Wow...I can't believe I haven't posted in nearly a month. I apologize for my laziness, I've just been too busy traveling Europe, writing my thesis, and wasting time online (but not writing my blog). I started several posts last weekend but I never got around to finishing them....I promise to amend soon. Today my post will focus on my visit to the dentist.
In an effort to experience as much 'real' German life as possible, I visited the dentist back in March. To find a dentist in Marburg, I simply googled (in English) for dentist in Marburg and ended up on the English website of a dentist located in Marbrug (how convenient). The Dentist had an American wife and spoke perfect English (even with an American accent!) thus I was saved from learning German tooth vocabulary for a while. However, during my last visit (mostly a check-up) the dentist stated that I needed to repair a filling and I could not wait until I returned to US (and had dental insurance again) since the damaged portion of the tooth was dangerously close to a nerve (that is really really bad). Since I don't have dental insurance through the Fulbright, I have to pay for all teeth repairs myself. After spending the last two months saving money to pay for the needed repairs, I finally made another appointment with the dentist for today.
Last time I visited the dentist, the dentist tried to speak to me in German, then realized that I wasn't following, so he switched to English and I understood everything that he said. I felt like I was cheating my travel experience since I was able to converse in my native tongue but I felt that speaking English was an acceptable compromise considering that I was already pretty nervous about visiting the dentist.
In an earlier blog post, I mentioned that I felt that my German comprehension had increased dramatically in the last month. On May 5th, I conversed with my lab mates almost entirely in German. On May 6th, I left for 7 days in Great Britain. On May 12th, I returned to Germany and realized that I no longer understood anything that my lab mates said! Oh second languages...how quickly you disapear when not used......
In addition, my appointment was for 8am in the Southern quarter of the city, which meant that I had to catch a bus that left at 7:15am in order to arrive on time. I woke up at 6:30am, much much earlier than my normal wake up time. Since I woke up so early, I didn't have time to grab a coffee before catching the bus (I like to say, Ich kann kein Deutsch verstehen weil ich keinen Kaffee trinken habe).
I arrived at the dentist's office very tired and completely incoherent. But this was no problem because my dentist could speak English, which I thankfully can understand even when tired. The staff however speaks only German so I first had to navigate through the complexities of German dental bearocracy (note to others, take your passport with you, Germans aren't happy to accept Student IDs, even when issued from Germany!). Thankfully, the staff was very understanding and made every effort to communicate with pictures and hand gestures. I tired my best to communicate but I could not make a sentence more complicated than 'Es schmerzt' and point to the tooth that needed repairs. The funny thing is that my teeth didn't hurt at all, it was the only thing I could think of to describe my situation. I tried my best to reciprocate on the language front by reading a German children's book on visiting the dentist. Despite my best efforts, I still could not comprehend more than a few words spoken by the people around me.
Eventually I was taken back to visit the dentist, expecting to communicate in American dental lingo. This time, however, the English speaking dentist was unavailable so I ended up with the German brother of the dentist, which meant that all conversations took place in German! We chatted (mostly smiling and nodding on my part) and then the dentist took a look at my teeth. I could tell from his expression that he was not happy. He said something about a filling and mentioned that he would repair it. Then he brought in a peice of paper for me to sign. The paper was entirely in German with numbers and a bill. Not a big deal since I had seen a pre-pay bill before. I sign the paper and pass it back to the dentist. However, just as he pulls the paper away, I noticed that there is a '3' next to the German word for dental fillings. I think...'maybe that's just the line number for the bill (after anaethesia and cleaning). The dentist comes at me with a silver needle (frightening even when you understand what's being spoken) and proceeds to jab me not once, but twice for 20 seconds per jab. He then tilts my chair up and says, something like wait 5 minutes. I wait...falling asleep in my chair and shaking awake when I hear the door open. The dentist flips my chair back so all the blood rushed to my head. Then he pulls out the dreaded drill. The pain killer had kicked in at this point so I didn't feel much. I did notice, however, that the drill seemed to move from tooth to tooth. I kept thinking that my unfeeling nerves were playing tricks on me. However, after drilling for 20 minutes (no joke, I timed it), the dentist pulls out a mirror and has me look at my mouth. My eyes widen when I realize that the dentist had drilled holes in 3 teeth! The dentist then proceeds to look at another tooth and says...blah blah blah zwischen blah blah. I think zwischen= between. Apparently the dentist was trying to tell me that I had a cavity in between two teeth so he asked if he could drill in yet another tooth! That means that I now had four teeth with holes! The dentist (and me!) had not anticipated that the appointment would last as long as it did, so he kept having to leave to visit other patients and then return. While he was gone, I was left to ponder my poor dental hygeine and the weirdly shaped teeth in my mouth. Finally, nearly two hours after I arrived, the dentist finished.
