A different perspective...

Today my host family had Francis's brother over for dinner.

He knew some English and practiced it a bit with me, but some of his stuff he was completely wrong with, like he said "I am Andrea's uncle, his favorite uncle. He is my daughter." There was some gender confusion, as well as words used for family members. When I said I was from Chicago, he was like "oh, sweetie sweet Chicago!" I gently corrected him saying it was "sweet home chicago." He switched back and forth between English and Spanish during dinner, mostly sticking with Spanish.

He also was talking about smoking, and I am not sure if everything he said was true, but he claimed Europeans die more of old age and other things than lung cancer, and Americans die more of lung cancer. He said it was odd because Europeans clearly smoke more. He claimed the reason for Americans dying of cancer so much is because people in America smoke anxiously, since they aren't allowed to smoke anywhere.
I told him bars and restaurants in many states and cities ban smoking indoors, and many buildings have a no smoking perimeter around them, including the dorms at universities. He said that people then smoke and inhale quickly before they go to work or on their breaks or whatever, and it is more dangerous, whereas here in Europe people chill out, have a cup of coffee for an hour and a cigarette and enjoy the fresh air, etc etc.

I didn't argue against him, but wouldn't a European and American be inhaling the same, if the European is inhaling one cigarette in an hour and the American inhales one cigarette, just in a five minute period instead? In the course of one hour, they both inhale the same amount of smoke, right?

I still think Europeans smoke more, and are exposed to it more since it is EVERYWHERE, even if you don't smoke.

He also was under the impression that people can't smoke in public at all. HAH! Please walk 10 feet outside of my dorm, buddy, and you shall see tobacco monkeys with clouds around them much like Pigpen from Charlie Brown.



He also referred to America as "Yankeelandia" aka Yankee country/land. I was amused by this.