Tell you a story about that - in 2000, the (new) Bride and I went on a delayed honeymoon to the 2000 Oberammergau Passion Play and then northern Italy and Tuscany. We were on a tour and the food was mostly mediocre - attempts at American food from a bad Denny's in Keokuk, Iowa..... We had eggs for breakfast in Venice that i swear were le…
Tell you a story about that - in 2000, the (new) Bride and I went on a delayed honeymoon to the 2000 Oberammergau Passion Play and then northern Italy and Tuscany. We were on a tour and the food was mostly mediocre - attempts at American food from a bad Denny's in Keokuk, Iowa..... We had eggs for breakfast in Venice that i swear were left over from the 5th Army in 1944, in a country with some of the finest food in the world. I asked the tour director why we were getting such bad "American" food and he said that most American tourists won't eat local (foreign) food - they want "American food", so they get the wretched stuff we were fed on most of the trip. We had a free day in Florence and ate the local fare - it was marvelous. Some day we will go back and eat on the local economy.....
When I was spending three years in the Far East in the Navy, I decided I was going to make the most of my experience. I became friends with local people where we were, was occasionally included in invitations for social events, and did other things "untypical of an American sailor." We got a new Division Officer in 1964 who decided my security clearance was at risk for such things as "eating in native establishments" as it was written up.
And the American military wonders why since 1950 it has never been able to figure out what "the other side" was doing in any of the SEA involvements. The fact America got into those "involvements" had to do with the sacking of the people their superiors decided had "gone native" in their analyses (all of which were proven right, while all the official actions were wrong).
Americans by and large are a collection of provincial hayshakers and rubes. Even the ones from the big cities.
Ah yes, American "exceptionalism" - turns out that culturally we are exceptionally stupid..... When I traveled overseas for Lockheed-Martin, I always ate on the local economy and met local people - it was far more enjoyable than staying in the local hotel and a helluva lot cheaper ($ 2-3 local, vs. $20+ at the hotel for breakfast).....
Tell you a story about that - in 2000, the (new) Bride and I went on a delayed honeymoon to the 2000 Oberammergau Passion Play and then northern Italy and Tuscany. We were on a tour and the food was mostly mediocre - attempts at American food from a bad Denny's in Keokuk, Iowa..... We had eggs for breakfast in Venice that i swear were left over from the 5th Army in 1944, in a country with some of the finest food in the world. I asked the tour director why we were getting such bad "American" food and he said that most American tourists won't eat local (foreign) food - they want "American food", so they get the wretched stuff we were fed on most of the trip. We had a free day in Florence and ate the local fare - it was marvelous. Some day we will go back and eat on the local economy.....
When I was spending three years in the Far East in the Navy, I decided I was going to make the most of my experience. I became friends with local people where we were, was occasionally included in invitations for social events, and did other things "untypical of an American sailor." We got a new Division Officer in 1964 who decided my security clearance was at risk for such things as "eating in native establishments" as it was written up.
And the American military wonders why since 1950 it has never been able to figure out what "the other side" was doing in any of the SEA involvements. The fact America got into those "involvements" had to do with the sacking of the people their superiors decided had "gone native" in their analyses (all of which were proven right, while all the official actions were wrong).
Americans by and large are a collection of provincial hayshakers and rubes. Even the ones from the big cities.
Ah yes, American "exceptionalism" - turns out that culturally we are exceptionally stupid..... When I traveled overseas for Lockheed-Martin, I always ate on the local economy and met local people - it was far more enjoyable than staying in the local hotel and a helluva lot cheaper ($ 2-3 local, vs. $20+ at the hotel for breakfast).....