Some of you may have heard this song by my personal favorite artist, Pitbull. Like most of his songs, it's a mixture of Spanish, Poor English, and Californian Gangster (which btw, I'm 100% fluent in). This however, is irrelevant. The important part is "International Love". Every time I hear it, I find it surprisingly appropriate.
Now some of you may be reading this thinking, "Love? Woah Steph. Calm down. That's a strong word." But let's not get caught up in the semantics. Surely "International kind-of-dating-but-nobody-is-quite-sure-what's-going-on" is a little more appropriate, but I don't think Pitbull can say that many words in one sentence.
Living abroad in a place like Munich, I have friends from literally all over Europe. I love them all very much. Here's a picture of a few:
One of our (my) favorite things to talk about is cultural differences. The most interesting one is dating. Here's why.
Dating in America has gotten way out of hand. It's not the way it used to be.. where a guy asks your dad if he can pin you, then you wear his pin and everyone knows you're "going together." No. It's way more complicated than that. There are all these games and stages you have to entertain. Both parties are scared of showing too much interest and the entire thing is just a giant headache.
I much prefer the French way.
You meet. You hang out. You kiss. BAM He's your boyfriend.
Or you can do it the German way
You meet. You avoid eye contact at all costs. You sit. You wait for her to talk to you. She never does. She leaves. You go home alone and never see her again. And this is why their population is declining.
Dating a European is an entirely new experience. And a great one at that. I'm changing the saying. From now on, people will say, "Once you go European, you never go back." And I mean that in an entirely non-sexual kind of way.
Now some of you may be reading this thinking, "Love? Woah Steph. Calm down. That's a strong word." But let's not get caught up in the semantics. Surely "International kind-of-dating-but-nobody-is-quite-sure-what's-going-on" is a little more appropriate, but I don't think Pitbull can say that many words in one sentence.
Living abroad in a place like Munich, I have friends from literally all over Europe. I love them all very much. Here's a picture of a few:
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| Louis (Indonesian) Brigitte (Dutch) Cecile (French) Walter (Dutch) |
One of our (my) favorite things to talk about is cultural differences. The most interesting one is dating. Here's why.
Dating in America has gotten way out of hand. It's not the way it used to be.. where a guy asks your dad if he can pin you, then you wear his pin and everyone knows you're "going together." No. It's way more complicated than that. There are all these games and stages you have to entertain. Both parties are scared of showing too much interest and the entire thing is just a giant headache.
I much prefer the French way.
You meet. You hang out. You kiss. BAM He's your boyfriend.
Or you can do it the German way
You meet. You avoid eye contact at all costs. You sit. You wait for her to talk to you. She never does. She leaves. You go home alone and never see her again. And this is why their population is declining.
Dating a European is an entirely new experience. And a great one at that. I'm changing the saying. From now on, people will say, "Once you go European, you never go back." And I mean that in an entirely non-sexual kind of way.
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