After we finished our burgers and chocolate shakes, we walked over to our new friends and joined them at their table. Sure enough, they were visiting from Australia and had been in Hong Kong for less than 24 hours. We got to chatting. They were doing a week in Hong Kong before continuing on to Las Vegas. They were a lot of fun to talk to. One of the cool things about living outside of The States is hearing people's thoughts on the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.’Over the course our of twenty-minute conversation, the woman revealed that the thing that she absolutely loved the most about the States was Walmart. So big, so cheap, so much selection. As long ago as ten years, she heard rumors that Walmart was going to set up shop Down Under. But alas, nothing yet.
She also shared with us that back in Australia when her son was young his favorite t.v. show was COPS. She had to explain to him that life in America wasn’t really like that; it was just all exaggerated for the t.v. camera. Then she visited Vegas for the first time. Just outside of her hotel room window, she saw a man being frisked, handcuffed, and arrested while surrounded by half a dozen police cars with their light flashing. She had to go back to Australia and tell her son, nope, life in America is pretty much just like the show.
It didn’t affect her love for Vegas though; this was going to be her fifth trip back.
Nice to know that when the world thinks about America, they think of Walmart, COPS, and Las Vegas.
It’s enough to make an expat all misty eyed.
Jack
-It always amazing to me how much people know about The States. You were born in Nepal, grew up in New Zealand and now live in Hong Kong, so why in the world would you know that South Bend in is Indiana? I always feel like they know so much about my country and I know next to nothing about theirs. New Zeeland: lots of sheep and that famous Opera House, right? Oh what? The Opera House is Australia? Oops, sorry about that.
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