It must be said….

With all the past rants about train delays, buying train tickets or walking in this country, one thing must be said - and I realise that even more now that my stay comes to a preliminary end. Americans are just very nice people. Now, that might be strangely at odds with the overall image one gets on the level of international politics, but I really can’t put it any other way. I have not met one American who was not extremely friendly and helpful. A lot of people I had never met before and possibly will never meet again even went out of there way to help me. Although I’d like to very much, space in the blog and patience of the visitor does not permit me to list all the wonderful people that did nice things for me during the two and a half months I have been here.

So let’s consider as one example the topic of ‘rides’ – the friendly form of car sharing where one person who owns a car picks up everyone to go somewhere, can’t drink that night only to drop everyone home afterwards and be the last one to get to bed. I don’t have to go back very far for examples of this so agreeably charitable custom. Within the last 24 hours before my departure the following two nice things happened to me (BTW: I am sitting on the train right now, it was on time and there are two power sockets for a laptop in every row – how’s that for luxury?).

Yesterday, we had planned a dinner with the ‘hiking group’ – I call it the hiking group but the actual people who show up at the various occasions vary amazingly. So there I was at seven o’clock starting to consider how to get to the meeting place across town. With my naïve trust into the public transport system, that even the string of past bad experiences could not completely destroy, I was just not prepared for what my computer was trying to tell me. After 5pm, there were no buses to get me anywhere close to where I needed to go. “Are you sh… me?” I was inclined to ask, but new that it was not really my computer’s fault.

So, since I still had an awful lot packing to do (why do ordinary items of clothing or stuff in general always seem to expand over the course of a trip?) I decided not to go and gave on friend a call to let him know. Two minutes later he called me back and said “If I had arranged a ride for you (he only had a bike to get there), would you be able to come then?” In that case no pile of messy clothes could keep me at home and I decided to deal with that problem later when I came back. Ten minutes later I was picked up by a bunch of people whom I had never met before and by the time we got to the restaurant it felt as if we’d been friends for ages. (Which goes to show that the American Smalltalk that is all too often criticised as superficial can also lead to engaging conversations…)

This morning I had to make it to the train terribly early – at least by my spoiled traveller’s standards. I had mentioned this to another friend before and she actually sent me an email afterwards asking at which time I went and whether she could give me a ride. I could easily have taken the bus – I had checked that they run – but she insisted that it would not be a problem. So this morning not only did I not have to lug around my heavy bags (the stuff gains weight too!) but I also had a friendly face to see me off. After only staying here for such a short time, it felt like leaving a place and people I had known for ages.

Now, when it comes to the overall political situation, the lack of concern for the environment or the country’s current president in particular, quite a few people I met have said to me quite wearily “When you go back, promise, to tell people that not all Americans are like that.” So here it is: From my experience I can say that Americans really are not all like that!