I wonder: Do Americans know about american school buses? Not their existence in general, but how they're seen overseas.

Over here, they're one of the symbols of America, on par with the Statue of Liberty, the flag, the Eagle, and well ahead of any chain restaurant you can name. People won't know any US states, but they will know these vehicles.

The thing is, here in Germany, we don't have dedicated school buses. The general idea is that kids go to school on their own. When that's not practical, they're expected to use (and given free tickets for) public transit. Public transit is designed around this requirement; there are many places where there is a bus, and anyone can get on it, but the route and timetable really only makes sense for school children. In case a dedicated school bus is really needed, that's generally subcontracted out, and the lines either use something like a Sprinter Van for smaller routes, or a normal city or interurban bus (often a used one that's a bit older). School trips are normal public transit, or a rented bus, typically a coach or regional bus.

It's not a perfect system, in the past couple of years there's been an epidemic of people bringing their kids to school in their cars instead of letting them walk, which is less than ideal. It is what it is. But building a dedicated network of public transit lines only for students, and building dedicated vehicles only for that, has never occurred to anyone here.

Of course we know about these buses, from movies and such, but they're as foreign here as cacti or pick-up trucks (actually we're seeing more and more of these here) or yellow cabs (all europeans will assume all cabs in the US are yellow until they actually visit).

You do see these buses here at times, because people still generally like the idea of the US, even if they have a lot of issues with a lot of details, and so folks bring them over, along with stretch limos and stuff (also not really a thing here). And of course, if someone goes to all that trouble, they don't do it to haul school kids, they rent it out for city tours or as a party bus or whatever.

So you see these yellow things as a symbol of faraway places, scenic vistas, some vague undefined idea of freedom that doesn't necessarily hold up to any contact with reality, and it's just a huge part of the whole US aesthetic.

And then you go to a student exchange with the US, and you finally get the chance: You yourself get to ride in one of these iconic chrome yellow buses! It looks just like in the movies! You get in, you drive in them a little…

…and you realise they're shit. Just the worst buses in the western world. Terrible suspension. Uncomfortable seats with weirdly high backs (so they don't have to put seatbelts in, they just restrict how far kids can fly in an accident). Everything made out of the cheapest materials. Turns out the reason why the US uses school buses like that instead of normal modern city buses, which the US has, is to save money and because they just hate kids.

And then it hits you why US Americans say "as American as apple pie", a dish that is made and enjoyed literally anywhere in the world, instead of "as American as yellow school buses". Of course the Americans already knew all this. They got tortured by these things forever. It would never occur to them to see this as a symbol of America, it's just a normal part of life for them. It's a symbol of school and school life and sometimes normalcy, and tells us that these actors getting out of it are supposed to be teenagers, nothing more.

But most people in Europe have, of course, never ridden on these buses. So when they see them in movies and TV, that's a giant big yellow signifier that we're not in Hessen or Wallonia or wherever anymore. A symbol of a different world, one that may be at most a once-in-a-lifetime-experience for most people, just like a picture of a tropical beach, Incan Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, or Hildesheim (there's no reason to go there twice). And I think Americans don't know that, and that's fascinating.

I have selected a new dynamic for Qui-Gon and Padawan Obi-Wan. No criticisms will be accepted. Good night :)

I love him so much 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

“Come back. Please.”

“I promise.”

AT LAST. AT LONG LAST. OBI FOUND HIS DAD AND I CAN DIE HAPPY

@kurtssingh I am so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so grateful and glad you made another batch of big Qui-Gons, THANK YOU X A MILLION I AM SO HAPPY 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

hes ur “emotional support blorbo”??? girl he cant even emotionally support Himself

What does your heart tell you you’re meant for? Infinite sadness.

one thing i love about tumblr is that u become friends with people without even knowing their name/their face/their voice...........like....i love u because of your dumb little thoughts thank u for existing

One time I brought one of my rocks with me on a plane to touch to calm me down during the flight, but it fell out of my pocket on my way back to the bathroom and then as soon as i realized this they actually announced “did anyone lose…… . A rock” over the loudspeaker system.

When I went up to claim it the plane man, clearly unable to throw off the shackles of his training in the procedure of asking for people’s full names and birthdates when they come to claim wallets, said “wait no, first tell me what color it is so I know it’s really yours”

He seemed to realize this was stupid directly after saying it and kind of smiled like to make it a joke but the joke was on him bc I Described the fucking rock to him for like 30 solid seconds

…anyway. that was an interaction I had once

Owen: we can’t mansplain, manipulate, or malewife our way out of this.

Beru *cocks gun*: manslaughter it is

being asked follow up questions while infodumping is what i imagine sex would feel like if it was real

The “oh I could definitely write this fanfic in under 5000 words and it really wouldn’t take me that long” voice in your head is actually the devil speaking

11 year-old me should have known, LOOK AT HER

There were, of course, innumerable things wrong with Sheev Palpatine BUT I want to know what specifically made him the only Sith Lord to not be completely obsessed with Obi Wan Kenobi. Literally all of the rest of them were wandering around like

But not Sheev!

Why was he immune? What was wrong with him specifically in this instance?

I headcanon that all of Yoda's finest teacups were made by younglings

In fact most masters of the order's finest teacups were made during crèche crafting time when the kids were learning pottery.

FUCK YEAH GAY COWBOYS 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Some recent paintings in my “gay dreaming” series. All 26x32” acrylic on canvas.

I don’t even go here but I am so invested in this ship I cannot cope

the difference between oliver and ryan is that oliver was top of his class at pr academy with perfect scores in keeping shit vague meanwhile ryan did not attend class not even once and at graduation he hopped up on stage and said THEY SHOULD KISS into the mic before running off with a diploma that's not even his

“Oh yeah, of course. That’s the whole point.”

David Leviathan on Suzanne Collins // Revenge of the Sith novelization // Taylor Swift, Hoax // Aeschylus, Orestes // Paramore, Last Hope // Aeschylus and Robert Icke, Orestia // @sw_holocron & Tony Gilroy, Twitter