Categories 
Jun
14
2006
Squandered Opportunity
When you picture traveling to Europe, do you imagine daydreaming at a small cafe over cappuccinos, cigarettes, and a journal thick with creamy blank pages? Yeah, me too.
Our whole trip was like that. Except we don’t smoke. Californians are annoying that way.
Yeah that is how I pictured it. The only problem is that when I actually moved to Europe I thought it would CONTINUE to be that way.
I’m an American, living in Belgium.
No matter how long I live here, I never get used to the language barrier. All our official documents, bills, newspapers, menus, etc are in Dutch, and just the sight of all those double vowels and seemingly random “Js” and “Ys” freaks me out. French seems so much more approachable…..
The key to Dutch is just to realise that 5 vowels aren’t enough for a Germanic language — hence the addition of Js and Ys that are surrogate extra vowels
How long have you been living there and still not learnt to read Dutch??
Californians don’t smoke?
Last time I was in SF it seemed every other person I passed on the sidewalk had a ciggie in one hand, mobile phone in the other, and they all looked like they were two minutes late for a meeting.
That was back in ‘99, though. Perhaps it’s changed.
That sounds fabulous.
At least smoking is the only thing you drop out of the equation. I’d be dropping the smokes and the cappuccino, unfortunately
Oddly – now that I think of it – it was in France, at a cafe, while writing in my journal that I was offered my first cigarette from a French friend who I had met on the trip. Not wanting to offend my new companion, I obligingly accepted the smoke and tried not to be an obvious amateur. Failed miserably. Cough the entire way through the damn thing. Thus began my addiction.
That’s how Europe is on this side of the Rhine, too, except with more library books and fewer journals. Very nice, indeed, except that if, after I leave, I never, ever see a cigarette again, it will be too soon.
Well V-Grrrl sounds to me like you need to need towards the south of Belgium then.
I’ll play devils advocate and say that it’s never too late to start~!
I quit years ago and will ALWAYS want to have one with a cold beer on a warm Summer night.
With that said, I don’t miss smelling like an ashtray. Too bad I’ve taken up Mojitos as a substitue.
Even though I quit smoking a long time ago and now HATE the way cigarettes smell and taste, when I get out the pictures from when I was living in France, my ubiquitous Gaulois cigarettes look so damn appealing.
I don’t care what they say, smoking is still cool.
Never really got into smoking so I don’t miss it and I certainly don’t want or need it anywhere I hang out.