Predeparture: Townsville, Australia (MS)

Cities: Wichita, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa

  The cities shown on the map above do not match where I am from.  All of the cities are near or in Oklahoma, but I am from Pennsylvania.  However, the colors of the cities do match the color of northwestern Pennsylvania (home).

Karl Ove Knausgaard reacts to America by making many criticisms without visiting the majority of the country.  He thought he would be able to make interpretations of the country without an attempt at embracing it.  A place cannot be judged without interaction (ex. talking to Americans).  I thought this was a rather immature stance to take on visiting a new place.  In addition, his writing informed me very little of anything beyond the mundane hardships of traveling.

Trevor Noah took a more comical approach to embracing countries.  I am unsure how much he truly knows about his destinations because he mainly focuses on stereotypes.  He does point out that Americans also have stereotypes that are not necessarily true.  I found his comments to be humorous, but I can see how they would be borderline offensive.