Spring Break! Wooooooo!: Or Why the World Laughs at America

It was our second evening in Athens, Greece when M and I decided to venture down to the courtyard in our hostel and meet up with some fellow travellers. What better way to ingratiate yourself with new friends then by buying a couple beers and sitting down amongst them in the fray?

First of all, everyone was sooo friendly! We found ourselves in the midst of many, many, many Australians (whom I assumed all knew each other, but none of them did), a few Brits, Canadian neighbors from up North, a Japanese, a Korean, and just four other Americans. We joined the large circle, and in true pre-school "Hi, My Name Is" style, introduced ourselves and our hometowns. Note to self: Don't bother learning people's names. You'll find, especially after a few Greek Mythos beers, that you won't remember them anyway. You will, however, know where they are from. Hence, the friends from down under are "the Aussies," the English pastry-chef turned-barman was "Johnny English," the filthy-minded nerdy girl (swear she looks just like the chick from 'The Princess Diaries') and Cassa (our roommate) were known as "Blame Canada," and somehow I remembered the one Irishman as "T." Go figure.

So anyway, as we went around the circle introducing ourselves, the Aussies kindly informed us that we must state our name, hometown/country, and then exclaim, "SPRING BREAK! WOOOOO!" M and I were still fiddling with bottlecaps, but obviously confused. Why would we pretend to be some retarded TRL'ers on Cancun Spring Break? No flipping clue. Well, to clarify, a lovely Aussie, who paused only briefly from downing her classy wine in a plastic bottle, informed us that she and her countrymen had just returned from the Greek island of Corfu in the North, where they had encountered a mercilessly unruly bunch of American (presumably college) kids on Spring Break. These Yanks apparently cannot go two minutes without screaming, um, well, you know: "SPRING BREAK! WOOOOOOOOO!"

M and I looked at each other and cracked up. How many of our own college spring break adventures had involved those infamous words, or some frat boy from our party screaming them out? But why did we do that, we wondered?Even M, more so than I, having actually lived in a sorority house and partied with the stereotypicals in question, could not really comprehend why it was Americans felt the need to scream out such things in alcohol-induced euphoria.

Regardless of why we do it, just know this, America. They're laughing at ya. Oh, yea. The whole world. You look dumb and silly and are the butt of an international joke. But given the last couple of years, this should come as no surprise. Just thought you'd like to know. :)