Americans and Their Culture 1

Even before anybody asked about anything during any time at any location of the trip, Mr. Tour Guide Man was giving us examples of things we possibly could choose to ask about, along with things he would then say in reply to such ignorance. The first one of these: “People ask me such things as: ‘How old are you?’”, his answer: “I won’t tell you because you didn’t ask, but if you cared you would have asked.” This is generally how he answered the questions nobody asked for hours on end while we were contained in the bus en route across entire states with no way out. Which somehow meandered to the question in point for this post on our way across Delaware en route to Washington DC: “People ask me such things as: ‘Why is American food so salty?’” His answer was that Americans just love salty food and will overdose sodium for every meal (which may be true), and as proof, he told everyone that Americans sprinkle salt on their pizza before eating it. As if the cheese wasn’t already clogging up the arteries as they were and needed something extra to also simultaneously combust the heart for maximum eating pleasure. The Koreans all gasped in horror, as did us, the Americans.