Today, Friday, April 29th, I am on a plane OUT of London. We weren’t scheduled to leave until Saturday, by train, but so many things went wrong and we didn’t care much for London, so we decided to leave early. So now I am on a plane with a little time on my hands.
Just a few more interesting things about Europe before I move on and talk about the London experience…
1-Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs was supposedly born in Brugges, Belgium. Go figure.
2-The French are known for their rudeness, which we already established, however, we had no idea this would include our GPS navigation system. You know how they talk to you? “In 200 feet, make a legal right hand turn.” Well, ours would give a little notice, but then he would say, “TURN RIGHT,” in a very commanding almost rude tone. We thought it was pretty funny. Even our French GPS system was snotty.
3-There are two driving conditions that I wish the US would adopt. First, there are tons of round-a-bouts in Europe. Round-a-bouts REALLY help with traffic flow. A couple of years ago, we were in St. Martin and they literally have ONE traffic light on the entire island, everything else is round-a-bouts. Obviously, there is more than just one traffic light in Europe but round-a-bouts are everywhere. Very smart. Second, you are ONLY allowed to pass on the left. They WILL give you a ticket for passing on the right. What this means is that EVERYONE stays in the right lane, EXCEPT to pass. Once a car has passed another car (on the left), they move right back into the right lane. Why is this important? There was literally no traffic. The flow was continual. I thought this was pretty cool.
4-Language. Most people in Europe (and most other places we have visited) seem to be bilingual, if not multilingual. On our last night in Brugges, we sat near a family of 3 for dinner. Tim, being interested in languages, was eaves-dropping. Side note: Tim never cares what people are saying, he only wants to hear what language they might be speaking. He does this everywhere we go. I will be talking up a storm to him, when I realize he is not even listening to me, but to other people. This really bugged me in the beginning of our relationship, but then I realized that this is part of who he is and since language is what he does for a living…well you can see where I am going. I on the other hand, eavesdrop on other conversations because I am nosy. LOL Don’t judge, we all do it. J Anyway, back to the family sitting near us. The dad was speaking Italian, the mom was speaking French and the daughter (about 10 years old) was speaking to both of them in French, Italian AND English. I think this is amazing. On one hand, this shows the power that the US has over other countries. MOST other countries speak English as a second language, at least in the tourist areas. It puts into perspective the dominance and power the US has, that all these other countries would learn our language… On the other hand, it is actually pretty sad that the US doesn’t educate our young people with more language. Almost everywhere else in the world, they are taught English from the first day of school. What do we get? A measly 2 years of another language in 8th and 9th grade, which most of us will never remember more than how to say, “yes”, “no”, and “where is the bathroom” in either French or Spanish. Pretty ignorant if you ask me.
I wish I spoke another language. If I did, I would speak that language to my kids and let them learn English from school and friends. Tim says it’s too bad that his girls aren’t more bilingual. They (Stephanie and Melissa) have both told me that they can understand their mom when she speaks Italian but they don’t really know how to speak it. Tim says understanding it comes first, then speaking comes second. It probably wouldn’t be to hard for either of them to pick it up and be completely fluent in Italian.
5- I wanted t mention how BAD I wanted to stop and ask one of the prostitutes in the window how they make their money. Do they have “pimps?” Do they have to give a cut to the house? How often do they actually “work?” It seemed to me that most of the people were just looky-loos and weren’t actually “buying.” How do they set their prices? Do they have set prices for each type of “service” they offer or do they base it on the looks of whoever is asking? LOL That’s probably what I would do. HAHA I was too chicken to ask. I was afraid they would think I was asking for their actual services…for myself or for my husband. You know how sometimes you feel “trapped” into buying something you don’t really want? Well, that’s why I never asked. Next time I will get up the nerve. LOL
We are landing now, so I will try to add more later.
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