I wandered into the hallway, a little woozy from the early morning, the blood rush to my head, and the copius amounts of local anaethesia. We try to navigate the bill process, only to discover that the dentist did not accept EC cards. As stated earlier, I did not have dental insurance which meant that I had pay for everything in cash. I ran to the ATM, then rushed back to the dental office to pay the bill. The total bill for 4 fillings, local anaethesia, and 2 hours of the dentist's time came to a little more than 300 Euros, which comes out to 75 Euros per filling. That's actually about what I would pay for a filling in US, after insurance picked up their part.
The experience was a bit terrifying, but the dentist did an amazing job with my fillings (I can barely tell where the tooth ends and filling begins) and tried really hard to keep me comfortable, even dabbing my chin when anaethesia caused drooling. I was told my a German friend that dental care in Germany is rumoured to be quite awesome. I can say that my experience provides support for this rumour, even when I couldn't understand that anything the dentist said.
Check another cultural medical experience off the list...lets hope that I don't have to check out the German hospital system.....
Friday, May 15, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
fun with housemates...getting acquainted
I promise that I will get around to posting details of my excursions over the last few months, but I wanted to write down this evening before I forgot the details.
I have been rather depressed the last week since I had this idea that I was a bad scholar because I didn't travel much. Since I have not traveled I have spent a lot of time in the dormitory that I live in. Even though close to 100 people live in this building, I only come into contact with 17 of them on a consistent basis. Over time, I have come to know them by name and by dish they prefer to cook in the kitchen. I hardly ever talked to my housemates because I was too afraid to talk to them auf Deutsch. However, in the last month, along with having German thoughts, I've felt much more comfortable speaking German. The end result is that conversations with my housemates have evolved from "what do you study" and "where do you come from" to more detailed conversations about politics and dreams. (However, I still have to speak in simple sentences as my German grammar stinks).
Tonight, I spent over an hour hanging out on the balconey, drinking beer and eating wurst, talking about life, studies, and German idiosyncrancies. It was just a normal Friday night, but a good time. As my housemate put it, "Du bist heute nicht allein" or "Today, you are not alone." Probably for the first time since I have lived in Germany, I felt like I fit in. To further push that point, one of my housemates invited me to go camping in late May. I think I may do it, even though it means I won't sleep that well over the weekend and I may have to miss the Peter Fox concert in late May. :-(
I have been rather depressed the last week since I had this idea that I was a bad scholar because I didn't travel much. Since I have not traveled I have spent a lot of time in the dormitory that I live in. Even though close to 100 people live in this building, I only come into contact with 17 of them on a consistent basis. Over time, I have come to know them by name and by dish they prefer to cook in the kitchen. I hardly ever talked to my housemates because I was too afraid to talk to them auf Deutsch. However, in the last month, along with having German thoughts, I've felt much more comfortable speaking German. The end result is that conversations with my housemates have evolved from "what do you study" and "where do you come from" to more detailed conversations about politics and dreams. (However, I still have to speak in simple sentences as my German grammar stinks).
Tonight, I spent over an hour hanging out on the balconey, drinking beer and eating wurst, talking about life, studies, and German idiosyncrancies. It was just a normal Friday night, but a good time. As my housemate put it, "Du bist heute nicht allein" or "Today, you are not alone." Probably for the first time since I have lived in Germany, I felt like I fit in. To further push that point, one of my housemates invited me to go camping in late May. I think I may do it, even though it means I won't sleep that well over the weekend and I may have to miss the Peter Fox concert in late May. :-(
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Train hopping to Berlin
On Sunday, I introduced Lala to the joys of German train travel and the Happy Weekend ticket. With the happy weekend ticket up to 5 people can travel to any destination in Germany for only 37 Euros ($45). The catch is that you can only use regional trains. On weekends the regional trains only tend to run about once and hour so you have to plan your travels pretty carefully. Since Lala was on a tight budget, we decided to travel to Berlin using just regional trains, which meant that the normally 4 hour journey would take 7-8 hours. In addition, we planned to make a stop at an important Protestant city along the way (stay tuned for more details).
