Tesco Testimony

A quick interjection: so how is America perceived in other parts of the world? Here's one perspective based on our Tesco visit today:

So after watching a line of people have live carp thrown into plastic bags (eating carp on Christmas/Christmas Eve is a Polish tradition), and watching them walk away happy as larks (the carp, of course, were not so happy), we finally fought our way to the checkout lane. What started as the usual pleasantries to the check-out lady quickly turned into a full-blown conversation. In the course of the dialogue, she tells me that she's afraid of America. So I think this is another instance of not liking America's foreign policy; however, she then tells me that she's afraid to visit America because everyone there gets shot at. Ummmm...

On the one hand, I'd love to believe that she was joking, but I really don't think that she was. She had already told me that she didn't know much about the States (only Britain), so I think that she was 100% sincere in her fear of getting capped the good ole' fashioned American way! Now since during the course of this dialogue, I was also trying to throw our groceries in bags before everyone in line behind us started to rebel, I wasn't exactly on my A-game. My response was largely based on my grammatical comfort zone, and I proceeded to tell her that we're from Texas and lots of Texans think it's their right to be armed. She took it rather well, but so much for dispelling her view of America!