europe | cmr

Everybody in Europe can speak English. This used to embarrass me. Why can't we speak their languages? Why do we try and hear a perfectly-accented English response? I shared my angry sentiment with a Polish woman, who was with her Parisian boyfriend on a train platform in Poland. They both looked at me and said, "Why?" Why was I embarrassed that our country is not required to teach languages and they come as options, in most cases, when the person is already 13 years old? "You don't need to know other languages!" they said. "You're American! It's universal!"

Well, another thing that's universal is the exit greeting of every European to an American. Dave and I looked at each other after hearing it quite often and thought, "But we don't say that, normally. We teach children to say that, but... but we don't say that!" What is it? "Bye-bye." Not just "See you later!" or "Keep it real!" or "Good bye!"--but "Bye-bye." I instinctively want to hold my hand up in that child-like cup shape and flap them together wildly. "Yes, bye-bye! Bye-bye!" By the end of the trip, I couldn't help it. I was "bye-bye"ing left and right, up and down.

Then I got a beer. Our trip was over. We were outta there. We had our taste, but not our fill. We had our postcards but not our European flat. We had our backpacks, but not our job offers. Someday, perhaps. Someday. Bye-bye.