The Ugly American

Before I blog about my a-maz-ing trip to St Louis this past weekend, I thought I'd do a precursor blog post. A blog post about Ugly Americans. No, I'm not talking about un-attractive Americans (physically), I'm talking about Americans who don't care about other people.

People who know me well know that I hate repetitive sounds. I can't handle ticking clocks when it's quiet or I'm trying to sleep (just call me Captain Hook), people who snore, and basically anything that is annoying and repetitive - you get the picture.

There was a woman on one of my flights who fit all of my 'annoying, get the heck away from me' categories, AND she was conveniently placed right across from me (we both had aisle seats).

Let me just tell you why I labeled her an 'Ugly American.'

She snored when she slept.


Okay, I won't call somebody an 'Ugly American' just because they snore. That's something they can't help... but it certainly put her annoyance radar on the map.

This was the REAL reason she made the 'Ugly American' list:


When she woke up, not even kidding, she played bejewelled on her phone with the sound ON. If you've never played this game before, google it. Listen to the sounds it makes. Then pity me. At first, I thought maybe she was hard of hearing, or deaf. Maybe she didn't know her phone was making loud sounds. But, no. I witnessed her converse with a seat mate. She could certainly hear her phone.



Why would an adult play a game on their phone, with the sound on, in a crowded airplane? Did her parents (if she had parents) not teach her to be polite? The only reason that I can imagine her doing this, is that she is in the 'Ugly American' classification. She certainly didn't care about annoying the people around her.



Anywho, I'll end my rant about Ugly Americans. I dedicate this blog post to Mr Mitchell, my High School U.S. History teacher, who read us the Ugly American book.