Blame Canada

Ladies and gentelmen, let me introduce you to the newest bad word, the A-word...AMERICAN! AMERICA! There I said it. It is time for me to go on a blogging tangent...not describing people or places or things but feelings, feelings deep inside that get hurt...by CANADIANS. MY NEW LEAST FAVORITE PEOPLE ON EARTH. NEVER EVER EVER AM I GOING TO THAT F'ING COUNTRY. Not only do they put Canadian flags on their backpacks so that everyone knows they are definately NOT to be confused with their American brothers (identical accent, hence the confusion) they consistantly deny us. When a fellow traveler meets you, generally the first topic is "Where are you from?" Sometimes people guess, only on the accetn, and group together Canada and the USA. But they will say, "Are you CAnadian? .....American?" with a voice that gradually gets softer. After Isay American they sigh relief, saying that so many times when they have asked a Canadian if they were American, the Canadian was highly offended. When someone has made that mistkae with me Ihave never had a sharp reaction, but the Canadians will be like "Hell no I'm no American, no way!" Becasue we must have leprasy or something. Last night I heard a guy with a water bottle that had a Candadian flag on it misusing the "A word" and there have been other incidents....at the concentration camp Matt and Ivisited, he overheard a few teenage girls in front of him chatting away "Yeah, and then this guy in the subway like totally flipped me off becasue Ithink he like thought Iwas like American and I'm like no way i'm canadian!" gag me with a stars and stripes spoon. So I have become close minded like them and have decided to deny my nothern brothers and never support their economy...hahahaha

And while Iam discussing anti-American sentiments, it hasn't been bad in a while, but man it gets so old. I told Matt Ihaven't figured out how to deal with it yet, we agreed that people who want to start something aren't even worth our time, but man it is irritating. What is so confusing to me about this is that eveyrhwere we go, American clothes, American music, pop culture, politics, everything, so it is so widely publicised and embraced, like everyone has adapted and adopted our culture yet they act like they hate us or that we suck. This is just really confusing to me. i think it is several things, one is if they are only halfway literate they cant tell the different between me and my government...they automatically associate me with what they see on TV. I also think it is the media and that they think we are like what they see on TV, becasue they watch all of our shows and that is all they know, and Ialso think they may be jealous becasue we have a lot more opportutnies than they do. I think our work ethic and mindset is just different...it seems to me that weare taught that the sky is the limit and it is easy to start or own your own business....but here it is not so easy, some countries haven't even been out from communism's rule for 20 years yet...Ithought that coming to Europe might make me detest the US for things like everyone being so wasteful and driving big cars and whatever, and maybe i have learned that people here utalize smaller space and live much simpler than we do, yes they do, but Idon't think that it makes them better. I feel very fortunate to have grown up in the states and am very proud of my country. Do i agree with all of the politics right now? Of course not. But name me one government in this world that is not corrupt and I will move there today. Point is that we are not so bad....really. I love the states and have not found one place that Icould honeslty say "I'mchanging my citizenship and moving here!" Europe has so many wonderful things about it, like the art, the history, the archteicture, the pizza, the beer, the wine, and all of the crazy foods and different cultures, but let me tell you that that have CRAPPY coffee and salads and wierd hamburgers and i will tell you my biggest beefs with europe:you have to PAY TO PEE AND PAY FOR WATER EVERYWHERE. Water at a restauarant is more expensive that wine or beer. It is just insane, nobody lends you a free helpilng hand anywhere and you dont realize how much you have it tell you don't have it over here...yesterday we went gorcery shopping. Not only was it 1 euro just to use the shopping cart, you have to bag your own groceries (this is everywhere) and you have to buy the bag. Wow. Where is Dillons when Ineed it? So that is always interesting, but so this means that when people say Europe is so much cooler or so much better or whatever it is not, it is just different. That is what we are learning. You cannot compare Wichita with Lawrence even, because they are different. You cannot compare apples to oranges, same thing, anyway Ilove learning new things and traveling is so insane and amazing and all those things, but really when it comes down to it, they've got nothing on us. And if you have facebook, pics are up now and a few videos. Ipicked up a USB cord from a really nice Austrailian guy whose camera was stolen so Ican do it whenever Iwant now...Iwill when Ihave the time. Right now we are in Vienna (and nothe biggest fans...) and going to listen to the Vienna Boys Choir tomorrow at Mass!