Not the End of the World

As many of you have realized, yesterday was not the end of the world, as Mr. Crazypants Radio Guy predicted.  Apparently European media doesn't cover the crazies quite in the same way as American media, because my friends hadn't heard about the prediction at all.  I met up with a bunch of girls for a pre-dinner drink on the terrace of a bar near the sea.  I brought one of my Spanish friends, so it was nice to have a new addition to the group.  Then, I went to dinner with my friends, one of the girls' boyfriends, and his parents who were in from England.  It was nice to go to a real restaurant (only the second time I've had a "sit-down" meal out since I got here.  We had some really interesting discussions during dinner about topics that are sort of weird to talk about with strangers (but things that somehow you can only really talk about with strangers).  We talked a lot about the reaction to Osama Bin Laden's death and to September 11th in different countries.  I was a little surprised to hear that everyone, regardless of what country they're from remember exactly where they were when it happened.  I realized that it was an event with global repercussions, but I had thought somehow that the really life-changing part of the situation was focused more on Americans.  It was really interesting that the British people at the table said that the 7/7 bombings in London affected them less in many ways.

My friend's dad asked me about my feelings about Obama as a president (he is a big fan of Obama), which also led to a really fascinating conversation about healthcare costs.  He works in a medical center (administration of some sort) and was really astounded to hear about my insurance horror stories, which are on the tame end of insurance horror stories.  It seems that people hear about the American health system but don't actually believe how extreme it is.  Overall, it was a good night, but sort of weird.  Typically when I'm out, I'm with expats and Spanish people, and the differences we talk about are Spanish vs. everything else.  This was the first time that we really talked about differences between expats and our experiences here and abroad.
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