In Estonia at one of the local shop and or stands of goods to sell. I found people talking about the shooting in Las Vegas. Estonians speak English, and will speak it all the time when in tourist ares, such as the Old Town Square. In this case it was four Estonian guys and they started to converse with a British over the shooting that everyone was talking about. I mean everyone…
There are not many Americans hanging around Estonia. Not many people at all in Estonia. 1.3 million people and 400 thousand plus live in Tallinn. This makes for me being a very minority type person there. There are many Europeans of all types, but Americans (Ignore the NATO end of things,) are few and far between. I was not greeted very warmly as in the past. I had already noticed a silence follow the fact that I was American in several other earlier instances. We Americans are not as loved as we once were…. But something had really set people off against Americans and it was at this point I realized what happened…
I listened to the guys talk and a few shop keepers joined in. It had some mix of Russian and Estonian language also tossed in for good measure, but at this point I knew what happened, and I thought 29 had died. Then these people talked about 60 dead. I opened my mouth and asked politely to interrupt. I then found out all the information I could from these people… Which was not much, all of a sudden. I should have kept my mouth shut…
The British guy said, “Oh my! You are America?” and “I am sorry!”
I found myself standing alone, as everyone faded away…. They felt uncomfortable with me standing there…
The last guy said as he walked away, “Bedlam is America, I am sorry!” and he said, “Tere päevast!” (Good Day)
I said, “You have a good day also!”
{I started after this to mix Russian words within my conversations. I used basics such as numbers and such to get my point across. I left them wondering where I was from, instead of making it blatantly obvious…}
I would have been better saying in Russian, “Что случилось в Америке?” – (What happened in America?)
They at least would not have run away…
No one else ran away after that point…. I learn fast…
WtR