When informed I was leaving England, someone asked me when I was coming back to Blighty, a.k.a. England.
Place of the day: Union Theatre, Southwark
This hidden theatre on the route from Southwark tube station to the Bankside is maybe one of the coolest London finds yet. My roommate and I sat in the intimate crowd for a four-player production of a dramatic London play that made us both squeamish (awkward sexual content, such as a naked at the end!) and intellectually entertained. The play Senti-Mental as well as the venue was a completely worthwhile and memorable London experience.
I'll Pass on Your Statistics
In one of my first blog posts I felt so enlightened as I told you about how few Americans hold passports (24%), but I am so sick of this statistic after hearing it from pretty much every European. And when they bring it up, they often reduce the number to 18% or even 10%. I now hear it from pretty much every non-American I meet and it is starting to get kind of comical. I mean, I seriously laughed out loud the last time someone said it to me.
I almost find my response painfully obvious. But because I too was duped by this statistic, let me just explain. Well, first I'll start by mentioning that I do think international travel is an immensely important experience, and almost every country should do a better job of fostering this in our cultures.
But why is that statistic comical, particularly when a British person says it? First of all, Ireland is about the distance from where I live in the U.S. to Chicago. And yet none of the British seem to have ever been there. Also, Paris is a two-hour train ride away and it requires a passport. That's like going to Cleveland for me, and that, my friend, does not require a passport.
So (as many smart British people have also already deduced, to give them some credit), America is a really big place so of course a lot of people don't have passports. You don't have to leave the country to see the desert, the ocean, the mountains, the prairies, the snow, the tropics, California, New York, Alaska, Hawaii, etcetera ... And, by the way, passports only recently became a requirement to travel to our neighboring countries of Canada and Mexico. If traveling to France didn't require a passport, I'd love to know how many British people would have them.
Yes, at first I was appalled (but not shocked) at the number of Americans who don't have passports, but, seriously, it's not as ludicrous as I hear it portrayed at times. After spending a lot of time here, I find it to not exactly be some sort of enlightened island of people traveling all over the world all of the time. In fact, England seems to be somewhat lagging as far as integrating with other cultures. (Diversity and travel does not equal integration.) And so, while, yes, there are many ignorant Americans out there, I come across it at an alarming rate in ol' Blighty as well.
I am now watching: Just to balance things out, let's take a punch at the old American broadcast news. You really must watch this documentary exposing the horrors of broadcast network Fox News. I hate even writing "news" as part of its title, because "Fox Propaganda" would be more appropriate. The fact that a news organization run by a political party actually exists in America makes my journalism blood boil!
2 comments:
Very good points! It's more expensive for Americans to travel as well with the weak dollar. We also don't get as much time off from work. And as you mentioned, I think it comes down to proximity. America is huge, and the oceans between it and other countries is as well.
-Matt
Wow great thoughts! I didn't even consider the holiday time and cost, which are HUGE factors. And yes, when the whole of Europe is at your fingertips, it's much easier to travel to other countries.
Actually let me add that in my experience thus far, people in other countries in Europe are about as culturally different from one another as people in other states are in America. I mean, I would be a fish out of water in several regions of the states.
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