Dumb Things Americans Say About Europe
I've lived in Europe for four years. Here's some of the dumb things Americans say when they visit.
"The service is just so bad everywhere." It's just different. If you want to get the attention of your server, you have to speak to them as they go by, or possibly wave at them. You can't expect to make subtle eye-contact and have them rush over to see what you need, like back home. Why Americans, who are usually quite bold when it comes to speaking to strangers and asking for help, suddenly become timid as chuch mice in restaurants, I do not know.
"It's like coming home!" No it's not. Your home is America. You have no genetic predisposition to feel at home within political borders that were probably completely different when your ancestors left. What you mean is that it looks the way you expected it to, which means you're in the tourist district.
"The French are rude and snobby." I just don't understand this one; I've been to France several times and locals have been polite and friendly. I suspect it's a case of people running across the rude Frenchman and letting him confirm what they already knew, despite the previous 10 friendly locals who made no impression at all. (To be fair, Europeans do this too; not only regarding America, but also their neighboring countries.)
"The pace of life here really makes you realize what a hurry we Americans are always in." Well, guess what, you're on vacation. Check out rush hour London, or Paris, or the massive traffic jams around Cologne. And when you get home, take a day off work and spend it at cafes and museums. Does anyone look like they're in a hurry? No, because they're not at work, just like the people you saw out and about in Sienna at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
"There's such a history here that the US doesn't have." The US has thousands of years of history, but it belongs to poor, marginalized people that you don't feel any connection with.
"If it wasn't for us, they'd all be speaking German." That's probably true, but it's even more so the case for other countries. World War II had been going on for over two years before the US joined, and we suffered fewer casualties than France, England, the Soviet Union. Also, if you refer to the WWII-era America as "we," unless you're my grandfather's age, you're an asshole.
Lest you think I'm a turncoat, stay tuned for Thursday's update: Dumb Things Europeans Say About America.