Why do Americans have a bad name? We were in the Eiffel Tower, when a certain exchange took place. In fact it wasn't an exchange at all, because only one person was running her mouth (guess what country she was from?). Here is my first hand account of this situation, including my thoughts, the American (as I quickly found out) woman's words, and what I think the French attendant was thinking.
Background: We are filling up the elevator to go down the tower. I barely make it in; we are packed like sardines. I'm concerned that the door will close on my head. As I ponder my imminent demise by crushing or asphyxiation, I see a small Italian-looking woman with a 2 year old and a stroller cut the line via going under the rail and move quickly in our direction. One would think there is no way this woman actually plans on getting in this very elevator at this very moment, rather than wait for the next one. One would be wrong.
*French attendant: Seems hesitant to let American woman in the elevator.
*American woman: Comes in anyway.
*American woman: Gets impression that French attendant was waiting for her husband.
*American woman: "Why do you think we were waiting for someone? What gave you that impression?"
*My thoughts: Judging by her English, this woman is American. She is also quite agitated. I hope she doesn't embarrass the United States. I consider throwing her off the tower before it gets ugly. I regrettably hesitate.
*French attendant's probable thoughts: "Here we go again...man I hate Americans."
*American woman: Presses again. "Why did you think it was more than just the two of us?"
*My thoughts: Probably because many women with small children are accompanied by a husband or father. Where is baby's daddy? Can I assume from your anger that he isn't waiting for you at the bottom of the tower?
*French attendant: Says something in French, roughly translated as "I dont speak English".
*American woman: "What did you say? Did you say something about Americans?"
*French attendant: confused, borderline becoming frightened.
*French attendant's probable thoughts: "I didnt F**KING SAY ANYTHING!"
*American woman's 2 year old: starts crying
*American woman: (to child) "Yes, shes being mean to us."
*American woman: (to attendant) "See? Even my two-year-old knows you're being mean to us."
*French attendant's probable thoughts: "Death to America."
*My thoughts: "No, your two year old is probably upset because he knows full well that is mom is a b*tch."
*American woman: (to child) "Yes, I cant wait to leave France and all of its rude people. Leave France and never ever come back."
*My thoughts: "I'm sure the French people will be heartbroken over their loss. Just please don't come back to the States.
*Myself to French attendant after American woman gets off elevator: "I apologize for her behavior, she was completely out of line."
*French attendant: "I dont speak English"
The situation actually was a bit longer than this; I'm forgetting some parts. But this is the gist of it. Outside of the elevator, Kim told her that in fact she hadn't been insulted. Turns out this lady was from San Francisco. Go figure. Do grown people really act like that in foreign countries? That is humilitating. No wonder the USA has a bad name.
Another funny story about Americans. Sometimes when you buy the metro tickets, they don't work when you slide them through the machine; the doors don't open. So this lady who is probably 45 is trying to get her thing to work, and it won't. Meanwhile her husband and three kids are on the other side of the gate. She is totally freaking out. Shes like screaming at the French guy in the information booth that the gate wont open but that she paid for the ticket. Her kids are telling her to calm down. Her husband tells her to relax. The ticket guy is ignoring her (French people can be assholes) and she just gets even more upset and panicked. Finally she jumps over the gate. A 45 year old woman. It was hilarious, and...embarrassing.
And whatever, French people can be pompous. But seriously if you are high strung or get frusterated / panicked / angry easily, you shouldn't be allowed to travel out of the US. The US government should force people to undergo psychological tests before coming to Europe because seriously you need patience to get by in this place. You wait EVERYWHERE. Imagine going to the BMV 9 times every day. Its like that. People that can't handle it shouldn't be allowed to come here, otherwise, they give us a bad name =0.
I'm going to post again soon I think. In Amsterdam now. Actually have a decent computer with a good keyboard (of course the French have to change everything around). I'll have comments about London and Paris overall later today, tomorrow, or whatever.
Nick out. Lots of Heinekin to drink. Its my favorite beer and its pretty much all they sell here.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Friday, June 23, 2006
The changing of the guard is a conspiracy drawn up by the natives to suck all of the tourists into a concentrated area for a few hours each day. nothing more. we are all suckers.
this is nothing short of blasphemy, but i do not believe we will be making it to ireland anymore. a plane ticket was 60 pounds for a one way; i really don't feel like dropping 240 american dollars to fly there. taking the ferry isn't much better. i guess we messed up by not booking in advance; perhaps we can do it in our free time before we leave for the states in late july.
met some cool scots named jen and jamie at a pub last night. i would really be interested in hitting up scotland on the way back. shame we won't be here in august, evidently they have some crazy festival in edinburg(?) in aug.
this is nothing short of blasphemy, but i do not believe we will be making it to ireland anymore. a plane ticket was 60 pounds for a one way; i really don't feel like dropping 240 american dollars to fly there. taking the ferry isn't much better. i guess we messed up by not booking in advance; perhaps we can do it in our free time before we leave for the states in late july.
