When was the last time you spoke to an American?

I speak with Americans all the time!  There are two where I work.  Andee (on UKY) is one of my neighbours & works in a charity shop just down the street from where I live.  I have quite a few friends in this general area that I met via UKY.  Heck - I'm on my way to York today (with a British UKY/local friend) & might even run into another American UKY member who lives over there.  I can't get away from them! 

Saturday at the UKY meet-up. 

  That accent always grabs my attention, and (unfortunately) my husbands too.  'Look honey, it's your sister/brother!  Go talk to her/him!'  PITA.

 

One of my husband's friends from when he worked at Tesco is from Virginia, so we see him nearly every time we go shopping.  I know of at least one other Dallasite around town, but I don't -know- this person; she's the niece of one of the farm families out in the villages.

The last random American I ran into would've been in London back in May.  We were visiting the astrology shop on Neal Street, and some guy on layover between wherever and New York got all squealy-happy to run into another Yank! *laughs*

...some guy on layover between wherever and New York got all squealy-happy to run into another Yank! *laughs*

I am like this sometimes! I was worse when I worked at Hamleys. I once saw a man wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers shirt and I shouted to him "I LOVE YOUR SHIRT" and talked to him for a good 15 minutes. He was the only other person from the Burgh I've ever met in London.

Generally though, if I see American tourists around London (and they are plentiful) I look the other way.  They tend to be so obnoxious that it is embarrassing. DH tells me I was NEVER like that, and I surely hope not.

Hah, this is why I'm glad my in-laws will probably NEVER get an urge to hop a flight to Texas to meet my extended family - my (step)dad's relatives are your stereotypically loud, ignorant, and obnoxious Americans that make the rest of us look bad.  My parents, bless them, are unrepentantly tourists, which is stressful enough!  At least both of my sisters have lived abroad as well (one taught English in France for a year, and the other studied Italian in Perugia for a summer), so they have an appropriate standard of behavior.

Generally though, if I see American tourists around London (and they are plentiful) I look the other way.  They tend to be so obnoxious that it is embarrassing. DH tells me I was NEVER like that, and I surely hope not.

I've told this story before, but one day I was on the upper deck of a bus headed to a dentist appointment.  Traffic was horrible.  A stop or two after I got on, we picked up an American woman (or I assume she was American, and likely everyone else did as well even if she was Canadian).  She was so loud that I could hear everything she was saying even though she was on the lower deck.  The driver kept playing the recording about keeping your music players down, probably because there was not a recording about lowering your voice a few decibels because you're bothering passengers and embarrassing fellow Americans. It was all I could do not to tell her to STFU when I was leaving the bus.

The thing is, there are a lot of Americans (and Canadians) who are quiet and respectful.  The bad ones are just so awful that you can't forget them.

More on topic:

Our needlework group was the last time I spoke to Americans in person.  Before that, it was probably when I ran into the American that moved into our old building just before we moved out.

I work in a large regional shopping mall, so we get quite a lot of customers off all different nationalities - I spoke to an American yesterday (at least I think she was American - her accent was very soft, like she'd been here for several years, but it sounded vaguely North American) and one last week too .

As Mrs. R mentioned--we live practically on the same street, and so the last American I spoke with was Mrs. R and about 5 other Americans at her cookie share thing a week or so ago!

. I once saw a man wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers shirt and I shouted to him "I LOVE YOUR SHIRT" and talked to him for a good 15 minutes.

Ha!  I got excited when I saw the pet shop owner guy was wearing a T-shirt that said Philly or Philadelphia on it.  I said, "Hey!  I'm from Philadelphia!"  I pointed at his shirt, but he still looked at me blankly.  Of course he British, but also I don't even think he realized what T-shirt he was wearing or even if it said Philadelphia on it.  (Sort of like my hubby's T-shirt with something in some kind of Eastern Asian language on it.  He has no idea what it says or even what language it is.)

As Mrs. R mentioned--we live practically on the same street, and so the last American I spoke with was Mrs. R and about 5 other Americans at her cookie share thing a week or so ago!
Ha!  I got excited when I saw the pet shop owner guy was wearing a T-shirt that said Philly or Philadelphia on it.  I said, "Hey!  I'm from Philadelphia!"  I pointed at his shirt, but he still looked at me blankly.  Of course he British, but also I don't even think he realized what T-shirt he was wearing or even if it said Philadelphia on it.  (Sort of like my hubby's T-shirt with something in some kind of Eastern Asian language on it.  He has no idea what it says or even what language it is.)

Lol, I saw a girl about my age walking along the street wearing a Pitt university sweatshirt and I went "I'M FROM THERE!!!" She was british too, but got excited anyway. But there was no time to talk b/c it was in the middle of a downpour, so we just kind of shouted while running past each other.

Most of my friends here are American, so the last time was Sunday when we met for brunch. Being in Dublin though, if I leave my house I'm guaranteed to hear an American accent, what with the students and tourists everywhere.

Today. I work at a shop and one of our security guards is a man from New Jersey.

I was wearing my Lizzie Borden t-shirt and the girl at the bakery got all excited. She's British, but she played Lizzie in the school play.

In their version Lizzie had been bullied.

A few weeks ago-there is an American family on the base near here.  Really great family, shame they are only here for three years. 

Today at work, which is full of Americans (about 50%), at the UKY meet up last Saturday and I called a friend of mine who moved back to Seattle.