Dublin, Republic of Ireland (CNN) "I'm just practicing for when we Brexit next week," I told the immigration officer at the head of the non-EU citizens line, as I pushed forward my British passport.

I've used similar phrases on my EU travels a fair bit since the UK voted to leave the EU almost three years ago. Each time, I get a similar response: a wry but friendly smile.

Fellow Europeans seem ready to accept that some British citizens feel a shared remorse about Brexit. As we race to the deadline, smiles are still warmly given and genuine despite growing tensions between leaders -- even in Ireland, which stands to be the most traumatized of all the EU nations by Brexit.

European citizens feel sorry for us soon-to-be ex-EU folk. One man on his way to work in Dublin a few weeks ago told me he felt pity for the British. "They don't know what they are doing," he lamented. "They've been lied to." It is a benevolence we might not deserve, given the generations of jokes that have made the Irish the butt of British humour.

But while we, as a people, still have the sympathy of so many of the EU's half-billion citizens, the British state is not faring so favourably. Prime Minister Theresa May in particular has become the focus of many of her EU partners' frustrations.

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