Americans Abroad

Should we come with a warning sign? Maybe...

The other night, I went to dinner with my friend Erin. Erin is also American, and she recently moved to Brussels.

For an amuse-bouche, the restaurant brought us these little dishes, with something red in them. We were in an Italian restaurant, so I was hoping the "something red" would be tomatoes.

Erin said, "Is that raw meat?"

I said, "Maybe tomatoes? I'll give it a go."

I put one piece of the red stuff into my mouth (which was looking more and more like raw meat the closer it got to me) and took it right back out. Raw meat!

Neither one of us ate our amuse-bouche. The waitress came back over and asked if we were going to eat them, and we said no. Erin said, as she was walking away, "You can't give Americans raw meat!"

After our dinner, we were walking to the tram stop, and discussing a wedding we're going to on Saturday. We were trying to figure out the logistics, which are different than an American wedding, and it doesn't much help that the invitations we received are in Dutch, which neither of us can read.

I said something about a French wedding I'd been to, and how I thought this one would be a similar set-up, and how it seemed a bit weird to me. This other girl, standing on the street with us, turned to us and said, "No, it's totally normal! That's how weddings work!" (So we asked her advice about our logistical questions, and she was very helpful.)

I guess you can take the girl out of America, but you can't take the American out of the girl. At least when raw meat is on the menu.