America: The people

christmas lights + winter brights

december in columbia

Boston bound!

Boston couldn’t have come at a better time, just a week after my second lot of exams and assignments and right before we started final projects I had got to that stage where I was sick of Columbia, sick of Mizzou and ready to get away for a while.

Boston is great, it really is. I remember first hearing about the city from Dan, a restaurant manager who worked in the same hotel as me a couple of years ago – he’d spent a few years working in restaurants over there and was in love with the city, when he found out I was going to New York for Christmas he pleaded that I spend a couple of days in Boston, but the bright lights of New York City captivated me and Boston became a lonely memory. A year later when I first started looking into study abroad I actually thought about applying for Boston University, who had an exchange partnership with AUT at the time, sadly though by the time I was applying for the Fall 2010 semester AUT and Boston University had parted ways.

This brings me to about 2 months ago when I decided I needed to do something with my life other than study (believe me, Mizzou is great, and I’m loving being in the convergence sequence, but I’m an exchange student for crying out loud. I need to travel.). I had originally thought of going south, to Nashville or Memphis or maybe across to Washington D.C so I could reenact my Forrest Gump fantasies – but then that little light bulb flickered and a thought came to me – Boston. I had nearly been there twice already, I might as well just do it.

To make this great idea even better, my good friend Keaney who studied in New Zealand for the 09-10 school year was FROM Boston. So not only was I going to a great city, I was also getting to spend my time with an awesome friend who actually knows her way around. Epic bonus. To top it all off, I found out another one of my friends Nam was flying over from Seattle that same weekend. That was it. My life was complete.

Initially, Boston kind of seemed like some crazy love child of Jersey Shore and The Sopranos – interesting combination I know, but I encountered people from both ends of that spectrum. Sometimes I felt like I was right in the middle of a real-life stereotype. It’s a cool little city though, it’s one of those places that feels really small, but is actually pretty big. The first thing I did with Keaney and Nam when I got off the plane was to go get food at this place called Grumpys, it’s famous for their steak and cheese melts among other things. Grumpys was the epitome of American food, and it reminded me why I’ve gained weight over here, but it was completely worth it. After we got back to Keaneys place we set Nam to work in the kitchen (just like the old days) and she made us her awesome m&m cookies!

Saturday was what I like to call my “tourist-sesh”. I’ve traveled a lot in the past, but I don’t really like being a tourist (I know, this is somewhat of an irony) so I usually devote a day or two of my trip (depending on the stay) to being outwardly geeky and touristy. Saturday was my day. A bunch of us took the train into Boston where we perused Quincy market (good looking food that is super pricey), the shops (money was spent, I don’t like to talk about it) and finally… THE FREEDOM TRAIL.

The Freedom Trail was around three hours long and mainly revolved around Paul Revere and the revolution. Naturally, I didn’t grow up learning about American history so I wasn’t always aware of who they were actually talking about, but they had a section on the Salem witch trials which I loved and the tour guide was a character so I really enjoyed myself.

Geek-fest over, it was time to get down – going out in Boston was heaps of fun, socializing in NZ is a lot different to the US (especially Columbia) and I think Boston was my happy medium between the two extremes – you can dance a bit and do the whole sitting down and socializing thing (extreme plus: bars in Boston close at 2am instead of 1. Hurrah!). I haven’t really gone out a lot while I’ve been studying purely because of my schedule, so it was nice to go out, let loose, have some fun, and come home to awesome after-town food and The Kardashians on demand.

Sunday, my final day in Boston was lazy, which was just what I wanted. Keaney took me to get the best Black and White frappes in the world (they were in fact very good) and we all just kind of mooched about. I think so far, Boston is probably one of my favorite cities – it’s generally pretty friendly, the food is good and architecturally I love it… hopefully the stars will align and I’ll find myself back there again.

But for now I’m looking forward to thanksgiving in Dallas with Drew’s family and Florida in less than a month with my friend Rania… can’t wait!

language barrier

Incident at Subway today:

So, I go up to the counter to pay for my order.

Girl: What did you order?

Me: 6 inch Meatball sub

Girl: Sorry, pardon?

Me: 6 inch Meatball

Girl: 6 inch... what?

Me: Meatball

Girl: BIG BALLS?!

Me: MEATBALL!! MEAT!

Girl: Oooooooh meatball... *giggle*

Me: .........................

Oh the joys of having an accent.

Debate

This is my final column for Debate for this semester, I will try very very hard to keep up with this from here on in - but we'll see. Like I have said many times, American work ethic is crazy, no wonder they go shit crazy when they study in New Zealand.

Being my final column for the year, I feel like I should say something meaningful about my time studying abroad, but to be honest – I have nothing. While you all may be wrapping up your school year and hurtling toward that little light at the end of the tunnel we all know as summer, I am only 7 weeks in to my semester and there are so many things I am yet to experience and discover about this country whose culture is as vast as it’s geography. Though, the longer I am here – the more certain aspects of American life become more apparent.

For one, this ain’t no fashion show. People here just don’t care, in fact, if need be 95% of the student population would have the potential to spontaneously work out if they ever felt the need. Honestly though, I’ve seen it all here, from your run of the mill running shorts through to polar fleece penguin pyjama pants – fashion is not considered to be an important part of school here, and you know what? I really enjoy it, it’s a liberating feeling knowing that people aren’t actively judging you based on whether your hair is in a top knot.

At first, this lack of fashion sense perplexed me, but now I understand. It’s not that they don’t care, it’s just that they are literally running around 24/7 and sneakers and running shorts are just more practical than Docs. College here is not just a facet of a person’s life, it’s a lifestyle in itself – these people have weekdays full of class, group meetings, club meetings, intramural sports then they have weekends of football and tailgating (which as you know from my last column is an experience in itself). Students here live and breathe college life, especially where I am in the School of Journalism.

