We don't value family and personal relationships. We're too busy to stop and take a moment to find out how others are doing, how we can help or make someone's life a little easier. We work too much, eat poorly and overindulge in big cars, big houses and look to unnecessary "things" to make us happy.
I'm not saying every American is this way, but many of us are, including me. I found myself at times longing for free wi-fi access (to log on to Facebook, email and Twitter) and wanting air conditioning to be available every where we went - both are rare, even in Rome and Florence, and it was over 100 degrees while we were there. If you want Internet, you have to pay for it and it's not available at every restaurant and cafe like it is in the US. If you want AC, you opened the windows.
Americans are also way too uptight. Europeans live by there own rules (or as I like to say 'lack thereof'). :) They live passionately, love much (PDA is not uncommon) and value relationships. Dinner is a three hour ordeal where they sit, eat slowly, savor the food and have long conversations with their guests. I experienced two of these dinners and found myself getting ansy and wanting to leave after an hour. We stopped at a little cafe in Florence and got a piece of pizza to go for lunch one day. The employee was beside herself that we were not sitting down to eat. It was definetly cute, but we honestly had to go meet our group.
The bottom line is this - we can learn a lot from other people and other cultures. Open your mind, open your heart and live each day to the fullest. It's a wide, wide world out there just waiting to be explored. Have fun!
A typical car in Italy. Makes sense since gas is $10/gallon!
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