One of the great joys of living abroad is making friends with people from other countries–expats and natives alike. It’s an absolute riot comparing cultures. For instance, the English have right around 1 million ways to call a person “drunk.” I can think of 6 that we use in the States. And one of them is “drunk.” Also, when we Americans get excited, we tend to emit a telltale “Wooooo!” sound that turns other nationalities (especially the English) into spontaneous Steve Irwins who had prior been on the hunt for precisely our elusive kind. “Blimey! Lookee there! That sound means we’ve stumbled upon our first American of the night!”
One of the greater joys of living abroad, then, is partying with those international friends.
This is the beginning of series of posts called “People at Parties Abroad.” After over a year here, I’m convinced that I’m seeing patterns–patterns that tie behavior at parties to a person’s country of origin. Each post in this series will be somewhat of a straw-man portrayal of a single nationality at a party abroad. They’ll describe what I see. Over and over again. Every time I go to a party. I’ll look forward to comments about whether or not other people notice the same patterns.
I’ll start with us–the Americans–and our desire to be honorary members of everyone else’s culture, whether we’re invited in or not. From there, I’ll cover Mexicans, who want everyone else to be an honorary member of their culture, whether they asked for it or not. After them, I think I’ll cover the French, but I’m not convinced that I know enough about them, yet. From then on out, it’s just about which patterns I notice first.
If you find this even half as fascinating as I do, bookmark this page and check back often. This should be fun.