waving our stars and stripes

Since living in Europe we have MANY times thought that we need to carry around tiny American flags to wave whenever we do something tacky or that makes it obvious we "aren't from around here." The flags were needed many times on this trip as well:

As soon as I stepped off the plane into the Paris airport I was reminded that Parisians wear BLACK. I knew this before but colorful-England had made me forget. I instantly felt out of place in my bright blue coat! If that wasn't bad enough, I walked around with my camera around my neck pretty much the entire time. It was safer and handier, plus I figured I might as well embrace the tourist role. *waves american flag*





There were a few instances when, though trying to speak in the native language, talk quietly and be polite, we were forced to wave our flags high and ask our waiters how to eat the food we had ordered.

Brandon attempted to get this concept across to the waiter after ordering Escargot: "Ummmm, excuse me HOW do I eat these?" *waves american flag* "They are covered in butter, extremely slippery and have only a tiny opening. I see that you have given me these two metal tools but I have no idea what to do with them. Thanks.... er I mean... Merci."

After we figured out how to eat them, I tried one.  When I attempted to scoop the slug out of the tiny opening in the shell with the tiny fork while holding it in the little tongs it kept spinning around and I couldn't get it. So I squeezed the tongs more thinking it would clamp down tighter on the shell. Instead the tongs opened and the snail dropped into my soup with a big PLOP, splattering soup about!

The scene of the incident:


As we were getting up to leave the café I accidentally closed my coat around one of the water glasses and the waiter saw it. As he was saying "FAITES ATTENTION!" I turned to try and figure out what he was referring to and knocked it onto the floor, shattering it everywhere.  *waves American flag*


Then, in Italy, while we were at our nicest dinner of the week, Brandon ordered stuffed mussels and they came slimy and slathered in sauce, but this time there were no metal utensils included. So Brandon had to try and ask our waiter (who basically spoke no English (hello and thanks but other than that he spoke to us in Italian and we spoke to him in English and it somehow worked really well)) how to eat them. The waiter responded by just holding up both of his hands. Brandon held his in the same way and asked "with my hands?" The waiter seemed to confirm it. Brandon observed that he was getting very mixed signals from the restaurant about it's standards of behavior.



So, I wanted to let you all know that you can be encouraged. We are over here continuing to proudly represent the USA and encourage American stereotypes everywhere we go! You're welcome.