Parislog 74
October 26, 2006

I walked into one of the little stores on my street and there were a couple of women in there shopping who were speaking English, so I started up a conversation with them. It turned out that they were from Los Angeles down near the airport. They had been traveling Europe for the last ten days and were heading home the next day.

It was so funny to talk to them because we were so loud in the store and so American. They were a couple of black girls too and so any of you from L.A. know that that means an additional increase in the volume. The guy at the counter was watching totally fascinated but at the same time trying not to look like he was looking. How could he not though? People just don’t talk that loud here for the most part, at least not in this neighborhood. If you go up into some of the more immigrant hoods you will find it.

They were explaining that in the beginning of traveling here that they were trying local foods but found it to be a real problem for their stomachs so ended up eating American food in Europe. They were eating at the McDonald’s and KFC’s of Europe. How sad. I can understand their concern but what a shame to miss out on one of the fun aspects of traveling to other countries. I never thought of Europe as being a problem for the stomach. I suppose that everyone has his or her own sensitivities.