I have come to notice that as a people, Americans are really mean. I believe that we do a lot of great things for our world,  make many contributions to mankind,  but on a person to person level, we just come across as self centered, mean, and downright obnoxious. We spent the last two days in Victoria B.C., which is a very multicultural city, and I realized that the only people that were ungrateful, demanding, and inappreciative were from our side of the fence.  The Canadians were friendly, in fact, just happy to be nice in every situation.  For example, we would tell the multitudes of pedicab drivers that we were just out for a walk, and they would not only say “right on!”. but would tell us what we should walk to and what to look for, try that with a cabbie in Seattle!  On the other hand, we were watching one of the most able and entertaining street performers I’ve ever seen, when a couple from New York came up and immediately pointed out that he was “only juggling four” lit torches! Of course they had walked up to the scene about 45 minutes into the show, but who cares? They’re from New York no one else really counts anyway. I am reminded of when I lived in Monistrol and ran across an American family at the cafe 421 where I spent many afternoons. They were from Chicago (I know this because they continuously mentioned it), and were unhappy because none of the locals, at that central restaurant/bar…..on a cobblestone square…next to a 600 year old catholic church…built into the walls of a Gallic fortress…. in this village of 2000 people, spoke English. I only spoke up because Marie, the bar owner, asked me to help her make a sell, I must say, however, that I took a lot of pleasure in their discomfort. I guess I turned out to be a Yankee after all!