Spindles, have you ever met a quiet well mannered American that you were surprised was an American?

Got his address? I wanna sneak up on him sometime next year.

I assure you that such a creature does not exist. We are corpulent, ill-behaved Mongols.

shit i never got the memo:eek:, i've got some fattening up to do!

Then it's a good thing Mark Twain's last book just knocked it out of the #1 spot.

I'm only half american, the other half is middle-eastern. Given that I am skeletal rather than corpulent I believe in my case I am a skeletal ill-behaved judean.

slims,

spindles is right. Im an australian of lebanese heritage who happensto be muslim who lives in dubai.

i never said that they are always loud and boistrous. sometimes they are, most times they are not. but they are not rude in any way i have seen. They just ...."stick out" - and im not sure if that is a good or bad thing. with the city being a mix of people from all over the world, id have felt that they'd do a better job of blending in. The way they all dress it seems like it was an order to dress the same. the reason i point it out is for their sake than anything else. am i being oversensitive? i dont know, you tell me.


shadow - what do you mean is the UAE quiter than the mediterreanean? quiter in what way?

plan9 - so you're planning on going stealth on me? PM me and ill give you my address so you can surprise me.

---------- Post added at 03:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:16 PM ----------

shadow? are you a long lost cousin?..brother!

Well I'm a Sephardi jew so there's a fair chance that's an accurate assessment if you go back far enough.

As far as quieter... I meant that literally. A lot of people I know refer to americans as loud and rude-by-ignorance, which makes sense someplace like finland... but having been to Israel many times and having family all around the mediterranean I usually see americans as sticking out in the middle east because compared to everyone else they're downright quiet and submissive.

The manners thing I'll grant wholeheartedly though, what passes for rude or not in america can be radically different than elsewhere. Hell just look at how america views eye contact versus a lot of the rest of the world.

Dlish:

There is no fixing the 'sticking out' if they are in fact soldiers.

They will be young and thus acting like a high school football team.

They will have the 'haircut' as they have no choice and inflexible commands won't allow common sense to interfere with the assembly line robot look.

They will not be alone as they will be required to use the buddy system.



I thought you were talking about idiotic, boisterous behavior and there is no place for that when trying to travel discretely abroad.

It's a beautiful tradition. From Moses to Sandy Koufax.

Years back, there was a quip from Reader's Digest's 'Humor in Uniform.' A GI is on leave (or whatever the term is) in Egypt, and receives a briefing on how to not stick out. Shortly thereafter, the group purchases all sorts of clothing and civilian gear. They get bused in to Egypt, and upon disembarking, a group of school girls happen to walk by and yell, "Hello GIs!"

Perhaps it's the muscular build and clean hair cuts? I'm curious. I'd like to witness this for myself.

They're white. And all crackers are imperialist pigdogs.

You're polish catholic.

whats a pigdog?

when all else fails..

always refer back to The Bible...

Urban Dictionary: pigdog

Dlish, you're all over it.

I frequent this Panera near an Army base.

It's funny, I actually noticed about 3 or 4 military guys in there. Short buzz hair cuts, relatively in shape, or muscular. Clean shaved face. I would bet they were US Mil. If you know what you're looking for, military people do tend to stand out.

The only bases belonging to the Army are of the forward operating or plate variety. Noob.

/Just fucking with you.

Ahem, excuse me, "Near an Army Fort." Is that better? :lol:

Depends on the surroundings. In VA Beach when I was growing up so many people had the military look even if they weren't that it could be hard to tell sometimes. Down here in Orlando though pretty much anyone without a neckbeard or several popped collars is likely to be military.