met some cool scots named jen and jamie at a pub last night. i would really be interested in hitting up scotland on the way back. shame we won't be here in august, evidently they have some crazy festival in edinburg(?) in aug.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Day 1. Apparently i dont get to pick a title anymore; maybe this browser is broken. Also the shift key is horribly inconvenient to use on these european computers. so i think i'm just going to be lazy and not capitalize appropriate letters.
i also call this day one because yesterday started in indiana (where i woke up). i spent all that day travelling, and not sleeping. our plane arrived at 6:30 london time. first ted and i waited 5 hours for kim and rachel in the airport. then we spent all day trying to book our hostel. that was a gigantic pain in the ass. they kept telling us to come back because their computers were down; so another five hours later we had a room. we also went on a two hour bus tour of london; holy crap this city is cold. anyways, so the end result was that 35 hours after waking up i finally went to bed at 10 london time.
now that its day one and i've had sufficient sleep, am dressed warmer, and am well-fed, i'm a little more coherant and can type my first update. nothing spectacular has happened thus far, but i might note a few things:
1. urinals in the uk are far superior to those found in the usa. i've always wondered why in the usa the urinals have flat backs. then when you use them, you'll get splashed unless you move to the side and aim at a great angle. i always wondered why they werent shaped like an egg? well, in london they are. you'd think such a simple engineering design would be pretty easy to get right, but apparently americans cant do it.
2. people in london really like fish and chips. chips are actually huge french fries and not thin slices of fried potato as we know them. in fact, people in london take their 'chips' very seriously. i ordered a plate of chips with cheeze and bacon. i'm expecting thin little french fries, with tiny bits of bacon and a little bit of melted cheeze. no. what i got instead were massive partitions of a whole potato. there was a big thick square of melted cheeze over the entire top of the wedges. and instead of bacon, i got a huge rectangular slice of pork underneath the cheeze. good stuff. too bad their ranch dressing sucks =0. but their tomatoes are better than those in the us.
3. the american dollar isn't worth that much. prices in london are numerically about equivalent to those in the us. a big mack goes for 4.5 pounds and about 5 dollars, for example. but 2 dollars only gets you about 1 pound at the exchanger. which basically means everything is twice as expensive as it is in the states. granted, some of that is probably because london is a big city, but whatever.
4. red bulls are relatively cheap in london. a red bull in the us costs roughly 4 times what a can of coke costs; 2 bucks vs 50 cents. in london, a red bull is only 2 times what a can of coke is.
5. the us isn't very good at football. and by football, i mean soccer. it really makes no sense that we call american football football. you never even use your foot unless you're kicking off. we just lost the world cup game to ghana; luckily us citizens wont care. the economist magazine had a really funny comment about the world cup though. all of the nations in the world are obsessed with the world cup because its a chance to show their nations' domination over the rest of the world. the us doesn't care about the world cup then, because its too busy with the real thing (ie world domination).
6. london has about 50,000 statues involving either an angel, a lion, a soldier, or some permutation of the above in different orientation and number. they're still all really cool, but there are just lots of them.
well as its really only been one day thus far, thats about it for now.
nick
i also call this day one because yesterday started in indiana (where i woke up). i spent all that day travelling, and not sleeping. our plane arrived at 6:30 london time. first ted and i waited 5 hours for kim and rachel in the airport. then we spent all day trying to book our hostel. that was a gigantic pain in the ass. they kept telling us to come back because their computers were down; so another five hours later we had a room. we also went on a two hour bus tour of london; holy crap this city is cold. anyways, so the end result was that 35 hours after waking up i finally went to bed at 10 london time.
now that its day one and i've had sufficient sleep, am dressed warmer, and am well-fed, i'm a little more coherant and can type my first update. nothing spectacular has happened thus far, but i might note a few things:
1. urinals in the uk are far superior to those found in the usa. i've always wondered why in the usa the urinals have flat backs. then when you use them, you'll get splashed unless you move to the side and aim at a great angle. i always wondered why they werent shaped like an egg? well, in london they are. you'd think such a simple engineering design would be pretty easy to get right, but apparently americans cant do it.
2. people in london really like fish and chips. chips are actually huge french fries and not thin slices of fried potato as we know them. in fact, people in london take their 'chips' very seriously. i ordered a plate of chips with cheeze and bacon. i'm expecting thin little french fries, with tiny bits of bacon and a little bit of melted cheeze. no. what i got instead were massive partitions of a whole potato. there was a big thick square of melted cheeze over the entire top of the wedges. and instead of bacon, i got a huge rectangular slice of pork underneath the cheeze. good stuff. too bad their ranch dressing sucks =0. but their tomatoes are better than those in the us.
