Another world

I've been having more trouble than I ever thought I would coming back to America. I've recently counted and of the past 10 years, I've lived 8 as the "American Abroad" or overseas. That means since I was 16, I've not been home really. But where is home anymore. Right now it's in a neighborhood called Fishtown. 6 Months ago, it was a shack on the Indian Ocean. For the first time in my life, I know I will be in America for the next 3 years and I'll admit I'm scared. I'm excited but scared. What happened earlier today was a perfect example.

I've had a visit from a friend from Swaziland. She was a PCV over there that I met in Pretoria in 2006. We decided to go find my school where I have to report to tomorrow... at 7:45. Thanks Noel for taking the bike lock keys! :) I dutifully googled directions and we set off. We entered another world. It might as well have been Puerto Rico. I didn't see any American Flags even though it was National Hang Over day - ie the day after any major holiday. We were the only white native English Speakers around but that didn't bother us. Until I realized what was on my shirt that is. I was wearing a shirt that said "Gay? - Fine by me!" I realized it wouldn't go over particularly well in the very religious neighborhood. We didn't have any problems though, until there were two guys coming the opposite way who read the shirt. They kept going but turned back on us. We still didn't really freak.

We finally found the school (1.5 miles away according to the almighty Google) and noted a better way for me to get there. The school is in a totally different world but I realized that the inhabitants of the neighborhood right around the school live life on the front porches and listen to music en vivo. Things I've missed and I'm looking forward to having in my life again.

That is a reason I feel I like the West and America. We've got choice, we've got people and oh man do we have a mixture of cultures!

Philadelphia

I think I chose a wonderful place to come back to in America - as I hear the drunken shouting from the bar across the road. :) But, seriously Philadelphia is perfect. It is the smallest big city I've ever lived in. I've still got a chance at some culture though. I'm going out tomorrow night to the Symphony Orchestra. I got a free ticket from seeing their last performance! They perform in churches so the acoustics are amazing. Saturday Night I'll walk over to the Walking Fish for some comedy. I'll report back on Sunday with how it all went.

It's a Small World!

I'm a firm believer in Six Degrees of Separation. I always have and that's part of the appeal of UUism to me. This interconnected web of all existence is proving itself to me more with every year that passes. There is Ubuntu from Africa which can be seen as the basis of it all.

My first "believe it or not story" takes us back to 1996. My brother was showing my father and I how to use the internet. We went into a chat room and he showed us what IMing was. Remember, this is 1996. So he asked if anybody wanted to chat with us. This girl named Starseed9 said yes. So we did. She was Lisa, from Greenwich and we told her that we were Ian and Noel from Norwalk. She connected the dots a hell of a lot faster than we did. Lisa turned out to be our second cousin from Greenwich - who we didn't really keep well in contact with.

Second Story:

I joined a listserve for the Youth Group of my church. It was something impulsive, but I've met a lot of new people through it. One night, I came home from work and there was an email from this girl named Lucy. She was introducing herself. It turns out she was a PCV in Walvis Bay Namibia who just got home in December. We started chatting, connecting the dots and shop talking. Suddenly, I knew people she knew, we both had been to our respective villages when the other wasn't there etc. The thing that blew me away though. She apparently met me on the beach in Mozambique in 2007. I, on the otherhand, could not remember the meeting.

G'night!

Culture of...

As I sit here experiencing the strongest I miss Africa moment I have since coming back, I can't help thinking about the culture of America. I've been to many places where the locals will tell me that my home country doesn't have any culture.

According to the ever entertaining Wikipedia, culture as it is popularly understood is broken into three phases.

• excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities
• an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning
• the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.

I tended to agree with my friends. I mean where do wonderfully majestic buildings exist in America? No place kind of like London. Where are there wonderfully small roads with a surprise around every corner in the form of little shops or restaurants? Melbourne and the bar quarters of most European cities have this. Yet, moving back to America I just have to disagree now. (Sorry L!) The answer to the first question is most definitely Washington DC. Not allowing any other building to be bigger than the US Capitol Building has lead to a sense of majesty that I have to say is unique to DC. Philadelphia has to be the most European of American cities I've ever been to. I just hope the Italians of South Philly don't read this! There is a whole neighborhood called Society Hill here that looks like it was transplanted straight from England. I'm also extremely impressed by this city because it is the smallest big city that I've seen. It has a million and a half people yet seems so much better.

The funniest thing for me is "relearning" America. The dialects and sayings are so funny and vast. The newest one I'm trying to decipher is as follows.

I say "How are you?" to someone.
He or She responds "Sucker free or trying to stay sucker free."

Anyone have any idea what that means?

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Carpark...

So, I've been working parking cars at a hotel in University City in Philly. That's partly the reason why I haven't been completely coherent in the past couple of weeks. It's also the reason I haven't responded to many emails recently either. But I am fighting through my desires to take an afternoon nap and studying. I'm also trying to make sure I get some of my emails answered. Sorry everybody!!!

Anyway, I have a funny story of what has happened a few days ago. It's all been rather odd having a job at the front door of a hotel. It's in the middle of the University of Pennsylvania. I say it's funny because all the valets are these random guys (really butch) who comment on every female "bundas" that walks by. They also were almost in tears when the local team's announcer died last week. On the other side of the door, there are some obviously gay bellmen but no overt flag waving. In other words, I'm in the wrong department. It's actually really funny though. My uncle once told me that I should "know my enemies" so I can know my own beliefs better. I'm knowing my enemies for sure as I park the rich people's cars.

The other day, a congressman showed up at the hotel. One of his staffers came up to me earlier in the day asking if the driver could just park in our circle while the congressman was inside. It was fine by me as long as the driver stayed in the car. It is a fire lane after all! So I went up to the driver to ask him to move to the other side of the circle so I could park some cars on the side he was diagonally parked in. He told me that he had to stay where he was "so the congressman is not delayed when he comes out." The driver was this small little white boy that obviously was petrified to anger the congressman and it was probably his first job. I tried to reason with him, but gave up because I quickly saw I was not going anywhere. One of the bellmen came out who happened to be black. He went to the driver, said the exact same thing that I tried to say and the guy moved!!!! I laughed soooooooooooooooooooooo hard. The man probably never had a black person in such close conversation with him.

It was just funny to me that color matters so much still.

Snow Day

The East Coast of the United States is blanketed in white. We got about 5 inches of snow here in Philly. It's still coming down. I was supposed to go to a company today at 9:30 AM for an interview. It was canceled. They only called me at 8:00 as I was headed to the train. No one is out. It's kind of eerie. I don't remember businesses closing like this. The dow is below 7000. It's going to get down to 14 F today. Is the world ending?

I think I'm going to go out and take some pictures. Keep an eye out.