Far is not always that far

Never ask a Singaporean if something is far because nothing is far in Singapore. Nevertheless you might hear someone saying that something is far, meaning farther away then for example Suntek city or more than a 15 minutes cab-ride. In contrast Americans would not mind to drive for 3-4 hours one way to visit friends and relatives in a neighboring town, their sense of distance being greatly affected by a vast country as I learned when I lived in San Franciso. For Swiss on the other hand everything is far when it is outside the town or the canton. When I lived in Bern, the Swiss capital, a one-hour drive away from Zurich, the biggest city, many friends considered this as living very far away from “home” and only a few came and visited me. And I am realizing that with my extensive traveling far is only what is more than a four-hour flight away from wherever I am. I guess globalization and budget-airlines make the world indeed smaller.