Engagement (Veridba - Les fiançailles)

I recently got engaged to an amazing french woman. Thank you, thank you, you are too kind... But in the spirit of this blog (which I am slowly inventing [the spirit, not the blog]) I am going to talk not about my feelings about this engagement, but about the welcome that my family received from my future in-laws.

I must say I was very worried about the first ever encounter between the two families, and for various reasons. Most of all, I was worried about the language barrier and about the little peculiarities of respective cultures getting in the way. I was also slightly worried that my Serbian parents, unaccustomed to the western hospitality style (see my previous post) feel unwelcome. But the latter did not happen and my first two worries ended up not mattering much (this also will become a light-motive of this blog: me needlessly worrying all the time).

The main reason why none of this happened, is because the welcome offered to my parents was truly amazing. It was warm, forthcoming, well prepared. It is no exaggeration to say that everyone in my future belle-famille did their best to make my family feel welcome. And the opposite was true: my family was very understanding of the peculiarities of the french culture (where, for example, wine and water are abundant but you can forget about any other drink during meal times). All of this made for an amazingly friendly atmosphere and a very relaxing three days with beautiful weather that everyone will think of fondly.

So, what becomes of my previous post? Have I needlessly criticized western hospitality? In my opinion not entirely. The fantastic welcome was, of course, due to the fact that I am now a known person in the family (also becoming a piece-apportée). Had I been a relatively unknown friend, things would have been different (of course, comparing this to an engagement lunch is unfair). In any case, there is a much better example of me being wrong in the previous post, and that is of my host-parents in America. I was a total stranger to them, and they offered me their home. And this is not a fluke, since I lived with not one, but two host families. So yes, I will eat my own words. But some of it still remains true, in the sense that "most people" in the Balkans behave a certain way, and "most people" in the wets behave otherwise.

If I had any followers, I would be looking forward to the ensuing flame war :-)