Stereotypes exist for a reason.

Did you have any preconceived notions of your neighbors across the pond? Well, so far they are holding true to form. So far I’ve spent a few hours in Germany and two days in Italy. Here are my generalizations so far:

Germans are very nice people, but they don’t look like this person

or this person.

They pretty much all look like this:

“Haf you seen de conteen-you-um trans-vunk-shun-uh?”

or this:

“Theese is de time in schprockets vhen we dahnze!”

Italians are also simple to spot. Other than the fact that this is their home country, they all pretty much sound like a Super Mario Brother. You’d think that the characterization of the iconic video game character was a little crude and insulting to Italians, no, the impersonation is pretty much spot on.Then there is the American tourist. First of all, they are typically spotted by being about a foot taller and about fifty pounds heavier than everyone else. Second, they are almost all pretty much rocking this brand:

Giving the North Face pretty much the majority market share of the snow ski-college student-American tourist demographic. North Face is a very mysterious and powerful brand. And its mystery is only exceeded by its power.