America

When I attended the American Studies Association Conference in San Antonio this fall, the cover of the conference information book was a snide cartoon about American attitudes towards foreigners. It mocked authority, raising up instead the plight of the lowly. I think, if I had to describe American Studies, I would say it's learning to think critically about American Institutions and Americanness. This includes history and literature and politics. It also includes a lot of liberal minded academics making sarcastic comments about the problems in America.

Despite the reputation Americans have for blindly thinking that they're the best, I've rarely met people who are that way. I've encountered ignorance about other countries and ignorant assumptions. My cousin's husband, upon hearing that I was going to Poland, made a particularly uninformed comment about "those communist countries" that isn't really worth repeating because it makes my blood boil. Many people that I know have a tendency to underappreciate the big because they're too busy protecting the little from the tyranny of the majority.


I'm embarrassed now to admit that I was among the camp that thought snidely of America. I mocked it.


Until I went abroad. While in Poland last summer, America was the solution to everything. In America, I didn't have to worry about being quiet on buses because pick pockets target foreigners. In America, I didn't have to put my change in a dish on the counter while paying at stores because in America, we hand each other our change. In America, the internet was reliable, wireless, and available as soon as I arrived to school - not days later. In America, I could buy diet coke that tasted like diet coke and shop owners could break 100 zolty bills (approx. $30). But, in America, the ATM would never doll out money that couldn't be used because of its size. In America, there was air conditioning. I never really pushed myself past the distrust of Poland back to reality. There was no reason. By the time the wonder of a foreign country died down, I was only a couple weeks from arrival in Chicago (where by the time I picked up my luggage, five very friendly airport workers made me remember how welcoming a service-driven economy could be).