Breaking Ze Mold!

Stereotypes, we know them, we hate them, we embrace them, we mock them, we rebuke them, but we all use them at some point in our lives. Personally, I'm always uncomfortable when stereotypes are reinforced in any way, like when everyone told me that everyone speaks English in Europe and then I went to Europe and English was everywhere.

So you can imagine my surprise when I met a hilarious French guy, Sebastian, this weekend who hated France and thought that America's government and people were way better than those in his home country- a country stereotyped by it's people laughing and mocking our entire way of life.

Sebastian is a smiley, rotund man who works as- I couldn't possibly make this up- a TEMP physicist. He has a delightful outlook on life, but only outside of Paris, which he doesn't seem to think is as awesome as the rest of the world. I mean, I guess I take a lot most of Southern California for granted, but it's no Paris. Still, Sebastian was exclaiming to me how utterly horrid the government of France is and I kept trying to tell him that things weren't going so hot in our country. But he would not give me an inch and he had a pretty good point- at least we are constantly given the hope of change(yes, I know the coincidence of a certain someone's campaign message).

Among other things, people talk about Los Angeles with disdain for the concrete and plastic architecture that surrounds us seeing as the city is 160 years old, whereas Paris has stood for 6200 years. !!! When things stand for over 6 millenia, I can see how change starts to come slower and slower. When you've been around for the better part of two centuries, and those two centuries exhibit some of the fastest evolution of ideology and technology in the history of a species of mammal, then I can see how Los Angeles and America may change a lot more than Paris, France.

My best wishes go out to Sebastian and the handful of other non-stereotypical French out there that are living in the horrible city of Paris, France. I will continue to appreciate my Angeleno heritage and go see the RoboCop version of the Mona Lisa on Hollywood Blvd, next to the Louvre of wax museums.