Most Europeans see the benefits the EU provides, while most are aware of the fact that the EU spends a whole bunch of money on needless things like this calendar. It's like living in a dysfunctional family, where nobody can agree on anything important, so everybody just runs around doing things for the sake of doing things.
Well, I was at the philosophical olympics in Denmark (where they choose who will go to the actual international olympics) and I can tell you what you need to have to be a good philosopher: Lack of social skills, madness, autism, arrogance, being extremely boring, having a pig-tail, being out-of-touch with the world due to some mathematically based logic from which you live you life. The more of these skills you have, the better. But in all seriousness, you should just write down all your philosophical ideas and try finding some internal consensus, my consensus was that there was no consensus and thus I became a nihilistic determinist.
I will usually pay, unless she objects. That is my policy. Why not let her pay for herself, if she wants to? It is usually a sign of reason and independence and I like that. But in your case, I would suggest a picnic or inviting her to dinner at your place, much cheaper and it will show her that you have some cooking skills (if you don't have any cooking skills, then find guides on the internet, that usually works for me :P)
I am very European and I really can't see the problem here. It seems to me this calendar is about learning and understanding other peoples and their holidays, and not about mentioning holidays that are extremely obvious to the vast majority of Europe. Europeans are not as religious as... Any other part of the world, but we know our holidays, Christmas is for example my favourite time of the year, but I don't care if the calendar only mentions it on the 25th... I guess there will be some protest and a possible change of the calendar, but I won't shed a tear one way or the other.
Well... Technically, Santa Claus is pretty Christian. Originally, at least. He has been wrapped into a lot of new folk belief and old folk religion in the recent centuries (like elves and other mythological creatures like flying reindeers). I can see why some people of other religions, or even Christians themselves may be alienated by him. Not that I feel he should be banned and excluded. I just don't think this is such a big deal, the US especially is a multicultural country... The whole world needs to chill out when it comes to Muslims, every misstep they take gets blown up in the media.
My full name is SteingrÃmur Óttar SteingrÃmsson, 185 cm, 73 kg, 20 years of age, I am bearded, I have long hair, my eyes are a mix between blue and gray, my skin tone this season is pretty pale, I am Icelandic, I live in Denmark, I study Religious Science at the University of Aarhus.
Sounds reasonable enough, we westerners have no patent on the term "right" and the Nobel Foundation is pretty biased. I personally find these kinds of ceremonies a bit ridiculous, but if China wants to play that game, they are welcome to.
Here in Denmark, we don't tip. Took a while to get used to while travelling through Belgium, France and Spain. I bet we pissed off a few waiters in the first week, following a week of overtipping, then we found the right balance. For a pizza, though? Depends on whether it's a real pizza place or just some international fastfood chain like pizza hut.
Being from Iceland my last name is a patronym (My last name is Steingrimsson, if your last name is something that ends with -son or -sen, then it is an old relic from a patronymic time), all Icelanders keep their patronym until they die. The only exception of the system, is if the father is unknown or if the mother or the child resents the father, then a matronym is used.
So the answer is no. Even if I had a family name, I wouldn't give it to my wife, except if she really wanted to. But I would want our children to be named after me, they can get her family name too, if she has one, but it wouldn't be the same without the patrnonym. Tradition is funny like that.
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