Americans are excellent

Americans are excellent. And the word excellent is not used enough these days. I digress.

I spent the last week skiing in America, which was lovely, possibly aside from the mountains of salt that I must have consumed over the week. There were many noticeable differences in the culture between here and the US, such as the multitude of ‘in your face’ adverts, particularly on TV. I must’ve seen an advert for a DVD called Lots and lots of Jets and Planes about 40 times. Yes, it’s just lots of footage of jets and planes. What more could you want?

One difference the struck me, however, was the average American’s ease at conversation. Several times, when a group of us skiing got in a gondola and a single American got in, within minutes the conversation was flowing. If this was England, no doubt the air would just be filled with an awkward silence that any British person is far too familiar with, but in the US of A, nothing can bring down their talkative optimism. They never shy away from a compliment, even if it is always “Hey, that’s awesome!” or “Hey, that’s cool!"

From my experience, every American is just like a socially confident seal, waiting to dive into the vast ocean of conversation. I, however, tend to more resemble a key characteristic of the socially awkward penguin. And as those of you who know me well will know, I am not a penguin.