Monday, July 14, 2008

Differences between the US and the UK # 5

One of the girls that works with me rides the same bus in every morning. So we usually walk to work together. Gossip about the company and the employers (I'm a listener, not a talker) and just general things going on.

Friday morning, on the way to work, she decided to stop and get something to eat. She said she had gotten up late and hadn't had breakfast yet. That didn't sound like a bad idea, so I went along. Its the last time I will do that.

She ordered what I can only term as the most horrendous concoction ever known to mankind. A coleslaw and cheese sandwich. Now I'm a live and let live kind of guy. You do your thing, I'll do my thing, and we don't agree, we just avoid the subject.

But I was thoroughly disgusted by this. How can anyone eat something like that. I've been in Asia, where seafood consists of anything that comes from the sea, and its not always a Red Lobster platter. I've lived in Africa, where I've told people "don't tell me what it is, I'll eat it anyhow. If you tell me what it is, I won't eat for a week". During Desert Storm, I ate 5 MRE's a day (and unless you've done it, you can't imagine the horror of it).

In other words, the things I've put into my body, to include beer from around 60 different countries, Tequila, Ouzo (Greek), Racki (Turkish), SoJu (Korean), Saki (Japanese), Balzams (Latvian) and good ole' American moonshine, mean to me that I'm not a particular person. I've put a lot of disgusting looking and tasting things into my body. But the sight of a coleslaw and cheese sandwiches just turned my stomach.

And when I mentioned that I felt it was a disgusting combination to put between two slices of bread, she immediately began to criticise the fact that Americans eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Houston, we might have a problem.

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