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I'm reading that:

Japan has 100 v electricity that works fine with US plugs, usually.

South Korea has 220 v power that works fine with Euro plugs.  Usually.

Anyone been who could confirm?

One thing my wife points out here is how "efficient" government is, relatively speaking.  We don't think so, but we don't have a point of reference.  When we moved here, we went to thhe DMV to get DLs etc. thinking it might take hours, it took less than 30 minutes, done, registered to vote, cancelled in Ohio, new license.  She was astonished.

She and her brother owned a small lot of land in France zoned agricultural, but nobody wanted it as such.  They tried and tried to get it rezoned residential as it was potentially a pretty decent building lot.  After years, nothing, they couldn't get it done.

Crime is another big issue, at least in France.  If you own a house, you have to have high walls around it, all of it, and they do.  The police are uninterested in property crimes, they treat you like a criminal if you report one.  We had a large group of French retirees over to Cincy and some of them we knew visited our house and marveled that we had no fence, and asked how that could be?  I looked at the dude and said "Everyone is armed", which was not really true.  Go into a suburban area near Paris or Lyon and you'll see what I mean.

Taxes of course are much higher, on nearly everything (not wine).  Interstate highways are all toll roads outside a city.  Not just income taxes, but there is a VAT around 20% on everything you buy.  It's not shown of course, like here.  So common ordinary items are pretty expensive, though I will note they tend to wear nicer clothes.  She tells me that ordinary functions like dry cleaning is much higher there.

I had friends/coworkers who lived there (Germany, Belgium, England) who were at my level, they lived in much smaller houses and more frugally overall.  When they visited us, they said they felt like we owned a mansion.

They are of course many pros to Europe.  But my wife does NOT want to move to France, at all, ever.  It's a lot of little things.

MEDELLIN, Colombia (AP) — The lush valley enveloping Medellin was once the heart of a brutal war involving the Colombian government, drug cartels and a smattering of other armed groups.

But a sharp dip in violence in the country’s second-biggest city has attracted a flood of tourists to its vivid colors, busy cafes and booming nightlife. About 1.4 million visited last year, many of them American.

Now the tourism boom has presented officials with a new set of dark challenges, including an uptick in sex trafficking and the killing of tourists and Colombian women after rendezvous on dating apps.

“This area has spun out of control,” Medellin Mayor Federico Gutiérrez said recently while touring a park known for the sex trade.

The killings prompted the U.S. Embassy in Bogota to warn in January that some tourists had been slipped drugs and were later robbed or killed. American officials cautioned men against using dating apps. The apps offer a way to seek out sex workers, whose business is not criminalized in Colombia.

that's not a Panda

One thing my wife points out here is how "efficient" government is, relatively speaking.  We don't think so, but we don't have a point of reference.  When we moved here, we went to thhe DMV to get DLs etc. thinking it might take hours, it took less than 30 minutes, done, registered to vote, cancelled in Ohio, new license.  She was astonished.

It's like that here too. I was shocked.

DL, registered to vote, license plates, all in about 30 minutes. We dealt with one person for everything.

In Illinois, to get all of that done, you'd need a half day off work, and you deal with 10-12 people, all with their own lines. I'm not kidding.

My experience in continental Europe differs from Catsby and is more akin to CD's.  Working class families only have one car, even in small cities/towns and suburbs that aren't walkable for everything you need, as you'd find in the large cities.

As CD points out, pretty much everything is more expensive there.  WAY more expensive.  Except for wine.

Crime is crazy-- my rental car in Catania, Sicily was stolen right out from in front of the hotel where I'd parked it normally and legally.  When I went to the agency and told them, they just issued me another one.  They warned my if it happened again then I might need to fill out some paperwork.

From the American perspective, modern cars last 10-13 years pretty easy these days with only basic preventative maintenance, so there's no need to buy an expensive new car when you can buy a serviceable used car at a reasonable price, and not have to worry it will fall apart in a couple of years, as you would have 20-30 years ago.

Americans are in debt because they choose to be.  They choose to live beyond their means, buy more expensive luxury items when they could settle for something less expensive that would still be functional, choose to buy expensive Starbucks coffees when they could make their own for far less, etc.

Starby's in France or Italy is just an abomination.

On the flipside, I actually really liked seeing McDonald's in France.  After I'd been there for a couple of months, I started to long for something familiar.  So once per week I allowed myself to hit up Mickey D's.  That's when I figured out you could go thru the drive-thru and order a beer as the drink portion of your combo meal. You could even order a beer as the drink portion of a Happy Meal, no lie.

"Menu Big Mac avec bière, s'il vous plait."