Originally, I come from a small village. A village like for example the village of Stanglet. Only that my village is not called Stanglet, but Leitershofen.
A village like a city, just smaller. Leitershofen has two major streets, a bakery, a shop for about everything but cheese, a shop where you can buy cheese and milk, an elementary school, lots of trees (dark and tall tress that never lose their leaves), a butcher, a flowershop, a church with a cemetery attached to it and one kindergarten. And one Pizzeria, with an imported Italian waiter to show off Leitershofen’s international flair (even though his mother was Moroccan). I used to pass all houses of Leitershofen on my way to school, waving to some old people who were always looking out of the window, nicely fitting their elbows onto pillows, and ringing the bells of other doors, running away and watching furious faces yell after me without seeing me.
Most afternoons I spent sitting with some friends in the treetops, watching American soldiers and their children pass by: the smaller ones with plastic guns, the bigger ones in tanks. We were sitting in the tree, trying to be as quiet as possible, to be almost invisible, which was, however, not necessary because the Americans never looked up, they always looked straight forward. They looked as they moved. Their gaze indicated the direction. Since then, I have been wondering about the direction which these Americans indicated, with their eyes and their pointed index fingers.
So that, also in the city of Kroy, I went up on treetops and rooftops in order to look at the people passing by. I will continue doing this. So far - as what I have noticed - there are generally 4 directions: to the left, to the right, straight ahead and back.
This, however, is not purely American. It seems to be universal.
Originally, I come from a small village. A village like for example the village of Stanglet. Only that my village is not called Stanglet, but Leitershofen.
A village like a city, just smaller. Leitershofen has two major streets, a bakery, a shop for about everything but cheese, a shop where you can buy cheese and milk, an elementary school, lots of trees (dark and tall tress that never lose their leaves), a butcher, a flowershop, a church with a cemetery attached to it and one kindergarten. And one Pizzeria, with an imported Italian waiter to show off Leitershofen’s international flair (even though his mother was Moroccan). I used to pass all houses of Leitershofen on my way to school, waving to some old people who were always looking out of the window, nicely fitting their elbows onto pillows, and ringing the bells of other doors, running away and watching furious faces yell after me without seeing me.
Most afternoons I spent sitting with some friends in the treetops, watching American soldiers and their children pass by: the smaller ones with plastic guns, the bigger ones in tanks. We were sitting in the tree, trying to be as quiet as possible, to be almost invisible, which was, however, not necessary because the Americans never looked up, they always looked straight forward. They looked as they moved. Their gaze indicated the direction. Since then, I have been wondering about the direction which these Americans indicated, with their eyes and their pointed index fingers.
So that, also in the city of Kroy, I went up on treetops and rooftops in order to look at the people passing by. I will continue doing this. So far - as what I have noticed - there are generally 4 directions: to the left, to the right, straight ahead and back.
This, however, is not purely American. It seems to be universal.
