American Accent

You're in the grocery store and there is a buzz going on around you. Moms are scolding kids, couples are cooing, and the young store clerk is helping an older lady carry her bags. So much can be understood by all these situations just by looking at them but as I get closer to each I find that I can't understand anything else from them because of the language barrier. In the beginning it was frustrating because it was so strange and a feeling of exclusiveness messed with my brain that was so used to participating in other people's conversations. Now when I walk through Carrefour (err I mean Delicatesy because that strike is going on against Carrefour) I hardly notice the discomfort. I now know what the labels mean on the items I'm buying and so dinners have gotten way more satisfying since Februrary. This is such a cool feeling! I guess it feels like a really big accomplishment in my life and it is neat. I have a friend coming into town soon and I can't wait to see her reaction when we enter the grocery store, in a hope that I'll get to witness what my reaction must have been but this time from an outside view. Her and I went to Edinburgh and it was her first time out of the country, out of the US. I knew this but I still forgot to be sort of careful to the fact as she slunked off her 8 hour flight and I bounded off my 1 hour one. It was a bunch of big hugs and giggles and then off to the hostel, to throw our bags down, join a free tour of the city, and then scramble for a cheap but delicious place to eat before places started closing for the day. Over dinner she finally confessed to being absolutly blown away today by it all. I laughed and apologized for being so inconsiderate and she rebuted me with no worries and just went on to say how shocked she was by how different it really is and how the realization of being so far from home swamped her about an hour into that free tour and how she had a few weeks to go before she went back. It was so neat to talk about all these things because I felt them so long ago but the exact same things. She said she was scared to tell me (:P silly friend) because she felt silly about it. I told her not to worry, it's something everyone reflects on and feels and that I certainly felt the same for a long time. So I can't wait until we get to where no one speaks English and to see and hear her first impressions. We've met some fun and friendly Irish fellows on our travels and twice now we've had conversations about the "bizarre Poles." They go for trips over into Krakow and Warsaw and soon to be Poznan for a wedding frequently and they can't get over how "unhappy" the Polish people are. They claim Ireland to be the happiest country on the planet and so it's a really big shock for them when they visit the country. It was also funny to talk about the outdated tram system and the way Polish people never cross on the red at crosswalks. While we're speaking it's kind of cool to talk about a place I call home, I don't know I guess I feel like I have authority to share a little knowledge about the place. I'm giving the guys a list of some more useful words and phrases in Polish seeing as the only one they claim to know is kurva, not a very helpful word. After traveling through Scotland and hanging out with these Irish guys, when we entered the airport yesterday morning I finally heard it, the American Accent! I used to think that our accent "didn't exist" and that we just spoke "plain English" but after talking to some Scottish and Australian People about it my friend and I found that they enjoy it. Not in the sense that it's melodic or even interesting but because it's exotic, it's different and so it's just plain interesting to hear to them. I found that to be quite neat. :) It was funny when we asked them to do impressions of us, well Americans in general, we came off sounding like jerks as they mimicked George W. Bush and Tom Cruise. But after enjoying the Scottish accent for a few days (I've decided it's my favorite now, it is soOo sexy!) when I heard an American, well a ton of them, around us in the airport it was music to my ears; in the sense that it was familiar. I really liked it. When we started talking their ears would perk up to us as well and we did the lil chin up hello because we hold something in common, our homeland. It was neat. But as I'm excited to go back to the states in a few weeks, I'm also excited to get back because I miss Wroclaw; I want to be able to show my friend the good places to eat and my school buildings and just sleep in my own bed. Crazy how that happens.