Monday, June 29, 2009

My oldest daughter went to Europe for a week a couple of months ago. She loved Amsterdam and hated Paris. In fact she even created a chart to describe the differences between the two cities.

Paris vs. Amsterdam
Long distances vs. short
Rude people vs. helpful
Dirty town vs. everyone recycles and bicycles
Hates English vs. everyone speaks English
Very busy town vs. Pretty much like our town busy


So you see, Amsterdam is much better than Paris.


It reminded me of an article I read about a year or so ago. The columnist was explaining that Parisians are not rude, they are different, and we perceive the difference as rudeness. She went on to explain that first- Paris is a big city and like most large cities, the people tend to have less patience so when a tourist comes along looking for directions they have already been dealing with this all day and don't have any patience on reserve. She also said that Europeans in general and the French specifically, have a greater sense of privacy. They don't assume that just because you are standing in line beside one another at the grocery store you automatically become friends. This brings me to the reason I am writing today. I have been heard more than once saying that anyone who has the misfortune of standing in line next to me has to be my friend for the next few minutes. I can not imagine how arduous an eight hour flight would be if my seat mates didn't want to talk. Wow! Talk about torture!
There were two men standing in line in front of me at Barnes and Noble. They were sort of giggling and they kept looking at me. I was pretty confident they weren't laughing at me, but were more concerned that I may have overheard their little tete-a-tete. I hadn't, but while listening to them carrying on like twelve year old girls my eyes fell upon a CD by some woman (I honestly can not remember who) but she looked so much like Michael Jackson that I was taken aback. So I grabbed the CD and said to the men, "quick, who does this look like?" and sort of flashed the CD at them and then turned it away to quickly for them to see the name of the artist. They had no idea but it led right into a conversation.
I have stood in line when I saw something funny and wanted desperately to share it with anyone- anyone at all. I have a tendency to find so many things funny. I recently went to a Rays game at the Tropicana Stadium in St. Pete with a couple of girlfriends. They abandoned me for a while to visit a friend. While they were gone I became close friends with my neighbors. We did the wave together, we discussed the intelligence of staying at a Holiday Inn Express, we talked about all sorts of things- we were friends, buds, comrades. Ah those fifteen minutes of friendship we all shared!
So, if you see me standing in line at the grocery store, or sitting on a park bench, or having a coffee all by my lonesome at the coffee shop, please come join me and tell me a funny. I wont get all Parisian on you!

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