8mm

Went to 8mm last night, this dope place in P-Berg, and had a good time. Props to my boy Sean, who told me about the place, and to his buddy Louis, who runs the place. Cool, international, musical crowd there. I met and argued politics and drank and laughed with a Swiss guy and a German guy, and some Irish blokes out on a stag party, and some Americans. Very chill on Sunday, but also kind of lively, if that makes sense. Prior to hitting 8mm, I caught some NFL at the Ceili House, saw a great Cincinnati-Pittsburgh game, and blah, blah, blah. Back at 8mm, my newfound German friend Connor got kicked out for spraying his beer at everyone within an eight-foot radius. That was pretty funny. It´s pretty obvious to people wherever I go that I´m American, by the way that I dress--Angels cap, Babe Ruth T-shirt, etc., which is fine by me, I´m proud to be an American, and I don´t mind that people can recognize that. But I think that some people think that it would be better if I tried to blend in more. To me, though, that is kind of disengenuous. I mean, a lot of Americans stop by the second hand store when they get here and get the olive-drab army fatigue jacket, and a european hat, and it´s almost like a uniform for them. Now, I respect the culture, and I have tried, with admittedly mixed results, to speak the language, but I don´t think that hiding who I am with regard to my fashion sense(or lack thereof) helps anybody. What happens though, sometimes, is that you are pre-judged based on your dress, and you can become a kind of target for anti-American sentiment. In a way, though, I think it is kind of a nice icebreaker, because it allows you to get into socio-political and cultural arguments with others, which is fun, and through that, reach a certain common ground, or just agree to disagree. It´s interesting to talk to people who have a different viewpoint, and the Europeans with whom I´ve spoken have been very open to these kinds of discussions. I think maybe they are used to the Ugly American, or the American Apologist, so it´s probably refreshing for them to get into a debate with an American who is neither of those things, and who doesn´t see Germany or America through rose-colored glasses.