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Gimmicks
Wednesday, May 08, 2002
I received a nice surprise last night. Ray, the English gentleman who I spoke with for over an hour before my flight boarded in Atlanta, e-mailed me a short note. He thanked me for talking with him, which apparently put him at ease about his first trip to the States.
It is rather funny, on the flight down, I had NO desire to chitchat with the motormouth woman who sat next to me. Yet, I happily put my book and postcards aside to exchange cultural tidbits with a gentleman who was just as talkative, but NOT as obnoxious.
She persistently tried to get me to read a Great Sex passage, but I declined several times - first few by politely saying, "No, thank you," and finally, "No, I don't have to read a book for Great Sex," with a DUH tone to my voice. THAT made her think I was all offended about sex talk, which I am not...geez, I helped found a very popular sex message board on iVillage! I just was NOT in the mood to behave like she was...like an excited young girl who reads Judy Blume's, "Forever" or "Wifey" for the first time.
After that, she would react dramatically about what she had just read and then say, "Oh, sorry, I don't mean to offend you with the sex!" She also whispered to the 20-something guy on her other side, "SHE is offended by sex talk." Funny, but HE was also trying to ignore her theatrics, lol. As soon as he answered her with an, "Oh," she bombarded the poor guy with questions and her stories (she met Emeril, the chef, and claimed he scoped her out, yeah...uh-huh), then after finding out he was married, actually tried to put the moves on him! OMG!
As for Ray, the English gentleman, we discussed mass-transit systems in England and the Mainland (Europe) vs. America. He was horrified at our poor choices...cars, buses, bikes, walking and trains are their options, but it seems cars and planes are ours.
We also talked about Europe, the Motor City and his nearby town, Spalding. I cringed when he told me that someone in Atlanta asked him if Spalding was named after the sport balls! (Insert Homer Simpson, "DOH!" here.) Another "I can't believe I'm an American" moment was about someone asking if Boston, England was named after our Boston, Mass. UH...DUH!
Hopefully, our conversation impressed him that there are some intelligent Americans, and we aren't all so arrogant! Hmmm...was this diplomacy?
The time passed quickly, and we exchanged e-mail addresses. How fun! Instead of waiting weeks to get a nice letter, it was just a few days. Know what? I prefer the Internet for mail exchange.
Now, I have a new acquaintance and learned a bit about another culture. I wonder if the gal from my first flight is still drooling over her Great Sex book? Sunshine - Walking on Sunshine -
5/08/2002 05:25:00 AM
