Thursday, July 12, 2007

some things are universal

Today we went to the Frankfurt Airport to drop my husband off for his trip home. That airport is huge and I have to say, even worse than O Hare, especially since they are doing construction. There are people EVERYWHERE and being the peak of the summer tourist season only makes it CrAzY insane.

After we said our disgustingly sappy goodbyes, I had to feed the baby so I searched far and wide for a bench or a chair to sit on. I finally found one about 32 miles from my car but it was next to a family that had 2 pre-teen sons. I wasn't sure how they would feel about boobs (I'm sure the boys didn't care) but I had to feed her, so I sat down anyway. They boys were playing Game Boy and tripping each other and giving each other wet willies and flicking boogers at each other. It was great fun to watch... only because my children have a long way to go till they reach that stage, thank goodness. It was also interesting to see this because they didn't speak any English, or any language I had ever been exposed to, for that matter. And here I was thinking that only bratty American kids engaged in that kind of behavior.

At one point, the younger of the two was being really loud and the mom shushed him and told him the baby next to him was sleeping. How I understood that, I'm not sure, but it was clear as day. I smiled and told her it was ok and she told me that he was too loud anyway. She still wasn't speaking English and I certainly wasn't speaking her language, but we understood each other.

Then a snotty woman walked by with her fake Louis Vuitton luggage, or as my friend T would say, Lewi Baton luggage, and she was walking her little wiener dog on a pink rhinestone leash. The younger of the two boys started cracking up and yelling, "Mom!! A sausage dog! A sausage dog!" The snotty woman got offended and gave us a dirty look, which made all of us laugh amongst ourselves.

It was just funny that none of us spoke the same language, but we all understood what was going on and it was refreshing to know that some things are just universal. It makes me realize that the world really isn't so big.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I always love reading about your encounters with the people. It's really true about language and people. We can speak different languages but we all speak the same body language.