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This “On the Road” is a mixed bag of experiences, thoughts, opinions, and random sharing.
For instance... I often get asked, both by Americans I knew when I lived there and by others I’ve met while
traveling, if I ever miss the “good old U.S.A”., and if so, what do I miss? In no particular order of importance,
here are my thoughts on that.
What I miss about living in the U.S.A.:
- Friends and family (more than anything!)
- Arizona sunsets
- Baseball
- Trader Joes and REI stores
- “Northern Exposure” reruns
- Easy access to plenty of clean, free bathrooms
- Mexican food that doesn’t suck
- Cash only express lines in supermarkets
- Being able to easily talk to and understand everyone around me
- A good selection of high-quality English-language movies
- Lots of English-language book stores and libraries
- Friendly waiters and waitresses, even if their underlying motive is a bigger tip
- Buffets in Indian restaurants for $6
- Those little Starbucks coffee drinks in a bottle served cold... yummy
- National Public Radio
- “Prairie Home Companion”, or anything at all by Garrison Keillor
- “60 Minutes”
- David Letterman
- Sheets you can tuck in on beds, rather than those dumb duvets that never fully cover my feet
- Milk and juice containers that can be opened without needing scizzors or a blow torch
What I don’t miss about living in the U.S.A.:
- TV channels riddled with infomercials, evangelists and professional “wrasslin”
- Strip/shopping malls and residential subdivisions everywhere
- The phrases “ya know”, “don’t go there”, “whatever”, and saying “like” almost every other word in every sentence
- High fives
- Living an “8 to 5” life in a suit and tie
- “Country Music” that’s just good-looking pop singers wearing cowboy hats
- Circle-Ks and 7-11s on practically every other street corner
- Out of control Political Correctness
- An obsession on image, status, personal appearance and rampant consumerism
- Lousy newspapers in most cities
- Rednecks
- Yanni and Kenny G.
- Rush-hour gridlock
- Weak, tasteless beer, bread and coffee
- Talk Radio...mostly just morons and zealots, “Blah, blah, blah, etc....”
- The craze of designer clothes
- Year-long presidential campaigns filled with bland politicians saying nothing at all
- Rush Limbaugh
- Baseball caps worn backwards
- Jerry Springer and his ilk with their trailer-trash TV offerings
- Lack of good public transportation
- Urban cowboys
- Gangs, drive-by shootings, road rage, and so many damn guns!
I get asked all the time how living abroad and traveling so much has affected and changed me. Here are some
things I am aware of.........
I know that selling and giving away virtually everything I own and maintaining an extremely simple lifestyle, keeping
my possessions to a minimum, has been one of the most freeing things I have ever done! I almost never buy anything
other than food or train tickets. My attention and resources are directed elsewhere.
I think I am a more patient person, and not as many “little things” upset me as once did. A few weeks after I arrived
in Europe, I was getting on a train from London to Wales and I politely asked a man in his 20s to move, as I had
a reservation and he was in “my seat”. (important note - there were a few empty seats.) He did, but commented as
he did, “Sure... no problem... at the end of the day, one seat is as good as another!” I felt pretty stupid and
petty at that point, realizing how seriously I often took things that just didn’t matter. So now I often ask myself,
“Will it really matter at the end of the day?”
As I mentioned in my writing about East Africa (Editor's note: see Eddie's archives),
through traveling I have gained “greater insights into my attachments and addictions to comfort and convenience,
and into what pushes my limits of tolerance and patience.” I have also adjusted and expanded my thinking about
“personal space” and what constitutes rudeness... though I still don’t like being pushed.
I have learned a lot about the source of personal loneliness, something I have had to frequently confront, and
to eventually embrace as something not to fear or avoid, but to gracefully live with... sometimes even as a friend
and teacher.
I have learned that a journal is much, much more valuable than a camera... and far more practical for sure.
I have learned that there are hundreds upon hundreds of ways to flush a toilet.
I have finally figured out why football (soccer) is such a mania in most of the world outside the U.S. Even though
I’ve never played the game, I have come to really enjoy watching it and got totally hooked into the World Cup.
In fact, I can now even explain the “offsides” rule...I think!
Have you ever noticed that no matter where you go, the locals there always complain that, “We have the worst drivers
in the world here!”? And the other complaint everywhere is “Nobody knows how to drive in the rain/snow here!”.
Why doesn’t the U.S. finally adopt the metric system, as the rest of the world has?
It’s clear to me that “Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL)” is the best career move I’ve ever made.
The more I travel and the more poverty I witness, the more I am convinced that we should never give money to beggars.
I think that, more than anything, we are reinforcing and further conditioning a behavior of dependancy, rather
than really helping these people. Yes I am certainly well-aware that it is a harsh world with unbelievably difficult
and unfair living circumstances for so many people, but isn’t the only ultimate solution self-reliance? We must
find another way to assist these people, don’t you think?
As far as able-bodied drunks and “gutter punks” who panhandle along the streets, I think they should be all required
by law to wear a sign that says, “I am a pathetic loser, unwilling to lift a finger to support myself or to make
any contribution to society. Please fork over your hard-earned money so that I can squander it on alcohol, urinate
wherever I feel like it, and otherwise continue to be a general public nuisance. Thank you and God bless.”
Have you noticed that “OK” is now part of every language?
