Wow, that's a pretty coat...

Let me start by saying that I am treading on dangerous ground and I know it.  But I write this blog to "vent" and express my feelings and I pretty much say what I feel, however right or wrong that may be.  

I thought that I have seen it all while living in Europe;  naked spa goers, Speedo wearing men at the beach, Playboy magazine at every news agent.  You name it, I have seen it while living here, but there is one thing that has really surprised me; the love of all things mink.  

The Europeans LOVE their animals.  They are so good to their animals.  Their animals have water bowls at all restaurants and seat belts in the car, but when it comes to that little creature up there...there isn't a lot of love, oh except the love of wearing him!

I have never in my life seen so much fur.  Fur hats, fur coats and fur stoles, but today I was blown away by 2 mink wearing individuals.  You see these little ladies were at my kid's school.  Not at the older Expat's Senior school, but the younger Expat's school that only goes up to grade five!

Now granted, it has been cold, really, really cold, and apparently fur does keep one warm~just ask the furless animal~but a child, in a mink, or for that matter two children???  Well, my fellow expats and I didn't really believe what we were seeing.

"Go on, ask her!"

"No, you...go ask her if it's real!"

"Oh, okay, I'll ask her."  And she did.  Went right up to one of the two girls, and said it!

"Wow, that's a pretty coat.  Is it warm?  Is it real?" and back she came to the group of us and confirmed what we had known...it was in fact real.  It looked real, it felt real, it was real, and there were two of them right there on that playground, on little girls no more than eleven!

I know this is a cultural thing and I do get just as disgusted with the Americans who make this choice, but what are we teaching our children?  First, that it's okay to wear animal fur even though the animal would probably still like to be wearing it and second, that it's okay to wear a coat on the playground that costs as much as a person's mortgage...so much for making snow angels huh?

Oh well, I guess it goes with the 7th grader's Louis Vuitton purse that I saw last week!