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| Trough of Bowland |
Now that I have been here for a week I have become rather close with my housemates, all 11 of them. My housemates and their close friends are the people I have traveled with, and are the people I have chosen to be the source of information for this blog post. Last weekend 4 of my housemates and I decided to take a drive through the Trough of Bowland, which is a park in the Lake District just North of Lancaster University. We had a lovely time seeing the sights and exporing the land. It was probably the nicest day in Lancaster so far. The sun actually came out if you can believe it. On this 5 hour excursion and very close car ride I learned a lot about how they viewed Americans.
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| Group post adventure |
So just so you understand my sample in this report, I talked to 2 natives of Northern England, 1 peer from Scotland, and another from India. To my surprise when I asked what they thought of Americans, they simply didn't think much of them at all. They all thought America was a nice place (not as nice as the UK though) and the people are pleasant. Now they still thought America has its crazies, such as Donald Trump, however they do not think the entire country is backwards.
My housemates from the UK based what they know about Americans on Americans they have met
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| Me and Viraj at Trough of Bowland |
and their own visits to The States. They certainly watch a lot of American films, so I believe that must be a heavy influence. My housemate Viraj grew up watching exclusively American television growing up, so much of what he thinks about America comes from watching the Disney Channel or Cartoon Network. They still had a lot of questions about The States, especially surrounding what our school system was like. They have asked me countless questions about our classes, education structure, and social groups.
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| Lars, me, and the group went for brunch the next day |
Do they see me as an American? Oh yes! The first thing they said when I said I was from Kentucky was "Oh! Do you eat a lot of fried chicken?!". That has turned into my nickname of "Chicken Fried". Luckily, I have a good sense of humor and I'm rollin' with it haha. The fact that I am from the south, eat copious amount of Mexican food (which is NOT a thing here), and talk about my sorority constantly, makes me a rather stereotypical American. Also, since I have a rather extroverted personality, I probably seem like your average loud American. Oh well :)
Overall, they see me as a typical American, and I'm pretty proud of that. I like where I come from, and while traveling is great I still miss my home very much. This also proved my initial belief that Americans are infatuated with the idea that everyone hates us. America is like the insecure teenager of the world - "OMG everyone hates me!". I think we are doing just fine, and I am happy to hear that my fiends seem to think nice things about America. I was happy I could talk to my housemates about such issues and that they were open and understanding. All in all, it was a good talk and I got to learn about how my housemates have been brought up and what cultures they have been exposed to. In other news, I am off to spend the weekend touring Belgium!
Over and out ----Ellie Najewicz
I really liked your blog post. I'm attending an International University, but a majority of the people I am interacting with on a daily basis that are my age are also from the United States or at least attend college in the United States, so it was interesting to hear about you interacting with international students who are close in age to you. My host mother actually asked me a few questions about how Americans view France, and I asked her the same about the way French people view Americans. She said that a lot of French people are curious about Donald Trump, although I have to admit I don't know much about him or politics in general.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your blog post. I'm attending an International University, but a majority of the people I am interacting with on a daily basis that are my age are also from the United States or at least attend college in the United States, so it was interesting to hear about you interacting with international students who are close in age to you. My host mother actually asked me a few questions about how Americans view France, and I asked her the same about the way French people view Americans. She said that a lot of French people are curious about Donald Trump, although I have to admit I don't know much about him or politics in general.
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