One of my biggest challenges here is trying to figure out how the English do things. There are a lot of traditions and everyday English things that I am unable to authentically experience (I’m mostly thinking of food and other holiday-related customs), and I’ve decided that I can never fully understand what I am calling the ‘English psyche’ as I’ve spent the first twenty years of my life in the U.S. I’m not saying that Britons aren’t as human as Americans or anything like that; I just think that people’s experiences affect their personalities and ways of thinking. I can learn about the differences between America and England, but for now and maybe for ever, it would be hard to get far beneath the surface.
I began realizing a week or two ago that the U.S. comes up quite a lot in my classes. I didn’t notice at first because I’m used to learning about American things, and only recently I realized this is a bit odd. I certainly don’t hear as much about England in my writing or film classes at WOU. This isn’t something I can ask an English student about (‘Excuse me, why do you know more about America than I know about England?’), so I’m just going on speculation here. It might be that America is a bigger deal in the world than I thought, though that seems a bit egotistical to me, and people care about America because we’re just that interesting. Or maybe people in other countries are just better educated; maybe America is just to focused on itself to bother learning about other places. Those are the only two ideas I’ve come up, and I guess either way, America is full of itself.
The Christmas decorations around here are fantastic. And I like bokeh.
Furthermore, today is Wednesday, and I’ve realized today that Sunday will be here very soon, and that that will be the start of my last week here. I am in England, which is incredible, and I am about to leave. Like I said in my last post, I’m very excited to go back home; Oregon seems very magical right now. But I know that Oregon will eventually become normal again, and I’ll probably re-romanticize England and want to come back. It’s what I do with summer and winter, or (my) short hair and long hair. So I guess, the moral there is to live in the moment. Carpe diem. YOLO. Etc. etc. or something.
This isn’t my ‘returning home’ post, though. I plan to get at least one more ‘while abroad’ post in before that. So in the spirit of while-abroadness, I would like to say that I plan to keep doing stuff in my next 10 days. I’ve got a bit of homework to do at least — after Monday everything will be turned in and done — and I would like to still do a bit of traveling around England. Blackpool looks to be in the works, and probably Liverpool. Oh yes, and the pictures are also in the spirit of while-abroadness. Traveling and such.
Marissa
We visited the Christmas markets in Manchester
Yes, many people around the world know much more about the U.S. than U.S. students know about other countries. And you’re right, the U.S. for many years was one of the greatest countries in the world, and people everywhere learned (and still do) about the U.S.You’ve probably noticed in recent years that much of the dialogue about the U.S. hasn’t been positive. I think it would be really interesting at WOU to have more discussions in classes across the disciplines about where/how the U.S. fits in with the rest of the world and why it’s important to understand that. I really appreciate you writing about this. Michele