Needless to say, I came in to this adventure with some very solid ideas of what I thought I was getting myself into, of course all of those expectations have been blown to oblivion. America has surprised me, I definitely didn’t expect American’s to be so welcoming and to be frank, I didn’t expect them to be so normal. Yes, you get your crazies – like the homeless guy downtown who plays the Didgeridoo, the old musician in Beverly Hills who tried to follow me back to my apartment, or the children in Dallas on the street corner who told me I was going to hell for my sins – but every place has its crazies, and in all honesty it makes our world a more interesting place to be.

I’m sad I can’t share the rest of my journey with you – my first real Halloween, or learning how to shoot a gun over Thanksgiving, or the first day of snow (ETA approximately 4 weeks – furry hat and boots have been purchased). But I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about just a few of my experiences. Studying abroad has certainly been hard at times, but I don’t regret one moment of it.

So for now, I’ll leave you trying to do what I said I would in my first column. I’m going with the flow, rolling with the punches and taking every day as it comes.

wait... you mean american's are actually friendly?

I can’t believe this is about to come out of my mouth – believe you me I was surprised when the thought first popped into my head too… but I can’t believe how gosh darn friendly Americans are! I’m sure it’s one of those things that change throughout the regions – maybe if I went further south I’d meet up with those toothpick-chewin’, gun-slingin’ white-extremist folk we associate with the USA. But in my part of Missouri at least, it’s all about good old-fashioned hospitality and charm.

I’ve done my fair share of travelling, most of it by myself. When I lived in the UK I learnt quickly not to try and converse with strangers on public transport unless I wanted to be raped and/or mugged – here however it seems to be the norm. A couple of weeks ago I flew to Milwaukee to meet up with some friends, not only did the air hostess serenade us as we took off (a Tina Turner classic “Proud Mary”. True story) but I got chatting to the couple next to me, who in their heyday had visited New Zealand. The husband coincidentally was Mizzou alumni – so I left my flight with a list of places to visit and things to do in Columbia while I’m at school.

I think there are a couple of reasons for this attitude towards strangers. For the most part, I think it’s just the way people are raised here. Men open doors, pay for dinner, people say sir and ma’am (I’ve even found that slipping into my own vocabulary) sometimes while I’m out I really do feel like I’ve gone back in time to a place where people are considerate – and judging by some of the fashion I’ve seen, maybe I have.

A lot of it I’m sure may be to do with confidence. American’s have this aura that practically screams “I AM AMERICAN! I AM NOT ASHAMED!”… They know what they like and want, they strive to be the best and they’re not reluctant to be proud of each other and themselves. Most people call is arrogance; I chose to call it self-belief.

Though a lot of these niceties – especially within the service industry have nothing to do with grace, good breeding or pride. They’re just people out to suck every penny they can out of you. American’s are huge on tipping – it’s one of those cultural things I’ve had to become aware of really quickly – it’s incredibly rude not to tip a server, even if they’re obnoxious or bad at their job – there is always that expectation of at least a 15% tip with your meal. However, what results from this unwritten law is overly attentive, smiley, bright-eyed, sometimes annoying, money sucking individuals.

For now though I’m going to ignore the small majority of annoyingly nice people and enjoy the conversations that come about when strangers have the confidence to talk to each other. Not only does it make the lonely parts of my journey so much more enjoyable, I’m learning way more about this country than I ever could from Lonely Planet.

Control

“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it” – John Steinbeck

That John Steinbeck is a smart guy, in less than 20 words he has managed to perfectly explain the last month of my life.

Let me digress for a moment; I need to tell you what I should be doing whilst I write this column: I should be sipping on a Margarita looking out on to Venice Beach. I should be buying tacky souvenirs and celeb stalking. I should be turning a lovely golden shade of brown. I should be able to wear a swimsuit without catching pneumonia. I should be (window) shopping on Rodeo Drive. However, I am not.

Why?

Because I thought I could control my journey.

This semester, I am farewelling our clean, green shores and heading off to the United States for a semester abroad at the University of Missouri’s school of Journalism. I like to think that generally, I’m a pretty laidback person. This process has proved otherwise. As it turns out, when I travel I have the most ridiculous tendency to want to control everything down to the finest detail.

Want an example? Frances was so convinced of her own skills of persuasion that she thought she’d be able to change rules enforced by the United States Government. Because I like planning so much, I decided to get my tickets early against the advice of travel agents who suggested I get my visa first. However the temptation of sparkly sales proved to be too much. My normally expensive return tickets to LA were cheap and cheerful so I thought what the heck, not much can stop me, right?

Wrong.

Turns out the American Government have every right to stop me. The Visa I needed had restrictions on when you could enter and leave the country. To be precise, my visa stipulated that I mustn’t enter the USA any more than 30 days before my programme started and the tickets I had booked (during said sales) had me arriving 36 days before my programme started.

However, in my little fantasy world I didn’t think that would be a problem. I mean, I knew I was arriving a little early but it was less than a week… I was sure if I just talked to them, they’d be reasonable, right?

Wrong.

Believe you me, I tried to talk to them. I tried to reason. I battered my eyelashes, flashed a cheeky grin, flipped my hair and did everything I could to epitomise grace, charm and wit.

They weren’t having any of it.

Seven days and $975 in additional fees later, I am sitting in gate 16 at Auckland Airport, ready as I can be for my flight to LA… or as ready as I want to be anyway.

I always knew this experience would be life changing, I was aware that by making this move I would be testing everything I think I know about the world from the 21 short years I have existed on this planet. I guess I just didn’t realise I’d be learning things before I even boarded my plane.

So, for now – I’m letting go. I’m rolling with it, taking things as they come and hoping and praying I can keep my feet on the ground.