ChattyCathy wrote:

> I guess I missed that post; my apologies. But from what I hear, you
> are a positive exception, as most USA citizens skip the 'I'll go see
> for myself what the rest of the world is like before I decide the USA
> is good enough for me' stage and decide there is no need to ever
> obtain a passport. So speaking as an American, what percentage of
> citizens of the USA would you reckon have passports (taking into
> account that needing a passport to cross the border from the USA into
> Canada has recently been introduced)? Any idea?

Looking around I saw a guessimate of 28%. I'm curious what
percentage of Canadians have a passport, I saw 34% or so, and
these figures were from when you didn't need one to travel between
our countries, so the numbers are up by now.

> BTW, you might find my family tree quite interesting; plenty of
> (North) Americans in there and a bunch of Brits and Europeans too.
>
> And I'll never forget when one of my American relatives happened to be
> in Britain for a "family reunion" which I also attended a while back.
> He moaned about everything - from the weather to the plumbing to the
> food in restaurants because it was all "different" from what he was
> used to "back home". And when he discovered that there was no swimming
> pool in my Aunt's back yard I thought he was going to have a heart
> attack. <laugh>

Some people are just like that. He probably bitches wherever he
goes, he didn't have to leave the states to have that reaction.
There are plenty of people everywhere who prefer to stay in
their comfort zone.

For sure we get visitors from abroad who are like him.

I can only speak for myself ... I don't have some hostility towards
the rest of the world like, why would I want to go there?? I know
plenty of people who travel a lot and enjoy it. I also know others
who do not like to travel. It has to do with them, not 'you.'

nancy