No fear, we just loaded up our groceries from the the night before into my travel bag and hopped on the first regional train out of Marburg (7:30am...not bad for a lazy bum computational chemist and a jet-lagged American). Because we knew we were train hopping, Lala and I kept everything in our backpacks and didn't carry any big suitcases. Thus we could also run to catch trains if we were running late, which happened several times.
At our first stop, Kassel, we encountered our first hiccup. I had forgotten to print out the schedule, so out of habit, I just assumed that we had to transfer trains at the major Kassel trainstation, Kassel Wilhelmshofe. However, it turns out we were actually supposed to switch trains at Kassel Main train station (which because of the newer station called Wilhelmshofe, is no longer the major train station, weird). But no fear, we had 30 minutes before the next connection so we just hopped another train to the correct station. We even had enough time to grab coffee at a local vendor. We then settled down 5 more hours of train travel, which took us deep into the heart of the former East Germany. The German government has spent a lot of money restoring East German town so it was rather difficult to tell the difference between East and West Germany. Some of the train stops looked a little sketchier than normal Hessen train stops, but that was the only difference we could see. In one train station, we saw 8 heavily armed policemen patrol the station but we never figured out why. Nonetheless, after 5 hours of regional trains, we arrived safely at our Protestant history stop for the trip, Lutherstadt Wittenburg.
For those of you not familiar with Protestant history, Wittenburg is where Martin Luther first posted his 93 theses against the Catholic bishops in town. Being daughters of a Protestant pastor, my sister and I were both pretty stoked to see the town that started our father's (and soon to be my sister's) profession. Lutherstadt is a former eastern German city but the middle (and the oldest) part of town has been completely restored. Its fairly unknown by the tourist crowds so its a great place to visit. I have forgotten all the stuff that we saw, but we spent about 5 hours wandering the streets where Martin Luther once walked. We saw the church door that tradition holds as the place Luther posted his theses.
We also saw the church where Luther married.
We also saw the painting of purgatory marked with the names of students who failed their exams (so claims my lonely planet guidebook).
We also took the time to visit the Haus der Geschichte (or house of history) where a German tour guide took us through apartments set up to look like every decade of DDR life. Even though my English speaking sister and I were the only ones waiting for a tour that day, none of the tour guides spoke English. Instead, a 60 year old DDR resident very skillfully showed us the entire tour, pausing every 2 minutes so I could translate the German into English, which was pretty funny considering my limited German skills. It was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip as we had time to interact with a native German and we learned how much can be expressed through hand signals and smiles. I highly recommend that you visit the museum if you go to Wittenberg! Sorry no pictures cuz they weren't allowed, but you can see the museum here.
Apparently the museum has been used as a set for many German films set in that era.
We saw the seminary founded by Luther's students. Sadly the museum had already closed but we did see a really great name for a beer garden.....My sister, who I consider an expert on this subject, says that Luther was well known for having deep theological conversations while drinking beer.
After a lovely visit to Lutherstadt, we caught our last train of the day.
Forty five minutes later we were already at the stop for our hostel, cutely called Ostel (combination of the German word for east = Ost and hostel). The entire hostel was themed on the former eastern Germany. The rooms were former apartments in real DDR buildings. All the buildings have been renovated so the houses are actually quite nice. The first night in town we were the only ones in a 3 bedroom apartment so we used the time to explore the place. One room had a balconey so I rushed back downstairs to reception and bought two local Berliner beers. Loletuth and I closed the night by talking sisterly things overlooking the playground of the area below....awesome....more to follow later.
No fear, we just loaded up our groceries from the the night before into my travel bag and hopped on the first regional train out of Marburg (7:30am...not bad for a lazy bum computational chemist and a jet-lagged American). Because we knew we were train hopping, Lala and I kept everything in our backpacks and didn't carry any big suitcases. Thus we could also run to catch trains if we were running late, which happened several times.
At our first stop, Kassel, we encountered our first hiccup. I had forgotten to print out the schedule, so out of habit, I just assumed that we had to transfer trains at the major Kassel trainstation, Kassel Wilhelmshofe. However, it turns out we were actually supposed to switch trains at Kassel Main train station (which because of the newer station called Wilhelmshofe, is no longer the major train station, weird). But no fear, we had 30 minutes before the next connection so we just hopped another train to the correct station. We even had enough time to grab coffee at a local vendor. We then settled down 5 more hours of train travel, which took us deep into the heart of the former East Germany. The German government has spent a lot of money restoring East German town so it was rather difficult to tell the difference between East and West Germany. Some of the train stops looked a little sketchier than normal Hessen train stops, but that was the only difference we could see. In one train station, we saw 8 heavily armed policemen patrol the station but we never figured out why. Nonetheless, after 5 hours of regional trains, we arrived safely at our Protestant history stop for the trip, Lutherstadt Wittenburg.
