In the States, when the weather is weird we blame global warming.
In France, they blame the Americans.
And, as a representative of the United States in France, I personally catch a lot of flack (I understand this is common for American ex-pats). Like I'm personally responsible for being too lazy to climb into my giant SUV to drive over to the local government office to sign the Kyoto Protocol.
The French can't make me feel guilty. I drove a small (for the US) car and didn't vote for the offending president. And hey, I don't buy aerosol hairspray so get off my back.
Another perk of being the US Ambassador to Faurecia Meru is that I get grilled on the American way of life. I'm really the wrong person for this task because I'm not too up to date with politics, economics or any current social issues.
Today Alfredo asked me why I thought Americans were buying foreign cars and what lead to the downfall of the American auto industry. What a difficult topic, especially considering the language barrier (although Alfredo's English is great...he came up with the word "parsnip" today) and that I'd like to sound relatively intelligent when talking to my boss.
What do I know, anyway? I wasn't expecting to have to represent the whole darned country and justify its choices and mistakes.
I don't really consider myself a typical American, anyway. If I was I probably wouldn't be here.
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