Traveling abroad is always an eye-opening, an eye-popping, an eye-call-it-what-you-will experience, and it's never more true then when referring to the experience of the American, or more specifically, the North American of United States heritage dating back at least two maybe three generations. This person is a good man or a good woman who simply believes life in the "U-S-of-A" is the best life and the only life.

If one has a nationalistic bone in his or her body, it is difficult to argue with this man or woman about the quality of one's American life. We U.S. Americans should like what we see, what we do, how we live; we may even be so bold as to call ourselves a superpower and then smile about that aspect of our lives too.

We, however, do not live the only life worth living; there are people in other lands, across vast seas, living quite nice lives themselves. And if one does not want to be an idiot, if one desires to maintain the quality of his or her own great North American life, it may behoove one to know other forms of living.

Take, for instance, the French way of life. First of all, somehow the French have gotten the bad rap of being against the U.S. way of doing things, but this is not so, the French just like doing things their way better. You have got to respect that. Perhaps their elevators are the size of their showers and both are smaller than anything ever seen in the United States, perhaps no one feels the sting of injustice when someone cuts in front of him or her and perhaps they use the metric system.

Everybody but us, though, uses the metric system. And it's actually quite conducive of intimacy when you are smushed up against a good-looking individual in a four person (big enough for two people) elevator. Also, it is kind of liberating when you cut in front of a long line, saving tons of time and nobody gives you the evil eye. And, ahh "Parée", it's truly a city of love — where is the equivalent U.S. city? Where in the U.S. can you even get pain au chocolat block after block? This pastry is good.

How many Americans know French? Sure, it's important to be multi-lingual for a variety of reasons. The best reason of all, though, is that knowing a country's language means you know what is going on or can find out what's going on in that country. Knowing the low-down, having the lingo, in my humble opinion, is a key ingredient to any good living experience.

Yet, sadly, many Americans rarely know what is going on; we can't help but stick out like the big thumb, and why? Not only is it because we have moved away from a love of '80s fashion and because we're usually taller and bigger than everybody else, but also because we're confused most of the time when traveling abroad. Then, in compensation for our lack of understanding, we get freaking loud. We have loud conversations with lots of loud expressions in hopes of figuring things out.

I was with a fellow American once who was looking for a T-shirt in Greece. The lucky Greek she was attempting to communicate with wasn't quite clear about what she desired. She got louder, of course, using a variety of hand motions so that he figured she wanted a blouse, but, no, she wanted a T-shirt. At this point, I interjected, stating that perhaps the blouse and the T-shirt were one and the same. Both my fellow American and the Greek looked at me with contempt and continued not dialoguing well.

I am not advocating that one knows beforehand how the entire rest of the world lives in order to travel anywhere. Yet I, for one, would rather people thought I was more similar to them than different as Americans have a tendency of being ripped off when paying for hotels, taxis, food, et cetera, in other countries. Like Kenny Rogers once said, "You've got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run," and, of course, "you never count your money when you're sittin' at the table," since there will be time enough for counting later. In fact, it helps the reputation of all Americans when you are travel savvy. So if not for yourself, do it for your country.

For certain, one will encounter obstacles and perils galore when traveling abroad, yet it is surely worth every over-priced, misinterpreted difficulty, if for nothing more than the sense of satisfaction when arriving back in the kindly "U-S-of-A." Moreover, when you have been awake for a multitude of hours and you leave your camera with pictures of you in the Swiss Alps on a train bound for other lands, you will find that the ways of handling stress in other countries can be just as good as American ways.

You might find grabbing a baguette and some fine wine (incidentally, French wine is much cheaper in France), stopping in a pastry shop or buying a crepe, then sitting and pondering something beautiful is very therapeutic. Little can remain tragic after it has been pondered, especially if it has been pondered while sipping lots of fine wine. But, see, if you never travel abroad you would never know this stuff.

You also would not give too much thought to foot-and-mouth disease, which, by the way, has the potential for restructuring the entire system of eating in many parts of Europe and perhaps the entire world. This information I learned from a German who was none-too-happy the French port-authorities had let some tainted sheep onto mainland Europe. It is always important to know where your meat is coming from — another fine reason to experience other cultures, experiencing them in a quiet way, of course.

Anna Barbour is a junior theology and pre-med major. Her column appears every other Monday.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

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