The existence of stereotypes

While reading all of my friends' blog postings since last Friday I happily confirmed some things I came to conclusions on over the weekend: stereotypes each exist for a reason and, in most cases, are completely true.

I remember very all that during my time at Maine West High School and the four years at UD that followed, my teachers and professors would engage my classmates and me in some wonderful and enlightening discussions about stereotypes. The general consensus was that they're bad things that need to be broken down because most of the time they're either grossly exaggerated or are just not true. Thinking back on it, it makes me wonder how long all of those teachers have been stuck in academia because it is my observation that the real world operates very differently.

Case in point: you've all heard the many stereotypes associated with Italians. I'll try to break a few of them down a little for you here.

• Italians do not/will not control their children. True (!) based on both the fact that the neighbors let their 10 year old play with fireworks, and the fact that if there's a child screaming on the airplane for 2 hours, it's an Italian kid.
• Italians are loud and obnoxious. True! In fact, in any given northern European city Italians are even easier to point out than Americans.
• Italians are pushy/cut in line. Ever been on an airline without assigned seats? Ever tried to do that when Italians are involved? Ryanair, the airline we used to go to Brussels, does not assign seats. Instead, customers are given boarding numbers based on how early they check in. Wouldn't you know that it's always the Italians with numbers in the 100s who rush up and try to push their way in as soon as the pre-boarding announcement is made?

While life here certainly has its charm, we always like to get away to someplace civilized! But, I'm sure that's enough for now. We had a great weekend in Brussels, and I'll write more about it later this week and in the newsletter at the end of the month...