Typical Europe Questions Tangent

The past few days I've been trying to come up with ideas of what to go and see and do while I'm in Europe. Doing this is making me about a thousand times more excited! I still have a lot to do before I leave, so I'm torn between whether I really really want it to hurry up and get here and whether I really just want to put it off another week so I can get everything accomplished that I need.

Speaking of that though, I thought I'd note some of the things that never change when I go to Europe. Considering this will be my fourth time and all...

Primarily, the people. They (meaning friends and people I leave behind) never change. I get the question at least every day now. Sometimes more. "So are you excited?"

Okay, seriously. How do I respond to that? "No, no. I'm not excited. Ya know, I just spent my entire life's savings on it and our culture as a whole knows that Europe is like, the ultimate vacation, and I have been talking about nothing else for the past month and a half, but no. Definitely not excited. Busy maybe. Stressed, yeah. But excited? Gosh no."

Giving them some credit however, it is hard to come up with things to ask people who're traveling a different question. What else are they supposed to say? And I have to admit that I myself am guilty of that exact same question directed toward some of my classmates.

The other obligatory question that always happens after I get back from Europe is "How was it?" Okay people, can you get more vague? How... was.... it? Huh? How was the food? How were the people? How was the language difference? How were the museums? "How was it?"

"It? Oh, yeah, it was uh... very Europe-y. Really. I felt like the Europe-ness was all over me the whole entire time."

Unfortunately, I feel like when people ask those two questions (Are you excited? and How was it?) they're really just looking for the typical answers. "Are you excited?" "Yes, definitely!" "How was it?" "Oh it was amazing!" Meaning those questions actually mean little more than "Hey how are you?" Which is obviously the question that you always are supposed to answer, "Oh I'm fine how are you?" because everyone knows the the person asking the question really doesn't even give a nip as to how you're doing. They just want to act polite and pretend to make conversation.

So maybe from now on I will just answer the typical, "Why yes, I am excited, thank you." And, "Oh Europe, that old place? Well, it was wonderful." Forget originality. Forget enthusiasm. Just stick with short, simple and polite.

Or I'll be obnoxious and memorize this tangent and then reel it off next time someone asks me that question. Yeah, I think that'd be more fun. Teehee!