Englishmen

I wrote this two days ago:
We had our first conversation with a random English person. I say random because we've definitely visited with our many hosts, but this was the first spontaneous conversation with someone we didn't know.

We were at a pub just getting ready to pack up when Ralph came up to Rob and asked him something about the "football" game on the TV. Whatever the question was, Rob answered with "Si." It was an involuntary response because the guy had a different kind of accent and looked more latin.

The guy was offended and said, "Don't you speak English? Why do you say si?" So, Ralph is Italian, but to him England is the best! It's the best because here it's all about intellect. In Italy it's all about fun.

Anyway, he proceeded to tell us that Americans have no brains, Chelsea Clinton is ridiculous, so is Bush, and all we have to do is be nice to all the people we meet and people will be nice to us via a story about Aristotle.

It was all in good humor. We were glad to get to interact with a random "Englishman." We were just saying last night that we wanted to switch the focus of this trip and have it start to be more about people than old buildings. Maybe this is preparation for what is to come.