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Sunday, June 19, 2011

REALLY!?! or He'll have the Haggis please.

A few days ago I read a blog/article about proper blogging/tweeting/posting/commenting etiquette in social media. It basically said use the golden rule. In other words, don't post mean rants or make mean comments. Now I am all for that and agree mostly...or at least I did until this morning. That's when I read a blog by someone I follow on twitter. I'm trying to follow the etiquette rules so I won't make a mean comment on their blog, but I need to let this out somewhere. This is a couple (who will remain nameless) who just started what I guess is a RTW trip about a month or so ago. So far all the misadventures they promised to regale us with turn out to be nonsense stuff that they brought on themselves, with some extra whining on the side. Travel misadventures to me mean you “plan it out” or move along "freeform" and you end up in a " misadventerous" situation. This may include, but is not limited to, things like airline delays causing you to miss the next flight and spend the night in a strange airport. Been there done that. Or it could be driving 90 miles an hour, eastbound on Route 80 through Wyoming, trying to beat a not predicted snowstorm that was 30 miles behind us closing down the interstate. Yes again. Or there’s getting caught in snow or torrential rain in the Mohave Desert. Yes I can make it rain in the desert and yes this happened to us on 3 separate occasions. Driving on the left with a shift on the left in a downpour (yes more precipitation, seems like a theme) and having all the exit ramps where you are supposed to exit closed… I could go on and on. Maybe I need to look up the definition of misadventure because I am not getting it. This couple is whining about missing food from home and the language barrier. Waah  Waaah WAAAAAH!! Stay home if you want food from home. Did you ever even think of picking up some of the area’s language in what looks like a very over planned trip? We are talking about Spanish here, not some language spoken by 300 people in a tiny obscure country. Half the US speaks Spanish for goodness sake! They teach it in every high school. I’m sure these bloggers are lovely people but these types of travelers are everything the US is disliked for and this  part of what gives us a bad rep when we travel out of the US.

What made all this even more annoying is after all this whining, they get supportive, helpful comments on their blog. And TONS of them! GRRRRRRRR Maybe I'm just a jealous, beginner, blogger, wannabe, but this really ticked me off.  Here I am trying to travel with numerous challenges before we even walk out the door and the idea of whining about food in a foreign country wouldn't even occur to me. And believe me I am a serious complainer. My husband has a stent, a small metal tube that keeps his intestine (duodenum) open so he can eat. His diet is beyond difficult, with a gigantic list of what he can't eat. So when we were in Scotland did he eat the Haggis? Of course he did! Mostly because of a dare, but hey he ate it. And the Black Pudding too and we still don't know what is in either! By the way, please don’t comment with an ingredient list. Some things are better left unsaid.
You can call it cultural awareness or respect (or mostly our pride) but when you are visiting someone else's country shouldn't you try to assimilate if only for a day, week or month? I haven’t quite figured out the moral of this story yet but I have it narrowed down to a few:

If you are going to whine, stay home.
When in Rome go to McDonald's?
If it involves “wine-ing” make it Napa or Sonoma
Or finally
He’ll have the Haggis, but hold the whining.

PS. Sorry to my entire  2 or 3 followers for the rant.

1 comment:

  1. I'm not sure which blogger you're talking about -- Maybe it's me! I recently wrote about not wanting to eat dog meat. -- but yeah, it's sometimes really annoying to not just read a whiny blog entry but also to read an outpouring of support for something that's trivial. So, no, it can't be me. I don't get that many comments. (^.^)

    But try not to be discouraged by things like that. The blogging world might sometimes be a popularity contest, but your life is not. It's beautiful just because of how you're living it. No comparisons to anyone else.

    Also, remember there's a sort of innate kharma to these things. We get out of our experiences (travel and otherwise) what we put into them. If you and your husband are willing to try the Haggis, etc., then your experiences are going to be so much the richer for that.

    I think your list of titles at the end is hilarious, especially the "When in Rome, go to McDonald's."

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