For those of you not familiar with Protestant history, Wittenburg is where Martin Luther first posted his 93 theses against the Catholic bishops in town. Being daughters of a Protestant pastor, my sister and I were both pretty stoked to see the town that started our father's (and soon to be my sister's) profession. Lutherstadt is a former eastern German city but the middle (and the oldest) part of town has been completely restored. Its fairly unknown by the tourist crowds so its a great place to visit. I have forgotten all the stuff that we saw, but we spent about 5 hours wandering the streets where Martin Luther once walked. We saw the church door that tradition holds as the place Luther posted his theses.
We also saw the church where Luther married.
We also saw the painting of purgatory marked with the names of students who failed their exams (so claims my lonely planet guidebook).
We also took the time to visit the Haus der Geschichte (or house of history) where a German tour guide took us through apartments set up to look like every decade of DDR life. Even though my English speaking sister and I were the only ones waiting for a tour that day, none of the tour guides spoke English. Instead, a 60 year old DDR resident very skillfully showed us the entire tour, pausing every 2 minutes so I could translate the German into English, which was pretty funny considering my limited German skills. It was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip as we had time to interact with a native German and we learned how much can be expressed through hand signals and smiles. I highly recommend that you visit the museum if you go to Wittenberg! Sorry no pictures cuz they weren't allowed, but you can see the museum here.
Apparently the museum has been used as a set for many German films set in that era.
We saw the seminary founded by Luther's students. Sadly the museum had already closed but we did see a really great name for a beer garden.....My sister, who I consider an expert on this subject, says that Luther was well known for having deep theological conversations while drinking beer.
After a lovely visit to Lutherstadt, we caught our last train of the day.
Forty five minutes later we were already at the stop for our hostel, cutely called Ostel (combination of the German word for east = Ost and hostel). The entire hostel was themed on the former eastern Germany. The rooms were former apartments in real DDR buildings. All the buildings have been renovated so the houses are actually quite nice. The first night in town we were the only ones in a 3 bedroom apartment so we used the time to explore the place. One room had a balconey so I rushed back downstairs to reception and bought two local Berliner beers. Loletuth and I closed the night by talking sisterly things overlooking the playground of the area below....awesome....more to follow later.
meine Schwester and my sister
I don't feel like yelling at the computer right now and I can't work on my thesis introduction until I hear reviews back from my thesis committee, so I will waste time by writing about my March travels.
After I returned from Switzerland, I worked frantically for two weeks on thesis research. Then, on the 4th of March, I basically stopped working for about 3 weeks to travel. On March 4th, I picked up one of my German sisters from the Marburg train station. Maria came to Marburg to attend a conference on Parkinson's, which worked really well with my schedule. During the day, Maria attended conferences so I could work while at night I got to come home to a not empty room! It was really nice to have someone else around to cook dinner and share deep sisterly stories with. But the sisterly times don't end with Maria. On Friday I headed to Frankfurt airport to pick up my American sister (the one I am actually related to) Loletuth (aka Lala)!
For 36 glorius hours I was thrilled to have my transcontinental 'family' together. While Maria attended the conference on Friday, I introduced Lala to my German research group and took her to the 400+ year old tower overlooking the city of Marburg. Despite Lala's fear of heights, we climbed to the top and saw some pretty cool views of the city. Then we caught the 'short bus' into town to meet Maria and could pick up groceries for dinner. It was really cool to pick out my favorite German foods. We then came back to the dorm and made a lovely smorgeboard of vegetables and vegetarian bratwursts. Somehow, all three of us fit into my little studentendorf room.
On Saturday, Maria left the conference early so I could take her and Lala on a grand tour of Marburg. We visited the castle, saw a German wedding, and enjoyed coffee and cake at my favorite bakery in Marburg. Afterwords, we quickly ran home so Maria could catch the last fast train to her hometown. Loletuth and I then enjoyed a nice dinner of Auflauf and Abelwoi (Hessen speciality) at Cafe Early (best auflauf in town!).
