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Now, if it was complaining...
Nov. 25th, 2010 11:59 pmI feel almost like a TV show. With the way they do all the holidays. I think 3rd Rock especially comes to mind - the customs seen live for the first time by an alien. Today was my first Thanksgiving. I had no idea what to do but I got invited for a dinner. I'm afraid however that it was nothing like what they show on TV and probably not very representative of how Americans spend the day. I spent it with my Polish friends who lived here long enough to celebrate but still are not assimilated enough to really care about the spirit of the holiday. There was a turkey involved but that was it as they don't like any other traditional food. Mostly it was just a nice dinner and we just talk about different stuff after that. Noone thanked for anything. We all agreed it'd feel a little bit weird and awkward.
My friend said it's because our culture is so different. We don't usually list the good things that happened, we list bad. Poles are really good at complaining. If you ask as how we are doing you'll hear the list of illnesses and disasters. We are always diminishing our successes and distrust people who are to happy and satisfied. This also means we usually means we don't think what we do or have is good enough. This is so prevalent that, even though I think we are way to extreme in this attitude, I feel weird when people are praising Poland's economy or landscape. I can't quite believe they are serious and not just being polite.
On the other hand the American over optimistic way gets on my nerves too. When everything is fine and perfect all the time it also seems fake and artificial. I suppose I'd like something in the middle but it's hard to find. After all, as with all such things, what is the middle depends on who is measuring it.
So in the end I sit here drinking tea, earl grey, hot and thinking that I'm grateful someone finally realised what the touch screens were made for but I'm also disappointed that this is not shareable:
My friend said it's because our culture is so different. We don't usually list the good things that happened, we list bad. Poles are really good at complaining. If you ask as how we are doing you'll hear the list of illnesses and disasters. We are always diminishing our successes and distrust people who are to happy and satisfied. This also means we usually means we don't think what we do or have is good enough. This is so prevalent that, even though I think we are way to extreme in this attitude, I feel weird when people are praising Poland's economy or landscape. I can't quite believe they are serious and not just being polite.
On the other hand the American over optimistic way gets on my nerves too. When everything is fine and perfect all the time it also seems fake and artificial. I suppose I'd like something in the middle but it's hard to find. After all, as with all such things, what is the middle depends on who is measuring it.
So in the end I sit here drinking tea, earl grey, hot and thinking that I'm grateful someone finally realised what the touch screens were made for but I'm also disappointed that this is not shareable:
