Friday, May 04, 2007

everyone is so nice

I've said before that I find the overwhelming friendliness of people over here in the States quite amazing, and it's hard to gauge how genuine it is. I think it's pretty genuine - it's not at all unusual here in the Silicon Valley to see a complete stranger stop another in a street and exclaim, "that's a wonderful shirt!" - I've seen it happen twice. Amazing.

In shops and restaurants, it's more excessive, but it still feels pretty genuine, despite all the cliches. Since I've been in the US I've been charged - dunno why - with static energy, giving myself shocks on every plug socket, escalator and door handle I've come into contact with. I think it's because I'm walking round on trainers all day on the conference centre carpet. Just now I went into a shoe shop (titled 'Shoe Palace', no less), wondering if I should find some alternative footwear. I am immediately approached by a member of staff, who says something quickly which I don't quite catch.

"No thanks", I say, in a rather clipped English way, not meaning to be rude, and assuming he'd asked if I wanted help.

He looked at me with absolute astonishment.

"What?", he said, disbelieving.

I tried to be a bit more friendly. "No thanks, not right now", I said, smiling.

He still looked amazed. "No thanks to Hi?!", he asked.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Take good notes, mate. ;)

Ali P said...

f**king bl**dy americans. I for one will enjoy my time with the rude parisiens this weekend.

Oh, and do read my blog today, classic tale about my ex boyfriend....yes another one! But from TODAY!!

Dave said...

I liked San Francisco- but the pushy friendliness didn't appeal- I just felt like it was a necessary product of being a city driven by the services industry

And I didn't vote- because I can't possibly pretend to know enough about each party to make an informed decision, and anyway do they always do what they say? So I decided to stay in and watch the Moomins- and Andrew deleted my comment (to the same effect) on his stuffy blog- I have a fucking right not to vote, this is a fucking democracy- A plague on all your houses!

And Ali, your ex is a fucking twat- I always thought he swore too much, and not in an hilarious ireverent way, but in a desperate, uneccessary one. How'd you end up with such a bell-end?

rant over

Ali P said...

Hideous misjudgment of character. Never again. Rant not nearly over, but over until I get really pissed and then it starts again. Love and hugs xxxx