Who's been to/lives in Florida?

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Artemis
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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#61 Post by Artemis » Wed Jul 01, 2015 3:46 pm

Whenever I went to my parents place in Clearwater I shopped for groceries at Publix;they had everything like any larger grocery chain. I liked the rotisserie chicken from there.

If you and your family like shell fish, you should try a crab shack.

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Bandit72
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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#62 Post by Bandit72 » Wed Jul 22, 2015 4:50 pm

Day 2 in Florida. Shit, I could get used to this weather. Not as humid as Singapore, KL or Bangkok, but very warm and very clean. Had a great trip down to London and I would HIGHLY recommend the Norwegian air Dreamliner.. Was aa lot quicker at immigration than I had anticipated and the staff were marginally more friendly than those at JFK. I fucked up on the drive from Fort Lauderdale to Davenport though. Picked up the hire car about 11 pm, and missed about 2 junctions to the Florida turnpike. The road signs here are god awful, but the roads are good, albeit very long....which is really not great when you've had no sleep and it's a 3 hour drive from the airport. Still, we arrived SAFE at 3 am. Very tired now mind.

Was at a Walmart this afternoon and at the deli counter, the two women serving me didn't speak English well at all. Like a few broken sentences. Now my Spanish is good enough to get around but, errrr, hello, this is the United States. As much as I love diversity, you would expect someone to understand the native tongue. Anyway, looking forward to the next two weeks immensely!

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#63 Post by creep » Wed Jul 22, 2015 6:26 pm

Bandit72 wrote:Day 2 in Florida. Shit, I could get used to this weather. Not as humid as Singapore, KL or Bangkok, but very warm and very clean. Had a great trip down to London and I would HIGHLY recommend the Norwegian air Dreamliner.. Was aa lot quicker at immigration than I had anticipated and the staff were marginally more friendly than those at JFK. I fucked up on the drive from Fort Lauderdale to Davenport though. Picked up the hire car about 11 pm, and missed about 2 junctions to the Florida turnpike. The road signs here are god awful, but the roads are good, albeit very long....which is really not great when you've had no sleep and it's a 3 hour drive from the airport. Still, we arrived SAFE at 3 am. Very tired now mind.

Was at a Walmart this afternoon and at the deli counter, the two women serving me didn't speak English well at all. Like a few broken sentences. Now my Spanish is good enough to get around but, errrr, hello, this is the United States. As much as I love diversity, you would expect someone to understand the native tongue. Anyway, looking forward to the next two weeks immensely!
any other foreign visitors to our country i would suggest that you do not go to walmart. it's not our best look.

california is worse with people not speaking english. at least if they were working at walmart they were here legally. the language thing never bothered me but i do get frustrated with calling certain companies and you get a foreign call center and their english is not good. :noclue:

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#64 Post by nausearockpig » Wed Jul 22, 2015 6:36 pm

creep wrote:
Bandit72 wrote:Day 2 in Florida. Shit, I could get used to this weather. Not as humid as Singapore, KL or Bangkok, but very warm and very clean. Had a great trip down to London and I would HIGHLY recommend the Norwegian air Dreamliner.. Was aa lot quicker at immigration than I had anticipated and the staff were marginally more friendly than those at JFK. I fucked up on the drive from Fort Lauderdale to Davenport though. Picked up the hire car about 11 pm, and missed about 2 junctions to the Florida turnpike. The road signs here are god awful, but the roads are good, albeit very long....which is really not great when you've had no sleep and it's a 3 hour drive from the airport. Still, we arrived SAFE at 3 am. Very tired now mind.

Was at a Walmart this afternoon and at the deli counter, the two women serving me didn't speak English well at all. Like a few broken sentences. Now my Spanish is good enough to get around but, errrr, hello, this is the United States. As much as I love diversity, you would expect someone to understand the native tongue. Anyway, looking forward to the next two weeks immensely!
any other foreign visitors to our country i would suggest that you do not go to walmart. it's not our best look.

california is worse with people not speaking english. at least if they were working at walmart they were here legally. the language thing never bothered me but i do get frustrated with calling certain companies and you get a foreign call center and their english is not good. :noclue:
hahha one of our call centres (or is that "centers") is in Greenock so even though they speak "English" their accents are so fucking strong, it's sometimes very difficult to understand what they're saying.... all of our major telcos use Indian and/or Malaysian call centres.. makes for a fun conversation.... sigh..

