The American Experience

When I saw L and P for the first time after their trip to the States, L greeted me with a warm embrace and P said to me, “Did you think about not coming back, we did”. They absolutely loved everything about it. They flew into Tampa, then did a Mexican cruise with Royal Caribbean and then drove from Tampa to the suburbs of Atlanta to visit P’s dad. L said that even though they have family there, if I hadn’t been staying with them they would’ve never thought about visiting the U.S. She said that when they met people on the cruise and talked about their life, they mentioned their “American lady”. L exclaimed “What you must think of us when you go to a shop or a restaurant!” They were extremely impressed with the service and of course the amount of food. I told them that the friendliness had a lot to do with them being in the South.

Mostly Americans were on the cruise ship, which gave them the opportunity to hear lots of different accents. She commented on how exuberant the Americans were. When they boarded the ship, music was playing like the Macarena and the YMCA and men and women alike were dancing. They were amazed. As they were playing Bingo, the announcer said that anyone who won Bingo had to run around the room. Suddenly L and P panicked that they might win. Her comments spoke to how much more reserved a people the Brits are, which says something coming from someone who is a performer by trade.

I was glad they were back and also so glad they had a good time. L is such a positive person. I will need to feed off that positive energy as January slogs on.