I feel I must clarify some of the things I said for all of you out there that
I didn't write to individually. First of all, there were many things I loved
about Britain, and many things I hated. I think that's true of any place.
When you go somewhere on vacation, you tend to get caught up in the
excitement and see everything through rose tinted glasses. But if you spend
alot of time in another place, you learn so much about life and about
yourself too. You find out that some of it is just as wonderful as you
thought, and some of it is not at all what you thought it would be. Many of
the Brits I got to know would say things like: "Americans are loud and
obnoxious." That would offend me, and I would say, "Well, you guys are
boring and inhibited." I struggled to remain the loud, obnoxious American
that I was, but as time went by, I noticed that you get stared at alot (often
cold stares), or people in restaraunts would eavesdrop on your conversations.
After awhile, my family got more quiet, and lost some of our carefree
expression. I'm not neccessarily saying this was a bad thing, just a
different culture and a different way of living. I became more polite, not
as brash, not because I was a copycat, but because their ways began to rub
off on me. The first time I went back to America for a visit was four years
after I'd left, and it was a culture shock. I was in this monorail in an
airport, and everybody was talking so loud, and I felt like I didn't relate.
What used to really amuse me was when I'd vacation somewhere like Italy, and
there would be American tourists there, and they would say everything at the
top of their lungs, as if to say, "Hey, look at me! I'm traveling abroad!
I'm special!" And actually, it was annoying, and I could see why Europeans
would say that about us, just like we have our things we say about them, like
they are reserved and uptight, or whatever. At the end of the day, it's
stereotypes, which have some elements of truth, but are not true about
everyone, certainly. I met Brits that I found to be amusing and down to
earth, and I met some that were so snobby I wanted to knock them down a peg
or two, but I think that would be true of any culture. There are things that
I like better about America than Britain, but there are also things that I
like more about Britain than America, like the fact that their pace of life
seems to be slower and they don't seem as competitive with each other as in
America. They don't seem as greedy and spoiled as we do over here, and that
is refreshing. I was pulled out of the rat race for a while and got to
discover things about myself that I didn't know. I have a better view of
different races of people than I did before, and that has taught me much. I
would recommend to anybody that was ever offered the chance to live abroad
for awhile to go for it. You may come to appreciate the ways others live
better than the way you do, and you also may come to love America even more
for the freedoms we possess that many other nations don't.
Abbymusique