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#65 Post by mockbee » Wed Jul 22, 2015 7:15 pm

Bandit72 wrote:Day 2 in Florida. Shit, I could get used to this weather. Not as humid as Singapore, KL or Bangkok, but very warm and very clean. Had a great trip down to London and I would HIGHLY recommend the Norwegian air Dreamliner.. Was aa lot quicker at immigration than I had anticipated and the staff were marginally more friendly than those at JFK. I fucked up on the drive from Fort Lauderdale to Davenport though. Picked up the hire car about 11 pm, and missed about 2 junctions to the Florida turnpike. The road signs here are god awful, but the roads are good, albeit very long....which is really not great when you've had no sleep and it's a 3 hour drive from the airport. Still, we arrived SAFE at 3 am. Very tired now mind.

Was at a Walmart this afternoon and at the deli counter, the two women serving me didn't speak English well at all. Like a few broken sentences. Now my Spanish is good enough to get around but, errrr, hello, this is the United States. As much as I love diversity, you would expect someone to understand the native tongue. Anyway, looking forward to the next two weeks immensely!


Go to Publix, like Artemis said. They have the best, best, best fried chicken. Might only be the Key West/Miami locations, but it was so surprisingly good. :nod:


Walmart
and deli counter should never be in the same sentence. :lol:

If you are looking for some cheap quick and decent food, I've always enjoyed the local Waffle House. A ton of waffles with butter and syrup and some runny fried eggs and bacon and a big plate of smothered hash browns and a big glass of orange juice and some coffee......mmmmmmmmmm.

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#66 Post by Pandemonium » Wed Jul 22, 2015 7:41 pm

nausearockpig wrote:hahha one of our call centres (or is that "centers") is in Greenock so even though they speak "English" their accents are so fucking strong, it's sometimes very difficult to understand what they're saying.... all of our major telcos use Indian and/or Malaysian call centres.. makes for a fun conversation.... sigh..
A few months ago, I had to call the UK customer service for Amazon.com about a destroyed in transit package and it was very tough getting through the very sweet lady's thick English accent.

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#67 Post by nausearockpig » Wed Jul 22, 2015 7:43 pm

mockbee wrote:If you are looking for some cheap quick and decent food, I've always enjoyed the local Waffle House. A ton of waffles with butter and syrup and some runny fried eggs and bacon and a big plate of smothered hash browns and a big glass of orange juice and some coffee......mmmmmmmmmm.
holy fuck that sounds awesome!

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#68 Post by mockbee » Wed Jul 22, 2015 8:27 pm

nausearockpig wrote:
mockbee wrote:If you are looking for some cheap quick and decent food, I've always enjoyed the local Waffle House. A ton of waffles with butter and syrup and some runny fried eggs and bacon and a big plate of smothered hash browns and a big glass of orange juice and some coffee......mmmmmmmmmm.
holy fuck that sounds awesome!

Image

And it's dirt cheap. :wiggle:

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nausearockpig
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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#69 Post by nausearockpig » Wed Jul 22, 2015 8:34 pm

what's with the prices & calories showing up as xxx?

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mockbee
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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#70 Post by mockbee » Wed Jul 22, 2015 8:40 pm

nausearockpig wrote:what's with the prices & calories showing up as xxx?
I don't see xxx???? :hs:

Maybe your country bans prices, so as to not incite a revolt for cheaper breakfasts....? :noclue: :lol:

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#71 Post by nausearockpig » Wed Jul 22, 2015 9:00 pm

mockbee wrote:
nausearockpig wrote:what's with the prices & calories showing up as xxx?
I don't see xxx???? :hs:

Maybe your country bans prices, so as to not incite a revolt for cheaper breakfasts....? :noclue: :lol:
I think maybe you guys have no real currency anymore, and you just trade in left over cutouts from magazines and newspapers...

have a look at what I see Mr. X

Image

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Bandit72
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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#72 Post by Bandit72 » Thu Jul 23, 2015 4:35 am

nausearockpig wrote:hahha one of our call centres (or is that "centers") is in Greenock so even though they speak "English" their accents are so fucking strong, it's sometimes very difficult to understand what they're saying.... all of our major telcos use Indian and/or Malaysian call centres.. makes for a fun conversation.... sigh..
Ha! My wife is from Greenock and trust me, even I have trouble understanding her on occasion :wink: Broad Scottish accents are not the easiest to understand sometimes!