After dinner, Lala and I returned to pack for our train hopping excursion to Berlin....more details to follow...
After I returned from Switzerland, I worked frantically for two weeks on thesis research. Then, on the 4th of March, I basically stopped working for about 3 weeks to travel. On March 4th, I picked up one of my German sisters from the Marburg train station. Maria came to Marburg to attend a conference on Parkinson's, which worked really well with my schedule. During the day, Maria attended conferences so I could work while at night I got to come home to a not empty room! It was really nice to have someone else around to cook dinner and share deep sisterly stories with. But the sisterly times don't end with Maria. On Friday I headed to Frankfurt airport to pick up my American sister (the one I am actually related to) Loletuth (aka Lala)!
For 36 glorius hours I was thrilled to have my transcontinental 'family' together. While Maria attended the conference on Friday, I introduced Lala to my German research group and took her to the 400+ year old tower overlooking the city of Marburg. Despite Lala's fear of heights, we climbed to the top and saw some pretty cool views of the city. Then we caught the 'short bus' into town to meet Maria and could pick up groceries for dinner. It was really cool to pick out my favorite German foods. We then came back to the dorm and made a lovely smorgeboard of vegetables and vegetarian bratwursts. Somehow, all three of us fit into my little studentendorf room.
On Saturday, Maria left the conference early so I could take her and Lala on a grand tour of Marburg. We visited the castle, saw a German wedding, and enjoyed coffee and cake at my favorite bakery in Marburg. Afterwords, we quickly ran home so Maria could catch the last fast train to her hometown. Loletuth and I then enjoyed a nice dinner of Auflauf and Abelwoi (Hessen speciality) at Cafe Early (best auflauf in town!).
After dinner, Lala and I returned to pack for our train hopping excursion to Berlin....more details to follow...
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Ich denke dass ich veruckt bin! (I think that I am crazy)
Eventually I will document the rest of my travels in March (which include planes, trains, and automobiles) but today I just want to document a very interesting thing that has started happening to me.
For some very strange reason, over the last two months, a larger percentage of my thoughts have been German instead of English. This is very strange considering that I still don't know a lot of German vocabulary and my German comprehension means I still don't comprehend a lot of things around me. Part of this transition was intentional, as I forced myself to think of a German phrase every time I thought of an English phrase. For example, I would think 'my head hurts' but I would quickly follow that thought with 'Mein Kopf schmerzt'. Its only natural that as I have surrounded myself with German speakers, that the German phrase comes to my mind more quickly than the English phrase.
I really want to learn how to think in a different langauge. I called a minor victory in church on Easter Sunday when I realized that I understood about 50% of the words that the pastor spoke. Over Christmas, I only understood about 20-30%. However, now that the Deutsche Gedanken process has begun, I find myself trying to stop it from occurring! An example: I asked the group secretary (in German) why the German professors advertised their classes. Typically, my research group would then reply in English, but on that particular day, the secretary decided to reply in German. I listened to the words she spoke and understood everthing she said. Then, I realized she was speaking German, and my comprehension immeadiately disappeared. I couldn't understand anything she said after that, it was like my mind shut off the German portion.
What scares me more is how much I don't think about thinking in German. I guess that's a good thing since I should be thinking in the language of my host country, but it really freaks me out at times. I am still shocked when I clearly understand the questions that my labmates ask me. I am even more shocked (maybe they are too) when I respond auf Deutsch.
However, there is a down side to my Deutsche Gedanken, I struggle even more to find the correct English words. Today I wrote an email (to Americans) where instead of writing 'I am interested in dinner', I wrote 'I am interesting for dinner', which made my potential dinner companions think I was the main course. ;-) Considering that I am writing my PhD thesis in English instead of German, grammar and word mix-ups are a true cause for concern.
Has any one else experienced this problem before?
For some very strange reason, over the last two months, a larger percentage of my thoughts have been German instead of English. This is very strange considering that I still don't know a lot of German vocabulary and my German comprehension means I still don't comprehend a lot of things around me. Part of this transition was intentional, as I forced myself to think of a German phrase every time I thought of an English phrase. For example, I would think 'my head hurts' but I would quickly follow that thought with 'Mein Kopf schmerzt'. Its only natural that as I have surrounded myself with German speakers, that the German phrase comes to my mind more quickly than the English phrase.
