Originally posted on 06/16/2011:

For those Americans that didn't know, Vancouver is not like the Vatican, where the city and the state are synonymous.

Vancouver is not all of Canada, and Canada is not all of Vancouver. Does this make sense? When Fox News tells you that there were riots in Vancouver, this does not mean that there were riots also happening on the East Coast in Halifax which is 7000 km away, even though Fox News will probably imply there were.

Now this will probably be a first for most of you, so don't let the information overflow your mind. Here's how Canada looks on a map:



You can see that there are other cities in Canada other than Vancouver. In fact, Vancouver isn't even the largest city in Canada, nor is it the capital. Vancouver is not Canada. Does that make sense?

If you've understood that, we can take your knowledge and use it in other examples! Here are a few:

London ≠ England
Moscow ≠ Russia
Paris ≠ France

Just like

England ≠ Europe
France ≠ Europe
Berlin ≠ Europe

Now I know that a lot of you have not seen these parts of the world in your life, so although I don't understand your situation as I have visited 25+ countries during my day, I will be as patient as I can be to deal with it. Just because you have never left your country, let alone your home state, in your entire life, doesn't mean that there isn't another world out there. I know that your economy is hurting so having money to travel isn't possible on a minimum wage job (since that's all that's left in the USA now), but if you're lucky, you'll be able to visit something outside your home state once in your life!