Will keep an eye out for Waffle House. Yeh, we only went to Walmart cos it was close and convenient, albeit fucking massive.

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Hype
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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#73 Post by Hype » Thu Jul 23, 2015 6:12 am

On the no English point: the United States, unlike Canada, has no official language(s). So if enough people speak Spanish in a place, I guess it's the de facto official language of that part of the country.

Plus, like... Florida was Spanish for 300 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Florida

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#74 Post by Romeo » Thu Jul 23, 2015 6:34 am

Bandit72 wrote:Day 2 in Florida. Shit, I could get used to this weather. Not as humid as Singapore, KL or Bangkok, but very warm and very clean. Had a great trip down to London and I would HIGHLY recommend the Norwegian air Dreamliner.. Was aa lot quicker at immigration than I had anticipated and the staff were marginally more friendly than those at JFK. I fucked up on the drive from Fort Lauderdale to Davenport though. Picked up the hire car about 11 pm, and missed about 2 junctions to the Florida turnpike. The road signs here are god awful, but the roads are good, albeit very long....which is really not great when you've had no sleep and it's a 3 hour drive from the airport. Still, we arrived SAFE at 3 am. Very tired now mind.

Was at a Walmart this afternoon and at the deli counter, the two women serving me didn't speak English well at all. Like a few broken sentences. Now my Spanish is good enough to get around but, errrr, hello, this is the United States. As much as I love diversity, you would expect someone to understand the native tongue. Anyway, looking forward to the next two weeks immensely!
dear god....why would you take the FL Turnpike instead of 95?? It is looooooooooooooooong and boring and full of tolls!!!
And I imagine very dark at night! lol

And yes, outside of Florida politics & laws (which is god awful) it's a cool state. I could easily live there for the weather. Even the humid summers (humidity doesn't bother me)

And yes, the official language of Florida is Spanish :wink: My friend who lives outside of Miami and happens to be Puerto Rican (and fluent in Spanish) was amazed that no one speaks English by her and it annoyed her even though she speaks the language. I thought maybe she was exaggerating because she looks Spanish so they automatically speak to her in Spanish. Until I was stuck in the Miami airport for a few hours....I thought I was in Cuba! :lol:

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#75 Post by Romeo » Thu Jul 23, 2015 6:37 am

on edit I just looked where Davenport is, I see why you took the FL Turnpike :yikes: You're smack dab in the middle of the big penis!

Please go in either direction East or West and hit the beaches. Different flavor between the Gulf and the Ocean!

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#76 Post by Bandit72 » Thu Jul 23, 2015 2:47 pm

We were supposed to take the turnpike but ended up on the road towards Naples, lol. Managed to cut up to go past Lake Okeechobee and stayed on the 27 all the way up to Haines City. Turned out it was a better route but we were not to know that. We have a clicker on the car so go through all the express exits at the tolls. Scorching today, love it.

We're gonna go to the Gulf Coast next week. Artemis recommended Clearwater do we're going there.

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#77 Post by Bandit72 » Thu Jul 23, 2015 2:55 pm

Adurentibus Spina wrote:On the no English point: the United States, unlike Canada, has no official language(s). So if enough people speak Spanish in a place, I guess it's the de facto official language of that part of the country.

Plus, like... Florida was Spanish for 300 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Florida
If that's the case then why are the road signs not bilingual? Barcelona shows Catalan and THEN Spanish underneath. I'm not saying that you're incorrect, just that if the Spanish speaking population is so large then surely it should be catered for? :noclue:

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#78 Post by Angry Canine » Thu Jul 23, 2015 9:50 pm

Pretty sure official signage, like road signs is under Ferderal design guidelines. There are places where (especially) small stores and businesses will have predominately Spanish signage.

I really see it as a bit of a real issue that an unusual amount of young Hispanics seem to have an unreasonable resistance to learning English. Welcome to the melting pot, start melting. One set of my great grandparents were from Italy, and never really learned all that much English, but none of my grandma and her siblings weren't completely able to use English as well as people ten generations in the US, and by my mom's generation very few Italian words or phrases were even known. Same with the Vietnamese I grew up with in my neighborhood, parents learned little English, kids were as fluent as any of the rest of the kids in the neighborhood.

A common language is a pretty key part to any kind of national bond, just as much if a nation to do great things as a nation as it to do terrible things.

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#79 Post by Hype » Fri Jul 24, 2015 5:34 am

Angry Canine wrote:Pretty sure official signage, like road signs is under Ferderal design guidelines. There are places where (especially) small stores and businesses will have predominately Spanish signage.

