I’ve had several revelations since I moved here. Having to do with Europeans abroad and how we roll. And expect the world to roll.
We are obsessed with weekends.
“How was your weekend? What are your plans for next weekend?” we chirp merrily at whoever crosses our path.
Upon being thus questioned, people here scratch their heads and try hard. “I sit with my family” they say. More scratching. Benevolent confusion. What the hell is she expecting me to say?
“Ok, but what did you do?” we press on energetically.
The truth is not much. It’s just not that big a deal. A few hours of not having to go to work. Good. You eat and talk to your family and then eat some more.
Next weekend you do the same. What is there to talk about?
But we won’t stop. Worried that the weather is not of sufficient variety to allow for extensive chit chat, we desperately cling to weekends and holidays.
“And your last holiday?” we ask hopefully.
“I sat with my uncles”. Little changes but the tense.
I kept at it. Until one day a guy stopped me as I was forming the word “how”. “Was” never came out.
“Please”, he said. “Don’t ask me about my weekend again. When I do something I’ll tell you.”
He hasn’t yet been in touch.
Eastraveller 
it’s amusing yet it’s so true!
I didn’t realise it before coming here:) Is it the same in India? Do people find weekends a big deal or not really?
indians are very family minded so weekends are the family time, they actually do go out and about during the weekends, shopping, go to movies, get together in popular eateries…
Very funny! Maybe it’s just a British and Irish obsession. I have no joy in Eastern Europe either. A blank look and ‘nothing special’ is the standard answer! I think that even when we do absolutely nothing, we still manage to make it sound like it was the best weekend ever!
Haha:) And even if we don’t, we still obsess over it with huge joy and gusto.
Maybe it’s a teenage years trauma, do you think? That kid in all of us, the kid who stayed home on Saturday night and cried bitter tears, is now compensating by making the dullest weekend the biggest deal ever:)
Ha ha, could be! Even when I spend my weekend cleaning my flat, washing my clothes and doing my weekly shop, I sell it as ‘Oh it was so wonderful and relaxing. Great to have ‘some me-time’!! Oh, and nobody called me to go out 🙂
:)Oh yeah. Took it really easy last weekend. It was amazing.