Snorkeling

The beauty of being an American who wishes she were European is that you can enjoy yourself in either crowd; being raised to the former and aspiring towards the latter. Both groups were in plentiful supply on the snorkeling excursion I went on over Winter Break.

I practiced my German with Alßa (sp?) He was originally from Holland but living in Germany. I wouldn't have, but Melissa threatened to ask him to talk to me if I didn't do so myself, so as she began to I went over and said, "Stimmt nicht. Meine Schwester ist wannsinnig."

He was a nice guy, and interesting especially in how he destested the obscene quantity of ice in American Drinks; A custom which, oddly enough, has moved to the Dutch owned Netherlande Antilles. Half the people on the boat spoke Dutch, another half English, and the few who spoke German or Spanish remained so elusive that this was the only one I found. Ah well, might've been worse.

My sister found the tacky Americans for me. She had two middle aged couples firmly convinced that we were the daughters they never had. On the bus ride back, all were drunks save Melissa (I think...), and I, and so we tried to sing together. Unfortunately we had vastly different tastes in music and no one could find a song we all knew until...

Bye bye Miss American Pie, I drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry, Them good ol' boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye Singing "This'll be the day that I die, This'll be the day that I die."

The Newlyweds up front filled in the rest of the verses, and when we got to the hotel the 9 of us went up to the beautiful piano in the lobby and started singing it out. Everyone was scared out of their wits, but 3 generations of Tacky Americans kept singing what should be the national anthem instead of that Star Spangled Shite.

Then the strangest thing happened... not everyone, no, many were still cowering in fear, but a few employees, a few natives, a few foreigneers, started poking their heads from whatever hole they normally kept too and clapping and singing with us. So it wasn't quite pride, but for a few moments I was filled with a sort of happiness.