Latin culture is a lot more like this than I was prepared to believe.
People here love doing everything in groups. And when they find something pleases them they get really excited. Like the kind of excitement provoked by finding George Clooney on one knee with a ring in his hand when you open the door to go get the mail. Or finding that you life story is being made into a blockbuster film and Natalie Portman is playing you, although you have done not much more than worked a mid-level job and wrote a drole blog.
But I mean this sort of excitement is delivered here when you ask them if they’d like to have a drink or maybe haven’t seen them in about 39 minutes.
I’m much more like this….
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I reserve my excitement for things that are truly exciting. Like when they called the election for Obama or finally seeing Tom Waits live.
I also like to do things alone, which is more than frowned upon here. (Not a big tango in groups on the street kinda gal.)
I’m not very sexy…there I said it.
Plus I enjoy one thing more than anything…being negative.
Complaining soothes my soul in it’s deep recesses. But people here think negativity is… well… negative. I see more as in taking out the trash so you can enjoy the few really good things around you. I mean how well can you appreciate the good if you can’t deliver on just how truly awful the bad is? And why not take a little fun out of what you hate by making a joke in it…what’s wrong with that?
Well so it seems it’s just “wrong” for no reason fully understood by myself. People here want you to be happy. All The Time.
It’s exhausting.
Plus you always have to say you really love their city. As they all think it is the best, most fascinating and exciting place on Earth. You can’t like the city. You must love it. If not they take it very personally and are dead set on proving you wrong. Either by forcing aguardente upon you or extolling it’s unique profile.
I’m much more like yeah well….does it have ukulele’s, public parks, and independent movies? The answer to all three is “no”.
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5, July 2009 at 12:17 am
Oscar
i don’t even remember how i got to your blog but its a good read.
im colombian btw but i think i kind of get what you mean by this post. sure independent movies and public parks as of those in the US and europe (i’ve never been to manizales but im sure they have better hills than montmartre) are a couple of things i would like to find myself (i dont really care about the ukelele but that’s just me).
i believe most colombians have experienced a lot of the bad and really want to be positive about the future and their lives, i think of it as a survival strategy or something like that. and about pple wanting u to be happy at all times i think that happens pretty much anywhere if the kind of care about u. i’ve lived and visited different countries and i’ve sure felt that way and i’m kind of a negative guy sometimes.
hope ur time here goes fast so u can make it back to paris and its rather rude parisians.
5, July 2009 at 9:22 am
fausseparisienne
Oscar, I know exactly what you mean by this. Colombia’s reputation is a far cry from it’s reality.
My perspective is simply that of it being a personality thing. I, actually, find it really entertaining at times as just to how different a culture is. Not in it’s physical means of food, activities and such, but in personalities. It makes me wonder what parts of me are my personality and what parts of me are pieces of my being raised in Texas.
As far as being rude, although I know you meant it as a joke, is that I find Parisians so less rude because of how I see things. I get frustrated when people in Colombia ask me how I am every time they see me and how they ask me if I’m “contenta” in Colombia. I find that rude, because if I said “no” they’d get offended. It’s a fake nicety that is really just fishing for a compliment about their country or city. I rather just be somewhere in which the question isn’t asked, because they honestly just don’t care. Again this is the personal fit thing. Many people here think I’m completely rude because I never say “hi” or ask them how they are, whereas, I think I’m being polite by not.
Colombia is a beautiful country and I see why people love it and why the people from here want to extol it’s virtues. It’s just not a good fit for me. But I don’t want time to fly-by, being in a country where you don’t fit is it’s on adventure.