- Americans are fat. That is one of the first things I noticed upon returning to the country. I've heard that stereotype over and over every time I've been abroad, but this time back I noticed that it is really pretty true. Of course, not all Americans are fat, and not all Europeans are thin, but there are a dispropotionately large percentage of Americans who are fat. The worst of it is the number of young people who are fat. In general, I've found that fat Europeans tend to be old. Here the fat can't be categorized. Half of the people who are fat probably don't even think they are. For instance, as Jeff and I were leaving this restaurant in Maryland, two guys in their twenties walked in. They were nothing special; they were pretty much your average Joes. But both of them had little beer bellies that you knew would one day grow into big pot bellies. Not really a big deal at this stage, but at the age they were you'd think they'd take more interest in their health and looks. I don't know if I would have noticed before, but I do now. It's not pretty.
- Restaurants in the US really like to get you in and out as fast as possible. It's a race against the clock. As soon as you sit down, your waiter/waitress wants to take your drink order. Two minutes later they want to know if you're ready to order. Then once your food comes they hound you about twenty times to see if they can get you anything else. Then without you even asking they bring the check and then hover until you pay and leave. I find it annoying, but generally most people here consider that good service. I probably once did too. But after two year-long experiences abroad, I've come to really appreciate the European way of eating. You don't go out just to eat, but to socialize. You better not be starving, because your food isn't taking any shortcuts to your table. It's definitely different at first, but after a while, you realize how nice it is. Nobody is hounding you, rushing you. If you want to sit for thirty minutes before you even open your menu, fine. If you want to order in bits and pieces, fine. If you want to stay for hours after you're done eating, fine. When the waiters/waitresses aren't depending on tips for their income, they don't really care if you occupy their table for the whole night. Of course, as you might expect, this sometimes results in poor service, but actually that's quite rare. I like eating out being an event. I'm going to miss that.
- Humidity sucks. Once Greece got hot, it got really hot. The sun has a strange intensity there that I've never encountered anywhere else. But it's not humid. At least nothing like it is here. Even Egypt with its extreme temperatures wasn't like this. Here I find myself covered in a layer of sweat just after being outside for a few minutes. It's ridiculous.
- While it's nice to be back in a country where I understand everything that is going on around me, it does have its downsides. Primarily, I can no longer say whatever I want about the people around me and be pretty certain that they aren't going to understand what I say. In Greece, I wasn't in danger of offending people with direct comments about their clothes, hair, conversation or whatever else about them caught my attention. Even those who understood English usually couldn't understand what we were saying, because once we got going we talked way too fast for their comprehension. It was nice. In a way it was like being invisible. That's one nice thing about being a foreigner. You can do what you want even if it is strange, and people just attribute it to you being a foreigner. It's kind of like diplomatic immunity.
Okay, that's all I've got for now. I'll write a better blog soon. My brain still doesn't seem to be working 100%. Yeah, yeah, I hear you saying that it never does. Gosh aren't you funny.
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