I really want to learn how to think in a different langauge. I called a minor victory in church on Easter Sunday when I realized that I understood about 50% of the words that the pastor spoke. Over Christmas, I only understood about 20-30%. However, now that the Deutsche Gedanken process has begun, I find myself trying to stop it from occurring! An example: I asked the group secretary (in German) why the German professors advertised their classes. Typically, my research group would then reply in English, but on that particular day, the secretary decided to reply in German. I listened to the words she spoke and understood everthing she said. Then, I realized she was speaking German, and my comprehension immeadiately disappeared. I couldn't understand anything she said after that, it was like my mind shut off the German portion.
What scares me more is how much I don't think about thinking in German. I guess that's a good thing since I should be thinking in the language of my host country, but it really freaks me out at times. I am still shocked when I clearly understand the questions that my labmates ask me. I am even more shocked (maybe they are too) when I respond auf Deutsch.
However, there is a down side to my Deutsche Gedanken, I struggle even more to find the correct English words. Today I wrote an email (to Americans) where instead of writing 'I am interested in dinner', I wrote 'I am interesting for dinner', which made my potential dinner companions think I was the main course. ;-) Considering that I am writing my PhD thesis in English instead of German, grammar and word mix-ups are a true cause for concern.
Has any one else experienced this problem before?
Monday, April 6, 2009
99 bottles of beer on the wall....
No, there are not 99 bottles of beer on my wall, I don't have enough shelf space for that many. I use the reference because I only have 99 days left before I board a plane to return to the US. Only 99 days until my Fulbright fellowship officially ends and I return to normal US civilian life. My time in Germany has been reduced from 340 days to double digits that are slowly approaching zero.
I approach this date much as I expected I would, with trepidation and excitement. My family anxiously awaits my return and I anxiously await to see my family, but at the same time I don't want the adventure to end. As difficult as this time abroad has been, I have learned something new everyday. Part of me feels at home here but I long to be reunited with my those with whom I will make me home. Germany is not my true home and probably never will be, but I still long to stay. An awkward conundrum I now face: to look forward towards my last days in Germany while also looking forward to my home country. I am nervous about how my home country will accept me and how I will accept it.
I feel very comfortable in my American culture but then I think about my life here and think "this fits too". How to deal with this conundrum? I just keep living each day to the fullest. Nuture the friendships I have made thus far and encourage new ones.
Remember that even after I leave, a friend is just an instant message away.
I approach this date much as I expected I would, with trepidation and excitement. My family anxiously awaits my return and I anxiously await to see my family, but at the same time I don't want the adventure to end. As difficult as this time abroad has been, I have learned something new everyday. Part of me feels at home here but I long to be reunited with my those with whom I will make me home. Germany is not my true home and probably never will be, but I still long to stay. An awkward conundrum I now face: to look forward towards my last days in Germany while also looking forward to my home country. I am nervous about how my home country will accept me and how I will accept it.
I feel very comfortable in my American culture but then I think about my life here and think "this fits too". How to deal with this conundrum? I just keep living each day to the fullest. Nuture the friendships I have made thus far and encourage new ones.
Remember that even after I leave, a friend is just an instant message away.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
US -centric does not equal globe centric
Springtime has sprung in Germany and the students have emerged from hibernation and begun to chat with their neighbors. Last night, a housemate and I engaged in a lovely conversation about American culture. (I am the only American on this floor so I am frequently asked questions about the US). I forget what the exact topic was, but I was trying to say that a policy would have to be implemented throughout the US. However, instead of saying throughout the US, I said, throughout the world.
My housemate heard my Freudian slip and jokingly said "ha, you self-centered Americans, always thinking that the United States is the only nation in the world."
I laughed and said, "Yes, you caught me, but at least I acknowledge that fact."
My friend laughed and said "Yes, there is hope for you yet."
Then we moved on to other topics like quantum theory and health care. (don't ask how we transitioned, just know that we moved off the topic.)
A brief exchange, but in some ways a very important one. Since I've been on this exchange, I've been exposed to a lot of my own prejudices, most importantly my prejudice towards thinking that America is the only country that matters. To be honest, I was suprised that something like the above phrase came out of my mouth. Because I travel so much and have friends all over the world, I consider myself a global citizen before an American citizen. However, my freudian slip revealed that deep down, I really think America should make the decisions for the world.
Its understandable to think this way since this American culture exudes the idea of superiority in everything we watch and read. Take science fiction for example. The most blatant example comes from the original Star Trek series. At the time Star Trek was realized, it was ground breaking for how it included foreign looking (read non-white) people in the show. However, the captain of the ship was an American. Interpretation: Its okay to include the voices of foreigners, but Americans make the final decision.