I have concluded that the “best travelers” just might be the Aussies and Kiwis. Australians and New Zealanders
seem to travel with ease for longer periods of time, complain less, laugh more, and are more laid-back and friendly,
in general, than anyone else I’ve met (and I’ve met many a traveler by now). And I am not saying that just because
I am sucking up to the Aussies who have invited me to visit them when I finally get to their country (although
this probably won’t hurt my cause any), but because that’s been my experience over and over again. On the other
hand, people who own restaurants tell me that Aussies are the world’s worst tippers.
The biggest complainers and most impatient travelers I’ve met are Americans, Germans and Israelis.
In my limited experience traveling, the most beautiful women I’ve seen are from Poland (tied for second - Czechs,
Hungarians and Swedes), and the sexiest ones have been Brazilians (runnerup – French). (Don’t trouble yourself
with any hate mail.)
I have decided that, whenever possible, I strongly prefer traveling by train, rather than by any other means (more
on this at another time).
I am finally starting to realize just how worthless “travel guides” are, except for very general information in
order to prepare for a trip. So much information is outdated and incorrect in them, and I learn far more from fellow
travelers and by just stumbling around and figuring things out as I go.
Surprisingly, I never get tired of visiting ancient cathedrals, not can I ever justify how much money must have
been spent over the centuries to build them, in the midst of all the poverty that existed.
I have learned that when I go to the trouble to send postcards to people to let them know I am thinking of them,
that they seldom acknowldge my doing this... and that that bothers me some, though I know it probably shouldn’t.
I have learned that some of the best things that happen to me when visiting a new city usually happen when I “get
lost”. I am not reluctant or ashamed to ask for help, and this often results in some of my most memorable experiences.
Need I point out the obvious... that I have learned a great deal more about the world and its peoples, and that
the more different people seem, the more alike they actually are.
Is there any doubt that the best invention of all time for travelers has been email?
I have arrived at the conclusion that if we handed over the world to 16 to 25-year-old male sports fans, it probably
wouldn’t survive more than a few days.
I have learned that while standing and waiting for a bus or train, that it apparently arrives much faster if you
stand and intently watch for it. That must be true... otherwise why would almost everyone do it?
When it comes to using public transportation, I’ve adopted three rules that serve me well:
- Why stand when you can sit?
- Why run when you can walk?
- Why wait in line when you really don’t have to?
I have decided that the notion that there is a big difference between a “traveler” and a “tourist” is largely
a myth, and that most people who self-righteously delare themselves travelers are, in fact, tourists... including
myself.
I have learned that I often cannot depend on people who I thought I could, and that I can frequently depend on
people I never thought I could. And one way or another, I still get either disappointed or surprised.
I am amazed at how many Europeans don’t know who Sarah MacLaughlin, the Dave Matthews Band, Patsy Cline or even
the Grateful Dead are, though I think they should. What a pity they don’t, I think.
Isn’t it time that Americans started learning a bit more about world history and geography? In the International
Herald Tribune (October 22, 2001, p.9), it was noted that, “Some 25% of American high school students do not know
that the Pacific Ocean separates North America from Asia, 80% of adults do not know India is the world’s largest
democracy, and half of all adults and two-thirds of students incorrectly identified Vietnam as an island country,
even though 58,000 U.S. lives were lost in the Vietnam War.” While sitting in a hostel in Paris, I heard a recent
college graduate from the U.S. ask a woman from New Zealand if her country was connected to Australia by bridge!
On another occasion at the same hostel, someone said they were going to Prague soon, and a young American woman
in the group queried, “Where's Prague?"
But when you consider the content and nature of the educational system available and the intense nationalistic
propagada that is part and parcel of growing up and living in the U.S., it is easier to understand. Living outside
the U.S. has dramatically shown me how narrow and limited much of the information is that’s provided by schools
and media in the States. It is a real eye-opener having access to TV and newspapers from other countries, provided
one takes the time to check it out.
And since I am doing a little friendly American-bashing here, let me continue along this dangerous theme. When
will so many Americans let go of the idea that virtually everything about America is the best in the world... that
anything in the world that is not like America is inferior or wrong... and that the U.S.has some kind of divine
destiny to Americanize the world? I know that “we are the best” is crammed down our throats all our life, in school
and otherwise, but this kind of cultural egocentricity, and at times even arrogance, is widespread in the U.S.
and very disturbing to me... and to so many other citizens of the world.
I suspect that these comments might piss off some of my readers; that it is very unpatriotic (and maybe even downright
heresy) to criticize America at this time when it is still trying to heal the deep wounds of September 11th, and
when G. W. Bush has “drawn a line in the sand” declaring to the world, “You’re either with us or against us!”.
It is probably even worse for me to ask why it is that Bush and so many Americans think that America invented and
has cornered the market on freedom and democracy, and that the U.S. has set the highest standards for them anywhere
in the world? But if you haven’t noticed yet, personal freedoms and civil liberties in the U.S. are currently being
stripped away left and right, and this is being feverishly defended as essential to preserving the “American way
of life and world security”. Regarding my comments, I am willing to take the heat for any criticism, because I
am committed to dialogue on important issues, and to raising questions that I believe should be looked at and discussed.
Anyway, that’s how I see it, and I think everyone is entitled to my opinion.
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