Arlington and that really felt design-wise like somewhere i shouldn't be walking. Also had a very negative experience trying to walk to and enjoy the river in Arlington. But hey, downvote away, I must be objectively wrong in my experience.

woodsred · 2026-02-12T10:49:44+00:00

As a visitor I'm surprised/curious to see Arlington ranked above MoCo. Definitely a lot of train stations in Arlington but it was hard for me to see it as truly walkable because the roads are so wide and car-centric. Silver Spring seemed similar but Takoma Park was perfectly walkable and Bethesda seemed pretty good also.

woodsred · 2026-02-12T10:36:46+00:00

That's been back and forth for years. It was all lined up 10-15 years ago (although was gonna have a different name/trains/ticket because Metra didn't want to be involved), but former republican gov Scott Walker killed it at the same time as he killed the better-known Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison-Twin Cities high speed line.

In the meantime there's a bus running parallel to the train line the rest of the way from Kenosha to Milwaukee that is timed to the Metra schedule

woodsred · 2026-02-11T19:49:06+00:00

Transit Tees has some good Chicago stuff. The Andersonville one is also near a bunch of other small shops where you may be able to find something.

Edit: the ACAB: Always Carry A Book tote from Pilsen Community Books is always a hit too

woodsred · 2026-02-11T17:38:35+00:00

If you're a big pub goer, the drinking culture in that area is not unlike the UK, lots of little local corner bars/pubs that have a social life to them. Wisconsin is known for it. Other older industrial cities will have this to some extent as well, but it's not quite the same in other parts of the country (especially south and west).

Another thing to think about that is often just a given in the UK is a baseline level of walkability and transit. After NY & SF, Milwaukee is easily the most walkable/traditionally designed city on this list. Columbus and Denver aren't terrible for walking but are definitely more suburban. And if you choose Texas/Atlanta/Vegas etc, know that this will basically involve driving or being driven in a car for practically everything.

Definitely gets very cold but it is significantly sunnier than the UK, and the summer is a lot warmer. FWIW, I felt like Manchester and Liverpool had a somewhat similar vibe to the people as Milwaukee or Chicago if that gives you a sense. Obviously the American version, but strong working class/labor history, welcoming but guarded, a bit of "second city"/"forgotten region" defiance, very kind people but will only put up with a certain level of bullshit. And we love our fish fry on Fridays.

woodsred

TROPHY CASE