Well, we've now been in the US for 4 years, give or take a couple of days. My fellowship has just had its "terminal renewal" (sounds painful) and, in just over 51 weeks, we'll no longer be welcome in the US as J1 academic exchange visitors. So, our US adventure will most likely be coming to an end in the not-too-distant future. It's hard not to be a little pensive at this point.
So, what have we learned? Before we came to the US, to an outsider it looked as though the politics here were absolutely insane. We assumed that spending some time in the US would allow us to see the subtle nuance but it turns out that the political system here is actually as bat-shit crazy at it appears from the outside. The even weirder thing is that most USians would tend to agree with this, but the system doesn't change. Politicians are allowed to lie here, quite brazenly, even during election campaigns (this is illegal back in the UK). The rise of Donald Trump reinforces my impression that the message doesn't matter so much in this country, as long as you shout it very loudly over the top of your opponents. Some people misinterpret the first amendment - freedom of speech means that you can say any bullshit you want, but this doesn't mean that anyone has to listen to it. In the words of Randall Monroe:
What else? One thing that I've meant to write about but not had time (babies and all) is that, from what I've seen, USians appear to have a much healthier relationship with alcohol than we do back home. I'm not talking about the weird puritan laws that mean I can't buy whisky or beer from the supermarket (this varies by state), but observing people drinking in bars. Closing time in the UK means that, on a Friday or Saturday night, most city centres resemble a war zone as drunken hordes take to the street to do battle either with each other, or with a doner kebab.
But chucking-out time in the US isn't like this at all - USians still get drunk but they act mostly the same as normal, perhaps a bit more loudly. Maybe this is because Brits are generally very repressed and alcohol opens the floodgates of emotion, so it all comes gushing out. Whereas USians seem, on average, less inhibited overall so there's no release of emotion when they're drunk..? Who knows, this is anecdotal. However, I've seen USians try to hook up sober, which has never happened in my life. The UK population would plummet in a couple of generations without alcohol to lubricate those initial social interactions! It seems less socially acceptable to act drunk in the US, and my experience suggests that they don't quite attack alcohol with the same joie de vivre. This has made finding drinking buddies somewhat challenging. One thing that continuously shocks me is watching people get hideously drunk and then drive home from the pub - drink driving is totally unacceptable in the UK but, at least around the DC area, seems to be fairly commonplace.
Having, at most, 1 year left means that we don't have much time left to see lots of the US. I wanted to take in some of the natural wonders (Yellowstone Park, Grand Canyon, etc) but with the lack of free time and crippling cost of child care, it's unlikely that we'll get much of that done. I think this will be a regret, as we haven't ventured too far from DC. I think, tragically, that the only other cities I've seen have been New York, Chicago and New Orleans. So, I think the (achievable) aims that we have left should be:
- Go out for pancakes for breakfast. I find sweet food in the morning abhorrent, but we should do this once, just for the experience.
- See the deep south / go on a road trip. Kentucky is only 5 or 6 hours drive away, and I think this is entry level "south". Must remember not to be irreverent about religion or patriotism.
- Go to Texas and eat a steak the size of my head.
- See the world's largest urban bat colony in Austin, Texas. This could be combined with eating a steak.
- Fire an automatic weapon. US relationships with firearms are ridiculous, but when in Rome... firing a machine gun, whilst encouraging this silliness, would also make 8 year old me very happy. But principles (and my wife) may preclude this one from being carried out.
- Get to know US wines better. I meant to do this, but I got too distracted by the delicious South American Malbecs...
- Watch a game of American Football live. I tried baseball, but it was shite. American Football looks like it has potential as it's just rugby league with forward passing. However, I can't encourage the Washington Racist Skins so would need to go further afield to find an NFL game.
There are probably other things that we should add to this list, but I can't think of them right now...
P.S. Sorry for typos, but my laptop battery is about to die so no time for proofreading.
