Last Days

Today is our last day in Oxford. We're off to London tomorrow and we'll fly home over the weekend. I'm looking back over the last five weeks and here is a quick overview of what I've observed.

The English have an ill-founded superiority complex and are generally unfriendly.

This is likely due to the fact that their food is terrible. Or maybe because their country is so crowded that you can never be where other people are not. Or maybe it's residual bitterness over the fact that they used to rule the world... and now they don't.

The Welsh seem more friendly, but it's probably only in comparison to the English.

This is likely due to the fact that their food is not as bad as English food. Or maybe because their country isn't nearly as crowded. Or maybe it's because they never really ruled anything and if an English king hadn't sent his pregnant queen to Wales to give birth they wouldn't even be a country anymore.

The Germans are much more friendly than either the Welsh or the English.

This is likely due to the fact that they have great food and they aren't stacked up on top of each other like the English. Maybe also, the fact that they are experiencing a period of growth and healing after two World Wars and a particularly devastating Cold War. Reunited... and it feels so good.

The French are as friendly as the Germans and didn't exhibit any of the anticipated arrogance.

This is likely due to the fact that they all eat pastries and drink wine all day long. They aren't as burly as the Germans... but burly isn't necessarily a positive descriptor for a nation's women so maybe that's another reason the French are so pleasant.