Stupid cell phone!
Well, I feel like crap. And, as it is a Sat night and I have nothing else to do, because I am sick and my cell phone is not working. I believe it is time for another blogging.
So, I had a lovely conversation the other day with some very lovely people. They had something very interesting to say. I was speaking with 2 girls one from Ireland, and one from German, and 1 guy from Indonesia. All three of them were explaining how rude the Austrians, with the Viennese in particular, were. The Irish girl was talking about how the rest of the European continent believes the Austrians to be rude. She was talking about how bad the customer service was, and how people in general were just crappy. The German girl was a flight attendant, and was explaining how Austrians, and especially the Viennese were the scourge of the skies. She said that when there was a flight out of Vienna with mostly people from the city you could not expect please, or thank you, or even a smile. The Indonesian guy had much the same tale to tell. This totally surprised me. It had been my experience that the Austrians were rude, to the point of being mean. This country does not know the meaning of customer service or any other western convention for making life more pleasant. But I had initially thought that they treated me like shit because they knew I was an American. I can blend in pretty well, but once I open my mouth, the game is always up. But what my friends were saying means that the Austrians treat all outsiders equally like crap. This was a total surprise to me. I guess it was just hard for me to believe that a country, and a city can derive much of their identity from being dick noses.
This is not to say that I did not experience any anti-American statements or attitudes while I was here. But it does help explain to me why I got so much crap. It is surprising how common and accepted it has become over here to slam America. I am not going to rally for the flag or anything but they seriously apply any negative stereo type that they can to us. It is really surprising. Once you get to know most people, they will say something like. “Wow, you don’t act very American at all”. I am always confused at this, I take it as both a compliment and an insult. They are praising me for being a decent person, but at the same time telling me that the place that I am from and that I get my culture from produces loud, obnoxious, and dense individuals. Speaking to older individuals they will comment that American bashing has really gotten more popular in the last 10 years or less. I guess that I just have to say that that sucks. They are stupid enough to believe something like that, and we are obviously doing something to send that message that we are like that to the rest of the world.
Also, has anyone ever heard of Euro-Vision? Apparently it is the big deal over here, way bigger than American Idol and whatnot. Tonight was the final, and I think most of the Europeans I know were about to crap their pants they were so excited.
OK, well I must say that this was an enjoyable blog. I will probably have to edit it tomorrow, as while writing this I was on a large variety of cough medicines. Both American and European.
So, I had a lovely conversation the other day with some very lovely people. They had something very interesting to say. I was speaking with 2 girls one from Ireland, and one from German, and 1 guy from Indonesia. All three of them were explaining how rude the Austrians, with the Viennese in particular, were. The Irish girl was talking about how the rest of the European continent believes the Austrians to be rude. She was talking about how bad the customer service was, and how people in general were just crappy. The German girl was a flight attendant, and was explaining how Austrians, and especially the Viennese were the scourge of the skies. She said that when there was a flight out of Vienna with mostly people from the city you could not expect please, or thank you, or even a smile. The Indonesian guy had much the same tale to tell. This totally surprised me. It had been my experience that the Austrians were rude, to the point of being mean. This country does not know the meaning of customer service or any other western convention for making life more pleasant. But I had initially thought that they treated me like shit because they knew I was an American. I can blend in pretty well, but once I open my mouth, the game is always up. But what my friends were saying means that the Austrians treat all outsiders equally like crap. This was a total surprise to me. I guess it was just hard for me to believe that a country, and a city can derive much of their identity from being dick noses.
This is not to say that I did not experience any anti-American statements or attitudes while I was here. But it does help explain to me why I got so much crap. It is surprising how common and accepted it has become over here to slam America. I am not going to rally for the flag or anything but they seriously apply any negative stereo type that they can to us. It is really surprising. Once you get to know most people, they will say something like. “Wow, you don’t act very American at all”. I am always confused at this, I take it as both a compliment and an insult. They are praising me for being a decent person, but at the same time telling me that the place that I am from and that I get my culture from produces loud, obnoxious, and dense individuals. Speaking to older individuals they will comment that American bashing has really gotten more popular in the last 10 years or less. I guess that I just have to say that that sucks. They are stupid enough to believe something like that, and we are obviously doing something to send that message that we are like that to the rest of the world.
Also, has anyone ever heard of Euro-Vision? Apparently it is the big deal over here, way bigger than American Idol and whatnot. Tonight was the final, and I think most of the Europeans I know were about to crap their pants they were so excited.
OK, well I must say that this was an enjoyable blog. I will probably have to edit it tomorrow, as while writing this I was on a large variety of cough medicines. Both American and European.
posted by Humble Narrator at
3:18 PM
1 Comments:
Do you remember when we were in Zion, Utah in the canyon and there was that huge group of French tourists on the bus with us? Those people were obnoxious! It's like they were totally oblivious that there were other people sharing the bus with them. I understand that a lot of American tourists go over to Europe and act like they own the place, but some European tourists do it over here as well. It goes both ways.
By
GraceKathryn, at 2:09 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home