psychogeography

I'm in Cologne, Germany, on bid'ness. As I talk with the people, I realize that the psychogeography in Europe -- the feeling of distance between two locations -- is much smaller than in the States. (I coined that term.) Europeans talk about going to Spain or Italy for the weekend like it's no big deal. Going a similar distance in the States, though, is seen as a relatively big undertaking. Cross-country travel in the U.S. is just a hassle and is something that people have to plan for; even going to a neighboring state for the weekend can seem like a big undertaking. Going from San Francisco to Las Vegas seems like a bigger trip to Americans than going from Rome to Madrid does to Europeans. There's a bigger psychological divide in our country's geography.

All this is probably due to the high-speed rail system in Europe, of course. It presents much less of a travel hassle than a plane flight covering the same territory.

On another, or perhaps similar, note, there's an intercountry soccer competition going on right now between the members of the European Union. Each country has its own soccer team, and the best teams play a single-elimination match against another country. The two countries left standing at the end play each other. It seems (and feels) like the Final Four in the U.S., but we're talking countries rather than states/schools.