I really see it as a bit of a real issue that an unusual amount of young Hispanics seem to have an unreasonable resistance to learning English. Welcome to the melting pot, start melting. One set of my great grandparents were from Italy, and never really learned all that much English, but none of my grandma and her siblings weren't completely able to use English as well as people ten generations in the US, and by my mom's generation very few Italian words or phrases were even known. Same with the Vietnamese I grew up with in my neighborhood, parents learned little English, kids were as fluent as any of the rest of the kids in the neighborhood.

A common language is a pretty key part to any kind of national bond, just as much if a nation to do great things as a nation as it to do terrible things.
Apparently 31 states have declared English official, and I think English is just assumed as the de facto language of business federally. But the other 19 states are either officially bilingual (Hawaii) or de facto multilingual (New Mexico and Louisiana) or just haven't bothered to do anything. Florida is a funny case because the Spanish influence at least in the southern part is mostly Cuban, not Mexican... and the panhandle doesn't seem to have the same population distribution so it's less likely to be an overall issue for the state. It might be a city-by-city thing (Miami is probably considerably more Spanish than Tampa).

I think it makes a lot of sense for states closer to Mexico and Cuba to have a lot of Spanish influence and probably offer lots of services in both English and Spanish.

Canada technically has two official languages, but there's really no incentive for Quebec to offer English and French services anywhere except the major cities and along the borders with the English speaking provinces. Likewise, Ontario doesn't really have much in the way of French service unless you're near the border with Quebec. Official signage is in English and French only because of the official language law. The United States has no such law.

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#80 Post by Bandit72 » Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:07 pm

A couple of things I have noticed.

a) How come cars in Florida only have a licence plate on the rear of the vehicle? Is this a state law?
b) Why are there so many prangs on the road? The roads are huge. The speed is slow. Yet every day I'm out in the car there is an accident. Maybe it's a percentage thing it's just I see an accident every day here :noclue: I hope I'm not involved in one.

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#81 Post by mockbee » Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:35 pm

Image
A prang is a tall tower-like spire, usually richly carved. They were a common shrine element of Hindu and Buddhist architecture in the Khmer Empire.
Never saw any prangs in Florida, maybe different where you are at.....?

Maybe you are not referring to this, but I don't know what a prang is then. :hs:



Florida has a bunch of old people who probably shouldn't be driving. The state's car accident fatality rate seems to only be slightly above the national norm though, maybe just a bunch of fender benders. There are 645 car accidents every day in Florida, so I guess you are bound to see one.

Driving sucks, I would advise against it, that way you won't be in an accident. :wink:

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#82 Post by nausearockpig » Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:39 pm

lol

prang
praŋ/
BRITISH informal

verb
1.
crash (a motor vehicle or aircraft).
"Ernie pranged his sports car last month"

noun
1.
a crash involving a motor vehicle or aircraft.
"he had numerous prangs and near misses in his motoring life"

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#83 Post by Bandit72 » Wed Jul 29, 2015 5:21 am

Lol! sorry, I thought that word was universal.

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#84 Post by Romeo » Wed Jul 29, 2015 6:47 am

Bandit72 wrote:A couple of things I have noticed.

a) How come cars in Florida only have a licence plate on the rear of the vehicle? Is this a state law?
b) Why are there so many prangs on the road? The roads are huge. The speed is slow. Yet every day I'm out in the car there is an accident. Maybe it's a percentage thing it's just I see an accident every day here :noclue: I hope I'm not involved in one.
Yes, Florida does not require front and rear license plates (NY does)
Actually 19 states do not require front plates:
Alabama
Arkansas
Arizona
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Michigan
Mississippi
New Mexico
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Tennessee
West Virginia

:noclue:

And you see so many crashes because peoples driving SUCKS :lol: Actually in Florida part of the issue is elderly drivers. Some of them have bad eyesight and have slower reaction time BUT still possess a license.
HELL my friend in NJ, her Mother is 87 and just got a license renewal for another 5 years. WTF??? She can legally drive until she's 92 :yikes: she should of stopped driving 5 years ago.

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Re: Who's been to/lives in Florida?

#85 Post by Artemis » Wed Jul 29, 2015 6:52 am

When I was in FL for the first time in the early 90s, I noticed that many of the old people had huge cars like Lincoln Continentals. I don't know how they parked those things.. :lol:


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