Blogging from Heathrow, amidst a 3.5 hour layover from Frankfurt on our way to California.
I like England and Heathrow is a nice airport. Always nice to hear English again, even if it is the sassy British style English. Why'd they steal our language, anyway?
My favorite thing about the British after living in Germany is the fact that they respect the queue. Germans remain barbaric in some ways, as if they're still bearded and savage lying in wait outside the boundaries of the "civilized" Roman Empire. Nowhere is this more true than in their complete inability to line up for anything. This 'Euro Herding' as Gwen and I call it is rampant. Any German (or Continental European for that matter) will barge their way into any tiny open space in front of you, no matter how long you've been standing somewhere, waiting for exactly the same thing.
It doesn't matter what the goal is, the Continental Euros will glob up into a giant herd and converge on the objective with no sense of order whatsoever. I'm talking about airport lines, bus lines, counter lines, movie theaters - anything. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters. I've seen old ladies elbowed aside, the handicapped shoved backwards. It's survival of the fittest. Herd mentality rules.
Once while waiting in line for a movie in Paris some disgusted but sorrowful French man took pity on me after he saw me waiting patiently and giving the person in front of me a little space. A few Frenchies had just barged their way in front of me, and as I stood there with a dumbfounded look on my face the guy looked at me, half pitying, half disgusted, and said, in broken French-accented English, "This is France. You must go forward - there is no discipline."
Check that, buddy.
Well I'm happy to report that in England there IS discipline, and the queue is respected like no other. Which is exactly why I smiled with glee as I waited in the airport bookstore line, a line which was rigidly cordoned off with no hope of sabotage by a potential greedy, insensitive Euro Herder.
Order is restored.
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