A counter-argument to this example would be that the show was written by Americans, so of course Americans are in charge. I ask the question, why doesn't anyone question why the Americans are the only leaders. In sci-fi or action movies like Deep Impact or Independence Day, Americans are the ones that make decisions for the entire world yet few people in the US stop to think about why that is so. Granted, if we watched more foreign movies we might see a world not lead by Americans but the fact is that most Americans (and many foreigners even) only watch the American produced movies, so they never see how arrogant our viewpoint really is. We hold deep cultural biases that only Americans should be in power.
One could make the claim that since the US is composed of immigrants from all over the world, it makes sense that America should speak for countries all over the world. A Chinese, Brazilian, German, Ghanian, or Native American makes decisions that aren't just good for their adopted country but good for the world. I have no data to refute that statement, I don't believe that is true. An American is an American who will make decisions that reflect their self-interest. It is possible that an immigrant-American makes decisions that will cause much damage to their former country because that decision will make their lives a lot better in the US.
That is why the above conversation was so interesting. I finally realized that I hold deep biases against non-American leadership. I don't want to live in a universe without American leadership. I feel safe when an American makes the decision to jump to warp 7 or when an American wants to stabilize a worn torn country. At gut level, I still feel indignant when a foreign leader objects to American plans. I am not sure how I would respond to a Chinese-led United Nations or a German led NATO. However, with globalization and the current crisis, it is likely that I may live to see those days. However, if American superiority remains, it will be good to remember that a good idea for America is not necessarily the best idea for the world.
At least I know this fact so there just may be hope for me yet.
My housemate heard my Freudian slip and jokingly said "ha, you self-centered Americans, always thinking that the United States is the only nation in the world."
I laughed and said, "Yes, you caught me, but at least I acknowledge that fact."
My friend laughed and said "Yes, there is hope for you yet."
Then we moved on to other topics like quantum theory and health care. (don't ask how we transitioned, just know that we moved off the topic.)
A brief exchange, but in some ways a very important one. Since I've been on this exchange, I've been exposed to a lot of my own prejudices, most importantly my prejudice towards thinking that America is the only country that matters. To be honest, I was suprised that something like the above phrase came out of my mouth. Because I travel so much and have friends all over the world, I consider myself a global citizen before an American citizen. However, my freudian slip revealed that deep down, I really think America should make the decisions for the world.
Its understandable to think this way since this American culture exudes the idea of superiority in everything we watch and read. Take science fiction for example. The most blatant example comes from the original Star Trek series. At the time Star Trek was realized, it was ground breaking for how it included foreign looking (read non-white) people in the show. However, the captain of the ship was an American. Interpretation: Its okay to include the voices of foreigners, but Americans make the final decision.
A counter-argument to this example would be that the show was written by Americans, so of course Americans are in charge. I ask the question, why doesn't anyone question why the Americans are the only leaders. In sci-fi or action movies like Deep Impact or Independence Day, Americans are the ones that make decisions for the entire world yet few people in the US stop to think about why that is so. Granted, if we watched more foreign movies we might see a world not lead by Americans but the fact is that most Americans (and many foreigners even) only watch the American produced movies, so they never see how arrogant our viewpoint really is. We hold deep cultural biases that only Americans should be in power.
One could make the claim that since the US is composed of immigrants from all over the world, it makes sense that America should speak for countries all over the world. A Chinese, Brazilian, German, Ghanian, or Native American makes decisions that aren't just good for their adopted country but good for the world. I have no data to refute that statement, I don't believe that is true. An American is an American who will make decisions that reflect their self-interest. It is possible that an immigrant-American makes decisions that will cause much damage to their former country because that decision will make their lives a lot better in the US.
That is why the above conversation was so interesting. I finally realized that I hold deep biases against non-American leadership. I don't want to live in a universe without American leadership. I feel safe when an American makes the decision to jump to warp 7 or when an American wants to stabilize a worn torn country. At gut level, I still feel indignant when a foreign leader objects to American plans. I am not sure how I would respond to a Chinese-led United Nations or a German led NATO. However, with globalization and the current crisis, it is likely that I may live to see those days. However, if American superiority remains, it will be good to remember that a good idea for America is not necessarily the best idea for the world.
At least I know this fact so there just may be hope for me yet.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
