Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.08.2016, Qupperneq 74

L I F E , T R AV E L & E N T E R TA I N M E N T I N I C E L A N D
Issue 12 × 2016
August 12 - August 26
www.grapevine.is
What We
Talk About
When We
Talk About
Americans
Listen up, fellow Ameri-
cans. We need to talk
about how you talk. Or we,
rather, because I (often re-
luctantly) am one of you.
The problem is that y’all
tend to be obnoxious and
it’s making us all look bad.
I know this because I first
visited Iceland as a tourist
in 2013 and I was probably obnoxious too. But
I’ve lived here since 2014 and after a summer of
working in the tourist industry, listening to my
coworkers’ complaints and experiencing them
for myself firsthand, I have some pro-tips on
how not to be obnoxious when visiting Iceland.
••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• •••
Unsurprisingly, they all begin with “stop talk-
ing.” 1. Stop talking so loudly. I’m very guilty of
this myself, but I’m learning to literally tone it
down. So should you. 2. Stop talking about the
US, unless you are asked or it is directly rel-
evant to a conversation you are already having.
Did you really fly all the way to another coun-
try to start every conversation with “Well, I’m
from America and…” to people as if they don’t
already know what you’re about to say? Sadly,
they probably do. 3. Stop complaining about the
cold. If you paid hundreds of dollars to fly to a
country with the word “ice” in its name to tell
everyone who lives there how much colder it is
than Florida, you shouldn’t have left Florida. 4.
Stop talking about how “confusing” the money
is. It’s money. It functions the exact same way
in every country. Don’t even start with the “so
many zeros” because guess what? If you can fig-
ure out how to pay $23.00 when you get a bill for
$22.50, you can figure out how to pay 2.300 ISK
for something that costs 2.250 ISK.
••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• •••
Lastly, most importantly: Stop talking about
your dietary restrictions and order off the
menu. Nobody in any country cares about what
you can or cannot eat. Nobody.
••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• •••
SHARE: gpv.is/last
Grayson Faro
LAST
WORDS
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WHERE FRIES
ARE TWICE
AS NICE!
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