One of the gifts that comes with living abroad is the ability to see your homeland in a new light upon returning. It's both a curse and a blessing to be forever comparing things between the 2 countries. I've had a head full of thoughts the past 2 weeks, but a few in particular have stood out.
1. America is a car culture, and there is a serious lack of alternative ways of getting around. There are no bike lanes, precious few trails, and no way to get from one town to the next except by car. I feel trapped in my parent's neighborhood. When I want to take a walk from my doorstep, the choices are: walk on the side of the road (and get people stopping to ask if i'm lost....yes this happened), or fight through the overgrown briar patch in someone's woods behind our house. I miss the city forest and hågadalen of Uppsala immensely.
2. People in the southern United States are SO friendly and easy-going. I spent the first week trying to remember what the appropriate social behavior is here. I would go running, and up comes another runner and I'm thinking as they're quickly approaching should we wave? smile? look down? avoid eye contact? The runner passes by with a big smile and a breathless "hello!" and I smile in satisfaction to remember how neighborly we can be. I've spent the past 2 years trying to remember NOT to say hello to people I don't know. In the South, it's no big deal to wave, smile, and say a nice hi. Love that.
3. My definition of what is "bad weather" has changed. People who live in the sunny south easily complain when a rainy day comes, but they just haven't realized how bad it can be. Besides, rain is beautiful, makes things green, and we're in a drought! Compared to the winter darkness and 75% slushy days in Sweden, I feel only grateful.
4. American food can be (depending on how you cook or where you eat out) too much. My palate has become accomstumed to the plainer fare cooked and eaten in Sweden, and some of the food I've eaten here, particularly in restaurants, is just too much flavor, too much sugar, too many competing spices.
5. The native wildflowers here are beautiful and unique, and why has it taken loving those swedish wildflowers to realize that we have our own beauties? Fields of blue bachelor buttons, red sourweed, yellow daffodills, and these delicate purple ones whose name I don't know. There are no vit sippor, but the flowers and blooming trees are gorgeous here in their own right.I'm sure anyone who has lived abroad or even traveled extensively can relate to the way you see things at home in a new light. Care to share you stories?
5 comments:
Well, when I go abroad, I usually go to North Carolina or Georgia. My experience with the foreigners in those parts is that I can mostly understand them, but when you get toward the coastal areas of these places, it gets kinda hard to know what they is sayin. Anyhow, I thought you did a good job of capturing local beauty. I remember back when I was in sales and driving around the state stopping to take pictures with my Nikon of spring fields just as you are doing. By the way, I believe the "delicate purple flower" you mentioned is curly vetch. It is actually a legume and a good cover crop.
i agree with the sugar. everything is so burdened by sweetness. we have forgotten what a vegetable really tastes like. it drives me nuts.
So true,fun to see your own country with the eyes of a foreigner.
What once struck me most after five years abroad was that all Dutch people ride a bike.
Especially that people don't consider it a sport overthere just a normal part of everyday life.You can even do it in your three piece suit or cocktail dress
and you certainly don't need a helmet.
Keep up the good work ,Janke.
Hi, I got here through Ravelry. I come from a little town (Skövde in Sweden)and before I came to Uppsala I always said hello to everything and everybody.But I had to change as well. I think it has to do with the size of the city and what type of person you are.Now a days I say hello to "my fellow" person that comes along and yes! they look at me in a strange way but I don´t care. I need to say hello it feels natural.
Nice to see your place.Looks very lovely
Ylva
I just say hi to everyone here when I go jogging. I decided that I dont care if Dutch people think I am weird. Funny thing is that most people say hi right back to me.
Nick
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