I am from a country where in the Summer the sun is up at midnight.
In winter people make a hole in the ice to take a bath and if you travel from south to north it's the same distance as if I would have gone down to Italy.
This weekend I am on an isolated small island in the archipelago 1,5 h boat ride outside the capital but still have perfect 3G connection.

Michael

[QUOTE=Mark Bowditch]Forza Azzurri!

My wife's Italian, but I did live there for 7 years. [QUOTE=Mark Bowditch]



Mark, this moment it's not so good for italian soccer, if you know what I mean!!! All those scandals in our championship !!!! :( :( :( But the hope is the last one to die!!!!!


Well Michael, next trip come to Italy!!! :)

Land of The RAINBOW SERPENT
 

G'day mates!
.... hiji basa, bangsa urang
.... leungit bahasa, leungit bangsa

Greetings to my overseas brother, the Taswegian...j/k:)

Hi,I'm Mick from Austr...no seriously....I come from the best country to find beer,chocolat and african art from Congo..........right,Belgium.
Regards,Danny :)

Thank you ariel :)

Singapura, oh Singapura. Sunny island, set in the sea...
 

Let me post one for my country. :)

I am a citizen of the Lion City, so named because a Srivijayan prince, Sang Nila Utama, thought he saw a lion when he landed on the island, or so the legend went.

These days, we are often referred to as the "little red dot" because we are so small that we don't appear on the map, and has to be marked by a red dot. :D

Our national mascot is the Merlion, a half lion, half fish mythical beast. Interestingly, this beast was a modern invention and had no roots in history. Our national flower is an orchid, called "Vanda Miss Joaquim".

The island was called Temasek a long time ago. It was once part of the territory of the Johore empire, the Riau-Lingga Sultanate, and probably Majapahit and Sri Vijaya, amongst others. Then, came the British in the 19th century, followed by the Japanese (rather unpleasent 3yrs 8mths during WWII), then the British came back again, and left, again, and after a brief merger with Malaysia, we became an independent sovereign nation on 9 Aug 1965.

Our current prime minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, is the son of the great Mr Lee Kuan Yew (I think he deserves to be called great for turning Singapore from a 3rd-world country to a developed nation, in the face of great adversity).

We are a well-integrated multi-racial society with the main ethnic groups being Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian.

If you have been to Singapore, you would probably have heard about "Singlish", and words/phrases like "kiasu", "shiok", "don't play play".

The people here are so pre-occupied with food that everywhere you go, you see... restaurants! From Thai to Vietnamese, Indonesian to Nepalese, African to American, French to German, Italian to Spanish, Korean to Japanese, and of course, Chinese, Malay, Indian. :)

Our national anthem is in Malay: "Majulah Singapura!" - Onward Singapore! :)

Don't know about country (US) but I perpetually live in the state of confusion. :confused: ( :D )

Well, I have two countries, I would say.
The one I'm coming from and the one where I live in.
The first is the country of paradox, a country that everybody loves and hates at the same time. For example, last year, this country had the world record for the number of burned cars in its streets and at the same time was the most visited for tourism purpose. It seems that I'm a compatriot of Galvano.
My other country, where I've been living in for nearly 15 years now, has no unions strikes, the stores are always open, even during the night or the week ends. In this island, the people are the nicest in the world but there are also daily earthquakes (we only feel the biggest tremors every two or three months). Another particularity : it is also a country that is still living under the threats of a thousand missiles pointed at it by a very big and "friendly" neighbour. Should I say it is Taiwan?

I'm from Belgium....more particularly the Flemish part of Belgium. In the past, we were governed by most other European countries, but we're still around !
Like Mapico1 said : the land of the best beer and tons of African stuff (if you can find it) ;)

Freddy

Home of the vikings, Gustav Vasa, the carolins, the midsummer, and the Dala horse ;) And the artic winter here in the north, Sweden ;)

But I lived in Laos for a few years.

howdie
 

same here, two countries represented here, born and raised in canada, but of turkish heritage.. thus my interest in collecting ancient ottoman swords... yataghans are my passion...

Malaysia
 

I'm from the land that gave the world amok, durians and the present home of Keris Taming Sari, hulu keris ayam teleng and some of the best mandaus you've ever seen.
We have nine Sultans who take turns to be king every five years, whose instrument of office is a gold sheathed keris panjang and an ivory keris tajong :)

Turk from Istanbul.I live in the middle of the town,where for centuries millions of weapons of any class were produced to serve sultans,nobles,vast armies leaving to all directions for endless campaigns and millions of other weapons were taken from surrendering opponents and brought in from invaded lands..I should be envied and assumed as lucky by the oriental arms collectionary point of view,but actually can hardly find anything original else than some rusty knives or very ordinary yataghans! :eek:

Talking about soccer World cup, we won the first one. And then won it again in a country, 5 times champion after that, but still crying, 56 years ago....I'm from Uruguay, a country with more cows than people, meaning nothing to economical forces ruling FIFA. Oops, we are out of this cup....

