Byeee Seattle!

After marijuana has been legalized, 5 guys have been robbed, tons of Americans have had their home changed into cemeteries, lots of experiences, tons of new nice people, lots of shopping, trips to Portland, Vancouver, San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, and flat credit cards later we are unfortunately forced to leave this strange but great country. 

It has been such a great experience and I’m sad that we are already leaving. Being here has taught us all, I guess, a lot about the American culture and some things have truly surprised me…

One of the things that I have been struck by is the disparity between rich and poor. The times we have visited Seattled the main shopping streets have actually been almost over-crowed with beggars. It seems unrealistic that people are living on the edge of nothing whilst they are lying in front of luxury stores with diamonds and shiny, super-duper-expensive stuff. It is really hard to understand, I guess especially for us Danes that are quite used to equality regarding conditions, that people are that badly exposed whilst others are capable of living the fat life. 

Something that has surprised me while we have been here is the Americans relation to sexuality and sex-issues. I thought that America would have sort of the same relationship and opinions on boys and girls’ interactions as our part of the world but it doesn’t work quite the way I expected. In fact I learned that my Taiwanese host-sister is even more loose with the whole “sex-thing” that my host-mother (I believe though, that my host sister is an Asian exception though… J). 

One of the first things that my host-mom told me was that I could not bring guys to my room – only Laurids as he supposedly had a girl friend back home… J Just generally it seems that sex-talk is more of a taboo than it is in Denmark. American youngsters we have been around have also told that they don’t discuss that kind of stuff within their families. I mean, it’s not because we discuss that constantly in Denmark but I guess that our relationship to it is more relaxed and I’m surprised that it is this tabooed here.

Americans’ relation to politics has also surprised me. Or maybe shocked is a better way to describe it. First of all Americans are able to vote when they turn 18 however they can not drink before they turn 21 – that signifies that they are capable of taking responsibility for their entire nation but they are still not able to make their own choices regarding themselves… So public responsibility before personal… The interest in the election has been disappointing, I mean, it has appeared that some of us Danes at times knew more about the election than some Americans did themselves (and that is not admirable, as we are not particularly knowledgeable on that area). Naturally I have also met people that are admirably much involved in politics and truly are taking great responsibility for their nation.  

TV’s role in a family has also surprised me quite a bit. A couple of days ago it was thanksgiving, which I celebrated with Camilla’s host family. The entire day her lovely host-mom spent cooking tons of food while we were waiting. When the food was served everyone sat around the TV and dined focusing more on the TV than talking. Generally Thanksgiving resembled Christmas Eve in Denmark, however in Denmark we would eat for hours to sort of enjoy all the cooking, here we finished within 40 minutes… It was a great experience and the people were just great, however I was surprised by the fact that so much time and energy were put into cooking and then it was just over so fast!

Generally it seems as well that fear is a greater part of the everyday life in America. As they are not endowed with universal welfare the risk of losing money and ending up in a horrible economical situation is much greater than in Denmark. Money-issues are therefore much closer every single day. The fact that one’s life is not as stable along with the disparity in rich and poor might as well cause that one is closer to committing crime than Danish people are, as they live in greater stability. Therefore the fear of being robbed and the fear of crime/danger is generally a greater part of the everyday life than it is in Denmark too.

I have come to truly appreciate the multi-cultural aspect of America – no one is considered “immigrants” in the same way as in Denmark. Everyone is generally accepted for being whoever they are and different cultures are accommodated. Us Danes are able to learn a lot from that

Also I do admire the accommodating aspect of the American culture. Americans are a lot more used to small-talk that us Danes are and therefore you do more easily get into discussions and conversations with people you don’t know. 

The last two months have been just great and I have learned and experienced so much. I do really appreciate that we have been so fortunate to come!!! :)