Some observations
All rightie, now that I have a few spare minutes, I want to share a couple of thoughts with the rest of the privileged world on this side of the digital divide.
On the superficial side, there are all these little differences that we encounter here: first of all the language, y'all. I guess we have now pretty much gotten used to being called baby, sweety or honey (hon') when we enter the cafeteria or sit in a restaurant. And the rising and falling, wide mouthed Tennessee accent cannot surprise me either. I think it's great. But what still struck as odd was the barbecue at professor Wylie's house, who teaches opera voice and has an impressive house full of European stuff, which is about an hour's drive away from Belmont in the wealthy suburbs of Nashville. On the way there we passed gated communities, in which the houses look like little castles (they are still made of wood though). I had imagined the professor standing on his porch at a huge barbecue grill. However, I was completely wrong. We had barbecue pork from a take away restaurant and everybody got a tray, plastic plates and cutlery. That was my personal culture shock here in America (that was before I got to see his collection of guns though).
Being German, we are welcomed very warmly everywhere here. It is really surprising how many Americans actually know some German. Bob can recite Heine's Loreley (and not much more I guess but still) and nobody seems to hold anything against us anymore after WW2. Even the black folks in the church wanted to shake hands with us. The other thing is black/hispanic and white relations here. Although there is no open discrimination or racism, I have the feeling that most of the people I talked to have certain prejudices towards them and neighborhoods, churches and so on are kind of segregated still. It is probably too early and unjustified to draw any conclusions now, but it would be interesting to spend more time here and find out what's lurking behind the surface. So long, y'all.
And by the way, facebook revealed us the hidden life of alpha tau omega, so much for the protection of privacy in internet communities (of course you dont have post 900+ photos on your site).
On the superficial side, there are all these little differences that we encounter here: first of all the language, y'all. I guess we have now pretty much gotten used to being called baby, sweety or honey (hon') when we enter the cafeteria or sit in a restaurant. And the rising and falling, wide mouthed Tennessee accent cannot surprise me either. I think it's great. But what still struck as odd was the barbecue at professor Wylie's house, who teaches opera voice and has an impressive house full of European stuff, which is about an hour's drive away from Belmont in the wealthy suburbs of Nashville. On the way there we passed gated communities, in which the houses look like little castles (they are still made of wood though). I had imagined the professor standing on his porch at a huge barbecue grill. However, I was completely wrong. We had barbecue pork from a take away restaurant and everybody got a tray, plastic plates and cutlery. That was my personal culture shock here in America (that was before I got to see his collection of guns though).
Being German, we are welcomed very warmly everywhere here. It is really surprising how many Americans actually know some German. Bob can recite Heine's Loreley (and not much more I guess but still) and nobody seems to hold anything against us anymore after WW2. Even the black folks in the church wanted to shake hands with us. The other thing is black/hispanic and white relations here. Although there is no open discrimination or racism, I have the feeling that most of the people I talked to have certain prejudices towards them and neighborhoods, churches and so on are kind of segregated still. It is probably too early and unjustified to draw any conclusions now, but it would be interesting to spend more time here and find out what's lurking behind the surface. So long, y'all.
And by the way, facebook revealed us the hidden life of alpha tau omega, so much for the protection of privacy in internet communities (of course you dont have post 900+ photos on your site).
posted by Lars at
8:25 AM
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