Mistaken for an American and other Barcelona observations.

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It has happened to me before, in a village in Italy. I was wandering around a small shop and the old couple who ran the place started speaking to my friend Luca about me. I heard the word "americano" a few times and I heard him laughing. They thought I was an American tourist. Not that I was offended but I was more concerned at why they didn't think I looked like an Englishman. That was in 1997 and it happened to me again in Cambodia and in Vietnam and once in the USA which was very bizarre. 
Me looking very non American at Montserrat
How an American could mistake me for an American after hearing me talk is a mystery to me. It happened to me last week in Barcelona thus my little story. I am very British/English. My teeth aren't whiter than snow, I am not obese, I am not loud, well I am not THAT loud. I don't wear golfing clothes on holiday and I am probably way to left wing and liberal to ever be accepted by the political class in the USA but yet again I question why people around the world see this average British guy and see an American? I want someone to turn round and ask if I am English, not American, not Australian, even Canadian would be nice for a change. Canadians are nice aren’t they?
I love Calvin & Hobbes in any language
I've now been here in Barcelona for 4 months, I feel like a local apart from the fact I don't speak Catalan, my level of Spanish is mucho bajo and I don't have 2 hour lunches yet, neither my stomach or wallet could take it. I’ve got a wide range of students, aged 11 to 60, I have a blind student who is very religious, I have students who are lawyers, psychologists and naughty 15 year old boys who make me laugh at their tales of doing things behind the backs of their unknowing parents and then laugh again when the mothers tell me everything because as we all know, mothers know everything. I’ve now got a favourite café, a favourite bar, and a favourite barber shop so I am almost there. I have friends here from Ireland, France, Bolivia as well as locals and I will soon be celebrating my birthday with them and some of my London based friends who are braving the ever so long flight to visit me J

October 22, 2013

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