"Backpacker Planning To Shatter Europeans' Preconceptions Of Americans"

CHICAGO—Recent college graduate Tyler Hill announced Monday his plans to single-handedly shatter European ideas about American travelers during his upcoming three-week trip to France and Belgium. "I'm not one of those arrogant, Lonely Planet–toting backpackers who thinks he's entitled to everything and can't walk 10 feet without snapping photos of funny-looking street signs," said Hill, noting that he had already decided to eat at a café the Rough Guide To Paris warns is "a little off the beaten path, but popular with locals." "They're going to meet me and think, 'Wow, it really means a lot to me that he took the time to learn a couple of useful phrases in our language.'" Hill added that over the course of the trip, he hopes to meet some Europeans who aren't just a bunch of effeminate, chain-smoking elitists. http://www.theonion.com/articles/backpacker-planning-to-shatter-europeans-preconcep,17783/