Dispatch From London # 12

Back from Barcelona, Spain, behind in reading and sleep. What a shame.

Seven of us made moves for Barcelona. I did enjoy Barcelona for the most part, I did not get to see all of the historical sites, but did see enough to get a feel for the Country. It was kind of like being in Mexico, but with more culture or European feel.

While at an eatery, we had a chance to talk to a young lady from Serbia. As we have traveled we have gotten different treatment, nothing too bad, but some people have negative attitudes towards American. For instance, calling someone Condoleeza in Spain is equivalent to being called a b@#$%. One of the ladies in our group was called a Condoleeza by a receptionist at our hotel after the two got into a brief verbal spat. Anyway, back to the lady from Serbia. I asked her to tell me what her perception of Americans were? With five of us staring her down, she first looked a tad bit timid and her eyes grew wide as we eagerly awaited a response. Not a fluent english speaker she stammered to find the words she was looking for and then she said, "Ignorant", "Arrogant" and tried to explain "Disrespectful". I was really not too shocked by her response though. We at the table kind of discussed with her examples of why some feel that way about us and she gave us her thoughts as well on the subject. Then, I asked, tell me what has been your experience with, pointing to my skin, blacks. Her eyes got bigger, and a few at the table were a little shocked that I asked, but for me, I wanted to know plus, its just conversation. So she explained that in her country there were no blacks and she rarely saw many blacks. So I then asked her, before you ever saw or talked to a black person what did you think about them? Without hesitance she stated, that she believed black were physically superior than others and that black women were more beautiful in terms of features and bodies. We were a little shocked with here response, though I was kind of expecting the athletic thing only because we are seen more internationally participating in athletics and so on. It was an interesting dialogue with her. As we concluded she indicated we were the first to ever have such a conversation with her and for that reason, she did not think we were ignorant because we were willing to have that type of dialogue with her.

Top 3 things I am sick of in Europe. 1. cigarette Smoke/Smokers - I think I have second hand smoked about 200 packs of cigarettes since I have been here. It sooo freaking annoying, these folk smoke all day everyday. Cig companies are making a killing literally/legally. I can't go anywhere without coming back smelling like smoke, its totally out of control.

2. Must - Yo, do any of these cats here wear deodorant? For real, what is the deal? Is it the stronger your odor, the manlier you are, is it a sign of prowess or something, does it make the ladies go crazy over you? While you are on the train and you are forced to sit or stand next to the explosion of body odor, it leaves one breathless, all you can do is pray you don't pass the hell out. And then it's like they leave a trail when they walk, impossible to miss it. Come on, wear some deodorant man! DAMN....

3. No paper towels in bathroom - There are no paper towels in the bathrooms anywhere around. All they have are those hand drying machines. The machines are fine, but that means after I wash my hands, I have to use my clean hands to touch the nasty door handle. So a brotha struggles to get the door open using his pinky finger. I don't want to go into the stalls to grab some toilet paper cause I can't hold my breath that long and who knows what I will encounter in the stall. The positives later in the week. I gotta nap and read. Keep me in your prayers.

Saffi why I gotta do Six Flags again when I return, don't you know your brotha is broke?

In the past I have talked about the ost of gas and raising the minimum wage, some articles worth reading. I am buying a moped when I get back. Thats how a lot of folk in Europe get around too. There is even a show called, Pimp my Moped. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gashurt16jul16,0,5275140.story?coll=la-home-headlines http://64.226.238.78/PA/pk/pk216.shtml