International Saturday

Saturday, as you may know, was Bastille Day (which celebrates the storming of the Bastille in 1789 / the beginning of the French Revolution). Being francophiles, and partly French ourselves Adam and I decided to celebrate by dining at one the the many fab French dining establishments in Boston, Brasserie Jo at the Colonnade Hotel.

This proved to be an excellent choice! They were having some specials in lieu of the holiday so I ordered the Mussels Marniere and Adam went with the Steaks Frites both of which were delicious and served fairly promptly. It helps that along with a fresh baguette they also serve a great carrot salad to hungry patrons to nosh on as they wait for their meals. I also liked this place because of the environment: it was a very nice and elegant atmosphere without being stuffy. Not to mention the fact that our waiter was adorable, which always helps.

After our delightful meal we decided that karaoke was in order and since on Saturday nights there is a fantastic karaoke night at Adams Inn on the deck overlooking the water, we scooted over there. We ended up sitting near this table full of Scottish businessmen who were in town for a few weeks and this is where my inner Ambassador kicked in.

Now, I will always remember this story my parents told me. When my mom brought my dad to Lebanon for the first time (this was about 8 years ago), their plane was late arriving. My mom's best friend Lili had planned on taking them to Jeita Caves right from the airport since it is one of the most beautiful landmarks in Lebanon and she wanted my dad to have a good first impression of the country. Since the plane was late though, The Caves were closed for the night when they arrived. My parents were dissapointed but Lili took matters into her own hands. She went to the manager's office who was closing for the night and explained that she had her American friends with her and she wanted to show them how beautiful Lebanon was and how proud they were to be Lebanese. This spoke to the manager on some level and he ended up reopening the caves and taking them himself on a tour after hours, just to make a good impression to my dad who had never been there before. I love this story. I wish everyone acted this way when they met tourists!

Anyway this group of Scots were sitting the corner watching the karaoke and we ended up kind of chatting, I asked where they were from, what they were in town for, etc. Then I made the international signal of friendliness and bought them a round of drinks (Scotch, of course!) and from then on we were all best friends. They joined Adam and I at our table and we had a ball (I have to confess, we talked mostly about the show Katie and Peter which if you have seen it you will know why I am ashamed to be fascinated by it) and we also gave them restaurant reccomendations for their last week in town (namely, Fuji since some of them had never even had sushi). And when it was all said and done they thanked us profusely for being the friendliest Americans they had yet encountered on their trip.

And it makes me think, maybe when they go back and someone is complaining about Americans one of these guys will remember how a couple of Americans showed them a fun night in Quincy and maybe they will say "You know, Americans are actually pretty great".

And man, can they drink.