3. the american dollar isn't worth that much. prices in london are numerically about equivalent to those in the us. a big mack goes for 4.5 pounds and about 5 dollars, for example. but 2 dollars only gets you about 1 pound at the exchanger. which basically means everything is twice as expensive as it is in the states. granted, some of that is probably because london is a big city, but whatever.
4. red bulls are relatively cheap in london. a red bull in the us costs roughly 4 times what a can of coke costs; 2 bucks vs 50 cents. in london, a red bull is only 2 times what a can of coke is.
5. the us isn't very good at football. and by football, i mean soccer. it really makes no sense that we call american football football. you never even use your foot unless you're kicking off. we just lost the world cup game to ghana; luckily us citizens wont care. the economist magazine had a really funny comment about the world cup though. all of the nations in the world are obsessed with the world cup because its a chance to show their nations' domination over the rest of the world. the us doesn't care about the world cup then, because its too busy with the real thing (ie world domination).
6. london has about 50,000 statues involving either an angel, a lion, a soldier, or some permutation of the above in different orientation and number. they're still all really cool, but there are just lots of them.
well as its really only been one day thus far, thats about it for now.
nick
Monday, June 19, 2006
Welcome family and friends! I'll probably be updating this blog with pictures and commentary pretty much every time I get to a computer. Feel free to leave comments under the posts I make. You can just post as "anonymous" if you dont feel like creating an account - but make sure you leave your name at the bottom so I know who is writing.
Who are the travellers?
1) Kim Partington is a student at University of Cincinatti. Kim lived in my neighborhood right down the street. She is, if not outright, one of my best female friends. She will be a fantastic asset on the trip, since my mom won't be around to make sure I'm not acting like a complete moron.
2) Rachel Christensen is a student at Iowa University. Her and Kim met in Cincinatti at their high school. I've hung out with Rachel on multiple occasions (she has visited IU, Carmel, etc); we always had a lot of fun.
3) Ted Derheimer is from Fort Wayne. We met via Sig Ep, and he has been a roomate for the last three years. Next year Ted and I will be rooming again at IU for grad schools.
4) Heather Ludwig is Ted's best female friend from Fort Wayne. Heather is a student at IU as well, and I've known her for 3 years. She has been studying in Spain for 6 weeks already, and so is meeting up with us when her classes are over.
5) Finally, I am an IU biology graduate as of May 06. I spent the first 6 weeks of the summer doing research in a lab and tutoring a bit. I worked all year but wasn't really able to save up enough money for the trip so I took out a student loan. The way I see it, 8 years from now its not going to make much of a difference if I graduate $200,000 in debt, or $204,000 in debt. Also, my older sister just got married this weekend (congrats). My little sister is cool too. And although she's probably sad that I'm going to be gone for so long, I'm leaving my gamecube at home, so she really probably doesn't mind all that much.
Our tentative schedule:
-Leave June 20; fly into London
-London for a couple days, then Dublin, then back to London
-Paris for four days
-Amsterdam
-Germany?
-Interlaken
-Pamplona
-Italy for about 2 weeks
-Slovenia, to meet my late grandfather's first cousin Zofka.
-Either Dresden or Vienna? Perhaps Prague after that.
Who are the travellers?
1) Kim Partington is a student at University of Cincinatti. Kim lived in my neighborhood right down the street. She is, if not outright, one of my best female friends. She will be a fantastic asset on the trip, since my mom won't be around to make sure I'm not acting like a complete moron.
2) Rachel Christensen is a student at Iowa University. Her and Kim met in Cincinatti at their high school. I've hung out with Rachel on multiple occasions (she has visited IU, Carmel, etc); we always had a lot of fun.
3) Ted Derheimer is from Fort Wayne. We met via Sig Ep, and he has been a roomate for the last three years. Next year Ted and I will be rooming again at IU for grad schools.
4) Heather Ludwig is Ted's best female friend from Fort Wayne. Heather is a student at IU as well, and I've known her for 3 years. She has been studying in Spain for 6 weeks already, and so is meeting up with us when her classes are over.
5) Finally, I am an IU biology graduate as of May 06. I spent the first 6 weeks of the summer doing research in a lab and tutoring a bit. I worked all year but wasn't really able to save up enough money for the trip so I took out a student loan. The way I see it, 8 years from now its not going to make much of a difference if I graduate $200,000 in debt, or $204,000 in debt. Also, my older sister just got married this weekend (congrats). My little sister is cool too. And although she's probably sad that I'm going to be gone for so long, I'm leaving my gamecube at home, so she really probably doesn't mind all that much.
Our tentative schedule:
-Leave June 20; fly into London
-London for a couple days, then Dublin, then back to London
-Paris for four days
-Amsterdam
-Germany?
-Interlaken
-Pamplona
-Italy for about 2 weeks
-Slovenia, to meet my late grandfather's first cousin Zofka.
-Either Dresden or Vienna? Perhaps Prague after that.
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