Please allow me to introduce myself, DU members
...hope I haven't infringed on any Rolling Stones copyrights!
Hello, DU, my name is Greg. I currently reside in Atlanta, GA, with my wife of 13 years, Ivana. We met while I was living and working in Prague, Czech Republic. We have no children. We moved to Atlanta from Palm Beach, FL two years ago, where we had lived since moving from Prague in 2005. We moved to Atlanta to be closer to my mom, who is getting up in years and ill of health, not to mention a job offer managing a medium-sized real estate law firm that was too good to refuse. My father passed away in 2010. My wife works from home for a large health insurance carrier.
My family is a family of immigrants- my father's family moved from Denmark to a farm in Iowa during the Great Depression, my Dutch/German mother immigrated at age 19 from Germany to Milwaukee. I am extremely proud of my wife, who gained her U.S. citizenship in 2007, a Masters degree from Florida State in 2010, and probably speaks a higher level of English than I do, even though her native tongue is Czech. We both have dual citizenship (U.S.-German and U.S.-Czech) and plan on retiring to Europe some time after my mom passes.
My entire family has always voted for Democrats and, because we compare and contrast our lives in the U.S. to that in Europe, have great reason to. Our greatest concerns are health care, gun control, women's rights, education/student loans, environment, job contracts/ security...all of which are not perfect in Europe but much better handled and addressed than here stateside, in our opinion. I want to point out that I am not here to lambast America, it is I that am damned for living and working on 2 continents and, therefore, more sensitive to differences.
So, enough said for now. Thank you for allowing me to have a say here and I look forward to many many discussions to be had!
= new reply since forum marked as read
And thanks for the thoughtful introduction. Greetings from snow covered New York! We're glad to have you with us! 
Just south of Lake George. Adirondack Foothills. It's lovely in the summer, but that season is way too short. And not that far from the Hudson, either. I have been to NYC, but it's quite a trip from here! We're actually much closer to Canada. 
And I climbed Mt. Marcy when I was a freshman!
Quite some fine wines coming out of the Finger Lakes area...Wagner-brand has some nice ones.
I'm a graduate of Hamilton College. 
So we weren't far away from each other!
Cool!
I'm certain that you'll find plenty of topics to make observations between the American and European frames of reference. Welcome to the discussion.
...and will definitely take you up on your offer. First round's on me!
Great to have you here!
There's other things more satisfying to burn, as you well know, Amsterdammer. 
Welcome to DU.
Ik verstaa het maar ik spreek het niet goed.
Ik was tweetalig maar nu ik heb alleen een goede passieve kennis.
I live in Wallonia and I don't practice anymore.
But if you speak French or maybe Arabic...
Indeed we have great beers. I think it is an European skill. I'm ashamed but I have to say I don't like much beer.
And yes, we have wonderful Chefs here, a great gastronomy, the best chocolate in the world (no, no, i'm not chauvinist 
) and also almost as much varieties of cheese as in France which is not very known.
A small country but very rich. Not amazing since we have been influenced by many cultures.
No, my parents were from Algeria.
I was born in Brussels, raised in Brussels and lived there 40 years. I moved to Charleroi because of My house.
And soon, I felt in love with the region 
Namur is not far : +/-30 km. Well, we are not far from anywhere here . The country is so small...You can easily put in a corner of one of your big states and forget it for ever 
Did you live in Belgium ? Or perhaps in Netherlands ?
I don't know but not sure. When I go to Paris, I take Thalys in Brussels. I don't think any speed train stops here.
I checked, there is only 3 stations for speed trains : Brussels, Liège (Luik) and Anvers (Antwerpen)
Amsterdam Paris stops in Antwerpen (Thalys)
Eurostar joins London via Lille (Rijsel)
ICE joins Frankfurt from Brussels via Luik and Cologne.
There is also "TGV-Réseau", they joins several towns in France from Brussels.
There is also many other destinations In Italy, Spain and Switzerland.
We complain a lot , but we do have a great public transportation.
A great success here is Charleroi Airport also called Brussels South.
I'm about 80 miles north of Atlanta, and always happy to extend a DU welcome. I hope you enjoy hanging out and shooting the breeze with us.
...that sell Elliot pecans, by chance? Elliots are our favorite type of pecan by far...sweeter, softer, different (round) shape...we can only find them in small bags at Krogers, but I'd drive down your way to pick up a few kilos if I could find a pecan farm offering them 
Welcome! Hold onto your hair.
Oops! It wouldn't accept certain letters
Have a good time here!
where for some reason, re-striping Peachtree Street in the middle of the day seems like a great idea!
Welcome to DU!
Nice to see you here! 
...and thank you for your welcome!
Looking forward to interacting with you.
...and thank you for your welcome!
Looking forward to our interactions, as well
Californian.... 
...and thank you for your welcome!
A lot of interesting things going on in CA...was reading about the GOP slipping into 3rd place in voter registrations after Dems and independents...hurray!! 
And thank you for introducing yourself.
...and thank you for your welcome!
Maybe DU would be better off with my presents and not my presence?!?! Well, I'm still looking forward to all of my future interactions with you...ALL of you!
...what brought me to Amsterdam in the first place. My grandma on my mom's side was from Amsterdam. She was always my favorite...Cool, sweet, relaxed, sympathetic.
I decided to move to Amsterdam in '96, to see what living and working there would be like. Grandma had already passed by then, so I didn't even know where I was going to live or work. No friends or family. I called it "motivation by desperation".
I embraced the Dutch culture, immersed myself in the Dutch language, and although there were things I missed from the state's, I had more things to like about my new life in The Netherlands. Eventually I settled in The Hague, about 40 miles from Amsterdam, because of work, less expensive housing, and fewer completely out of control tourists that were in Amsterdam.
Yes! You should definitely make a trip to Amsterdam, you'd love it!! The sooner the better I'm right here to answer any questions you might have, offer advice as to what to see and do...any and all subjects, from soft drugs sales/use, Dutch mindset, museums, food &drink, you name it, don't be shy!
You'll never hurt my feelings bragging on a loved one going to FSU. I was born in Tallahassee - my mom and dad met there and my grandpa got his Masters there.
I'm sorry to hear about your mom - I hope you folks get to spend a lot of quality time with her and don't need to retire to Europe for a long while. I remember the last 10 years or so of my mom's life were some of the best we had as I got to know her as an adult instead of the little kid I still was when I moved out at age 17 many, many years ago.
And if any old friend ever sends you some Czech beer and you feel like sharing, we're always here! 
it's kinda purple but there's still plenty of trump stickers on cars around here. I'm frustrated most of the time lol. But every once in a while I get pleasantly surprised by someone sticking up for Dem values in public.
I grew up in Texas so I'm pretty used to having conservatives around. I bug them for sport.
