Foreign Exchange Students

I was over at a friend's house yesterday, celebrating Independence Day. He and his family are hosting a foreign exchanged student from Spain.

I speak Spanish un poco, and she doesn't hable English very well (we speak it too fast over here, she said... that's something I can relate to because I had comprehension trouble while taking Spanish in college - native speakers in genuine conversations, as opposed to the slowed down teaching tapes, spoke way too fast to understand). But we worked together and after a while we could understand each other well, even though she complained I spoke Spanish with a French accent (I grew up with French as my second language - sorry if that let's anyone down).

When it came time for dinner, I couldn't wait to dig in. We had the typical American spread including the all-American dish, corn on the cob. We all started eating and she looked confused and a little bit grossed out. I asked her what was wrong and she leaned over and whispered to me "why are you eating pig's food?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, not sure what cultural norm we were violating.

"Only the pigs eat corn like that. People cut the corn off and it eat off of their plate."

"Are you calling me a pig?" I asked jokingly.

"No, you just eat like one" she said back seriously, not recognizing the humor in my question (I assume).

I get a real kick out of differences between cultures and countries. This American's ultimate summer treat is that European's pig slop. That's part of the joy of traveling and learning.

"You know what's really disgusting?" I asked her. "In France they eat snails."

"What are 'snails'?"

"The call it escargot."

"Yes, it is wonderful," she told me.

Snails? Edible? For human beings? And the Europeans think we are disgusting? I guess one European's ultimate treat is this American's fish tank cleaner. That's part of the joy of traveling and learning.