Hi all........
If all of you read / watch/ hear the sad news about big earthqueke in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.....that is my city. I was born and growth there....
Thanks for support in pray, money, and everything to help Yogyakarta people.

Since I married with japanese girl 8 years ago....and 'till now I still live in Japan.

This is a part of my collection :
http://midinakeris.fotopic.net/

Well, having been (probably) descended from the Anglo Saxons, Celts, Vikings, Romans and Normans I am proud to say I'm a .........thorough-bred Englishman ;) :D :D . Born in Londinium........ er I mean London (the Roman in me talking ;) ).
Our cuisine is also world famous, we have exotic, culinary delights such as fish and chips :rolleyes:

It is a testament to us all that we enjoy the culture (and weapons ;) ) of other countries and peoples. Of course, assuming the anthropologists are correct, ALL our ancestry originated from 'Mother' Africa......its just that some of us have moved further away :D

Ah.....I almost forgot....

Ernesto Juan, you must be colour blind...... ;) .....the fans of the winning team will be wearing white with a small red, St George's cross :D :cool:

And as to our friends in Belguim, I am envious of the number of quality African artefacts you can find in your country. ;) :p

If i spoke 3 languages i would be multi-lingual....
If i spoke 2 languages i would be bi-lingual....
But since i only speak one language i must be.... :rolleyes: :D

Well, to be honest I think neither the English nor the Dutch will win this world cup. The Dutch do not have a bad team, though it is not mature enough, all youngsters and prone to physical injuries. The English? More a collection of individuals imho lead by a rather weak coach.

My guess would be either Germany or the " boys from Brasil" :>) will win this cup.

Was it not an Englishman who defined soccer as: two times 11 players battle for two times 45 minutes and in the end, the Germans win. ?

-> My friend from Uruguay; bear in mind that Brasil won the world cup lots of times and is not exactly an economic world power.

All the best to everybody and forgive me for starting this sub-thread about soccer, that obviously does not have anything to do with edged weapons.
On the other hand, a famous Dutch coach once mentioned that " soccer is war" . :D

How glad am I that I renewed my fishing permit, all that time by the river on my own, blissful and football free. ENGLAND.ENGLAND.ENGLAND.

At least, I suppose there are few deaths, the 'war' has rules, the combatants know their 'fight' only lasts 90 mins and half way through you can have a rest and eat 1/2 an orange (the fruit not a Dutch supporter :D :D ).

Good luck to the National teams of all the formites.........let battle commence.........

Greece here :)

I'm from the United States, but originally from Thailand. I came to this country a long time ago, though!

Oh! For the longest while I thought you were either from Taiwan or China!! :)

I am from the country, presently hosting the world! It is just great, walking through Hamburg is like a trip to all the participating countries, having soccer fans in the streets dresses in the colours of their teams and waving their flags. We have the American team staying here in my city during the championship and many fans wait in front of the hotel, trying to get an autograph. You will find a lot houses decorated with all the flags and definitely, there are big parties in the streets in front of the big screens, where the matches are shown in public.
And sorry friends, but Germany will win the cup! 4 : 2 was a decent start.
;)

With all respect Rather; Costa Rica is a so called soccer dwarf like country and the German defense was quite poor. It is not like the German team beat Argentina is it? ;)

On the other hand, the Dutch team played a friendly test match 1-1 against another soccer dwarf; the socceroos from Australia. Well, the socceroos do have a Dutch coach, so maybe it was a setup?

Anyway, enjoy the atmospherem and may the best team win!

Btw mate, is not the country quote " hosting the world " end quote the USA? (soon to be China?)

:D

A turkish man here with a growing interest in yatagans.

Hi ErnestoJuan,
it is always dangerous to dismiss the underdog, Australia had to beat Uruguay to get to the finals,they have some talented players (if fit) and they do have a good coach. Look how far some other less favoured teams got in the last world cup. Go the Socceroos.
DrD

Erhhh... guys, maybe this forum isn't the best place to start a World Cup discussion. :D

I'm from the good old US but originally from Thailand. I came here a long time ago.