Oh no, it's happening again!
I am starting to resent my parents for having me in the United States Of America. I am starting to get all uppity on European culture, and all snarky about the States.By the time you read this it will have happened, I will have been transformed into another dimension, a surreal twilight zone experience where everything looks the same on the outside, but just a little different in many ways.
I am beginning to feel like a European again.
FUCK.
This only ensures that I will feel displaced when i get back to the strip malls, superstores and chain restaurants of the states.
Ah America-
The land of boring looking money. Every bill the same size.
the way we snub dollar coins and totally ostrasize the two dollar denomination flabbergasts me.
whats with that?
Why do we settle for fruit veggies and meats that taste like plastic in the states? why do we settle for mass produced breads or mass produced foods, At all?
when I buy a peach, it's usually a gamble. I would say the odds are stacked against me and that my peach is going to leave me feeling unsatisfied, and more than just a little duped.
[I will admit that the grapes, bananas, oranges and apples are all usually fairly reliable in the states]
it's almost better not to know really.
If you have never been to Europe, please, don't ever go.
I was talking to my grandfather last christmas, he was complaining that the french were very rude. I have heard this from many people. I think it's a defense mechanism that folks create in themselves so that they don't feel loss, but instead feel relief when they leave.
I know this blog is choppy, but i am trying to get as much out as possible to my loved ones before the whirlpool of foreign languages, art, culture, amazing architecture and appropriately prepared breads lobotomize me into a socialist fervor.
I met an man yesterday, he was a visual artist living in a very crazy cut up apartment on the BD Sebastopol. He referred to the room with the shower and sink as his Living room, because he could also fit a twin bed in there for guests when they came over. His bedroom was mostly his bed and his kitchen was across the hall. it was expensive to live there. He was considering a move to Berlin,, he had been in Paris for three years, he was Danish, and grew up in amsterdam. he speaks english, spanish, dutch, german and french.
He wants to go to Berlin because it's much cheaper to live and the art scene is more up an coming. can you imagine?
can you imagine taking a train that travels over 100 mph, for three hours and being in a completely different culture with an entirely different language?
I don't know what i am trying to say here. if anything. if only this, that i love what i see, I love what i experience, if only on the surface, it's outside is appealing.
i like it because it's different in so many ways. it's mind expanding.
more later
Do they have Wonder Woman tables in Paris? I hope you take time for some more vintage clothes shopping this trip. xoxo - G
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. When I first announced to my family (after I had bought my ticket and obtained my passport) that I was spending the summer in Europe, my mother shouted, "See America first!" Why? And, of course, that first trip had me hooked. I agree with you about the produce: eat as many ripe pears as you can while you're there in the land of food that's appreciated. And here's the good thing: Europe is always there when you want it. Don't resent your American upbringing; just use it as a reference point to value the wonderful things that are out there waiting for your discovery. I met a young man on the bus recently, a 20-something who had the same glasses I did. I said hello and a wonderful conversation ensured. He was Italian, from Milan, studying music at Berklee. When we both got off the bus, we continued to chat. Afterwards (at OTA, in fact) I wondered if an American 20-something would have engaged in conversation with me like that. Probably not. You can find "Europe" at home if you are open to it. The young Milanese on the bus. The two women from Barcelona I gave directions to in Harvard Square. I hear you. Keep these postings coming.
ReplyDeleteReal food is just a decision away, decide to buy what right and not what's advertised. We know the ads are lies.
ReplyDeleteOur friends, neighbors and relatives are writing, acting, dancing and singing. All we have to do is turn of the TV and leave the house.
We can do it!