ok. so i recently went to europe and found a really amazing/intresting trend on their views of texans... in france,spain, germany, amsterdam, and italy: when people in these regions found out that i was a texan... they immediately lost intrest in me. and most started calling me george bush... or bush lover. these people thought just because im from his state that i fully support the guy (not saying that i do or not...but that isnt relevant). from there on they went on to ask if we all have horses and oil rigs in our backyards. basically their views were very... mislead. to the point i thought the generalizations were begning to be funny. anyhow... after meeting me and having couple drinks they told me they gained a different persepective... which was nice. eastern europe (slovakia, hungary, slovenia, poland): people here....LOVED TEXANS!!! although some people were a bit upset when they found out i didnt own a pair of cowboy boots. but for some reason they seemed to love texans... and didnt associate me with any political stance america has which was relieving. a lot knew people knew about yao ming and such which was pretty cool. and the best part was the girls loved my accent that i didnt know i have. seriously..they liked the texan accent for some reason. they said they could hear it...but if most of yal heard me talk... you wouldnt notice it at all. anyways... what do yal think it is about these two different regions of europe that leads to these two contrasting views of texans???? on a sidenote for anyone going to europe soon or want to go... go to eastern europe... its cheaper,more fun, better people, and just as many amazing sites.. if not more to see. western europe is overhyped and superexpensive...especially since they changed to the euro.
I lived in London in 1993. Went to Paris while I was there, as well. At that particular time, people loved Texas. I doubt Bush changed that, much. Best thing about Europe? If you are taller than 5'8, and weigh more than 170 lbs. you are HUGE compared to them. I'm 6'0, 190-200 lbs. No limey would say crap to me about Bush.
In the early 90's I lived in Spain for a little over 4 months. People asked me why Texans answered the question "Where are you from?" with 'Texas' and other Americans always said the United States. They thought it was peculiar but neither positive or negative. They did ask about horses, cattle, and oil wells. I was taking a class at the University and I would always try and include stories about me wearing a pistol, and getting in showdowns in my papers. The teachers would ask if it was true, and I would tell them it wasn't, but it was fun to play with the stereotype. In Germany everyone seemed to love Texans. And so did some visitors from Switzerland. One night a beer house the Swiss folks were talking to me, and another guy from NY saw that I was American and came over to talk as well. The Swiss asked him where he was from, and he said NY. They told him that it was ok, but nothing compared to Texas, and then didn't really pay much attention to him after that. He felt shocked and meekly tried to claim that NY was cool as well. He was a nice guy but it is funny having people ignore NYC to talk about how great Texas is.
I have a friend from France who comes over to Austin and she always said they had positive feeling about people from Texas ~ as I recall she said it was something about the independent state of mind. I'm sure the Bush presidency has changed some minds about Texas, but they are smart people over there and understand not everyone is a Bush supporter. She also said that people from Texas always answer, "where are you from" with the state not the country.
I've posted this a few times... http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=13097&highlight=fatty+fat+fat
I haven't been to France since the war started. I'm hoping to go soon, so I'll have to see if I'm treated any differently (if I can't fool them with my impeccable Parisian accent).
im going to europe for the first time in december - germany, belgium and the netherlands - 2 weeks. ive traveled thru mexico several times and have met alot of europeans and they all seem to have a pretty favorable view of texas, compared to the rest of the u.s. there is the misconception that we all ride horses and have oil wells in our backyards, but ive even been asked stuff like that in other parts of the u.s. i always have to remind people that george bush is not a texan.
