Posted on 08/20/2007 1:23:04 PM PDT by BronzePencil
Chris Aandewiel is a Dutch man with a well-worn mountain bike who slept this past weekend at the YMCA on Huntington Avenue. He has pedaled some 11,000 miles in the last year searching for the truth about Americans.
Growing up in Rotterdam, Aandewiel had an impression of this country shared by many in the Netherlands, an image formed by Hollywood movies and the media.
"We really think of Americans as how we perceive the United States government, and that's a little arrogant and stubborn," Aandewiel said by telephone.
Or at least that was the impression the 29-year-old consumer researcher had before he embarked on a yearlong bicycle tour around the perimeter of the United States. Since September, he has passed through 35 states, spent the night in the homes of 72 strangers, and met hundreds of people in gas stations and on highways who have nudged him along on his trip.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
The problem is most foreigners get their impressions of Americans from Hollywood, American television, the repugnant US music industry, and the equally repugnant MSM. Think about that...that is one warped viewpoint.
You have to be friendly to people like this. How else are you gonna get close enough to steal their wallets?
Funny, Funny.
I ride about 100 miles a week on my road bike. The key is to keep riding so your butt gets used to the ride. Also, use of “bag balm” on a key spot helps. Further, leaning on your handlebars helps reduce the weight on your butt.
Sing Glorious! Glorious!
One keg of beer for the four of us.
Glory be to God that there ain't no more of us,
'Cause one of us could drink it all alone,
Damn near!
Nothin' wrong with that when you're good and right.
Getting his wallet stolen is the least he deserves to coming to America and screwing up traffic for 11,000 miles.
George: What is Holland?
Jerry: What do you mean, ‘what is it?’ It’s a country right next to Belgium.
George: No, that’s the Netherlands.
Jerry: Holland *is* the Netherlands.
George: Then who are the Dutch?
Cool! He had a great adventure and found truth.
LOL! Not only that, but it's too bad he couldn't have done this a couple years earlier. If only he'd been down in New Orleans when Katrina came through, his genetic background might have enabled him to avert a catastrophy by sticking his finger in the dike that failed.
Don't even bother to read the damn article. No, don't do that.
This man had a very positive experience. And now knows a great deal about the real America.
He must not have gone to N.Y. They would have stolen his bike and mugged him.
Yes......a co-worker of my husband’s was on assignment somewhere in S. America......people there asked him...”Where’s your gun?” They were serious....they thought every American carried a gun around with them all the time.
Here’s a nickel I thrown on the grass for you...
29-year old man on a bike.
Get a job.
If it took him 11,000 miles to discover we are, basically, friendly people, he wasn’t paying attention but after his last stop in New York City the word ‘friendly’ will dropped from his vocabulary.
He should try France next, it’ll only take four miles and fifteen minutes to find out all he’ll need to know about THAT country.
Some years back I had a girlfriend whose sister was married to a German doctor. My girlfriend's sister one time took a trip to American with two of her children to visit my girlfriend and me. Her German husband told her not to drive from Milwaukee across the state to La Crosse because her car would be hijacked on the interstate. I could scarcely contain my laughter when my girlfriend told me the story.
A gal friend of mine had her camera bag stolen in Europe, my nephew had his wallet stolen by gypsies who litterally tossed a baby at him then picked his pocket while he caught the baby. Several other folks I know have had stuff stolen in Europe too........
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