January 17, 1998
I'M BACK in case you hadn't noticed. Nothing like a trip overseas in a country whose television is stuck in the 80's to make you appreciate the wonders of cable. All in all it was a good experience, and I learned a few things about life in general.
First, Americans suck. Actually that's a gross exaggeration based on the fact that the other many American exchange students were basically conceited cliquish jerks. Not all, of course, or even a majority, but there were enough to make me seek company elswhere. SO I hung out with a couple of Thai chicks, three Mexicans, a German, a Finn, and two French guys. We played Duke Nukem 3-D a lot. Those damn French guys were pretty good at it though. Must be in their blood. I guess that the lesson I got out of that is that is that coolness transcends national boundaries (and never play a French guy at Duke Nukem).
I also noted that for all of the haughty "greeness" of the Europeans, I didn't see much effort to change daily lifestyles to accommodate it. Sure the sell gas at about a pound ($1.62) PER LITER, but they still sell leaded gas! And Recycling? Didn't see any real encouragement for that, not compared to here, anyway. And finally, the coup de grace, THEIR MCDONALD'S STILL USE STYROFOAM CONAINTERS!! AAUUUGH!! We're all going to die and it's all their fault!! Eating a Quarter Pounder out of a styrofoam container certainly brought me back to happier times, though, back when I was too young and stupid to understand the world. What did I learn from that? Ignorance IS bliss.
And then there were the women. Aaaah, where to begin. It was every young single male's dream. Tons of young (not THAT young though--at least college age), reasonably attractive women dressed in the fashions of the day, and the fashion of the day was MINIMALISM. Mini-skirts were SOOO in, and even though it was pretty darn cold many nights, coats were apparantly not cool to wear. So on any given night you can see women wearing nearly nothing in 40 degree weather heading out to the clubs and bars. (As a side note, guys' fashions were predictably boring and stupid--95% of dudes I saw on the street all wore bright, solid-colored untucked dress shirts. They looked like a bunch of clones. Nope, I'd never make it as a gay.) I honestly don't remember if they were actually better looking than American chicks, but I wasn't exactly staring at their faces anyway. They were fairly outgoing, too. Why, I had my butt grabbed at 4(!!) times. Now you're probably thinking that I had some pretty wild nights. Unfortunately, their brazenness could not overcome my wussiness and I failed to score. The lesson I learned from that is that I'm basically a wimp and I'll never score if I don't get some guts and a backbone.
Well, enough of that. I'm back in the grand US of A and it's time to do a complete facelift on this site. Stay tuned for incredible changes! And, BTW, this is the very first part of this page that was made in the USA.