USA 101

J-21 

 

the way to greet people is a hug and a kiss. but you're gonna be in new york. new york is different. so i don't know just go with the flow.

people are gonna give you alternatives, what do you want to eat, what do you feel like, would you rather have this or that. land of choices baby.

people are gonna ask you how you feel. they're always talking about their feelings, and what they're going through,
and at length.

be prepared to see people waste: food, water, electricity, gas. they did not go through the World Wars the way Europe did. always remember that the usa's middle name is land of plenty, and they're proud of it.

pride. fundamental value. proud to be an american. proud to serve america. at times they seriously could use some perspective.

guys will open or hold the door for you.

adresses: here's how it goes, each street often has a west side and an east side. very important to remember. sometimes north or south. the same street number exists twice, once on each side. in 72 W 12th St, the W is important :)

hypocrisy is a pretty big thing around here.

girls will often slam the door in your face.

if a security person of some sort, or a cop or something tells you "can i help you miss?" it really means, "you're not allowed to be here get the heck away".

in a lot of cases, the motto will be BIG is BEAUTIFUL. big car, big house, big rock on your finger. plus big portions, big fat junk food, which is how you end up with big people too.

land of contrast and extremes. you could possibly see anything and its opposite.

appearances are everything. who cares about what's on the inside ?

it's okay to date several people at the same time as long as exclusivity hasn't been discussed and the being boyfriend/girlfriend conversation hasn't occurred.

 

new york special--

crossing a street without lights: be sure to move your butt quickly if a cab comes your way, coz he sure ain't gonna slow
down for you.

subway: you're either going uptown or downtown, don't pick the wrong direction :p check which trains are express and which are local, running during the week or the week-ends or late nites. ps:sometimes the uptown trains will run on the downtown track and vice versa :)

no scrunchies allowed!

the class struggle is alive my friend. in new york, you're either a person that gets stuff delivered or the person who delivers the stuff. now do we live in a caste system ?

new york is different from anywhere else i've been. in the best way.

 

to be edited (possibly)-- 

 

EDIT--

often (not always), tax is not included on the price shown on the tag, because taxes vary from state to state. so don't be surprised if you're asked more money than what was displayed.
eg: $10 becomes $10.84.
this is also true for restaurants. don't get fooled by the possibly low prices on the menu, always remember you need to add the tax and the tip at the end. --tips:15-20%--

The Simple Life.

"wait til you go to virginia"

 

so the idea of going to a mennonite family living practically in west virginia is kinda scary. scary as in even emails won't go there (seriously). they do have cell phone reception though. [update: my source tells me that some areas do not have cell service, i repeat they do not have cell service.]

anyway i did manage to get there. four hours of bus next to a fat lady eating chips. rocky on tv (don't ask me which one, but i'll tell you this. it's the one with milo v. in it). and this pretty strong cinnamon smell the whole time.
 

let's start with the nightlife. you have basically two places you can go to: go to the movies, or go get some ice cream at that place that used to be a car wash. otherwise well you need to hang out at one of your friends'. i know some kids who since they can't drink smoke cigars instead, and play poker. plus every tuesday, you can go to the auction house and sell your stuff.

then i have a few bizarre country activities for you. there was this one dude who built a huge catapult in his backyard. also there's that thing with a pvc tube, on one side you stick a potato in, on the inside you put something inflammable, and then i don't really remember but in the end the inflammable stuff explodes and shoots out a potato on fire. it's called flaming potatoes. and if you dip the potato in chlorine beforehand, then it's even better, it becomes flaming glowing potatoes! totally illegal but everyone's doing it. i was asked if i wanted to make cows fall over, that is you take one by surprise by grabbing two of its legs and making it fall. i am not touching any cow.

everybody's carrying a gun.

and then there's the high school. and the football team. and the football field and the bleachers and the mud and the bad speakers. the quaterback does date the captain of the cheerleaders. their team is called the fighting gobblers (coz the turkey always was a fast clever powerful animal), and at half time they all sing that great song. I HAVE TO GO, I JUST HAVE GO. (and if you want more, go there)

church now. i went to sunday school and then the service. they're mennonites, and this particular church used to be pretty conservative, but not anymore. i don't know what not so conservative means though, i could wear jeans and converse, i guess that's something :) i had never been to a protestant service before, and i must say i'm very glad i went, just because it's so different from catholic mass. not as formal, or serious, and there's actually interaction between the crowd and the pastor. here's how it works. they start with people making annoucements about what's up in their lives: my daughter just adopted a baby from guatemala, my friend has a brain tumor let's pray for him, we're happy leslie, from paris via new york, is visiting us. then they pray and sing a little bit, read some scriptures, pray some more, then there's sharing, which is really just more annoucements. the sermon is the last thing, the theme was richness toward god, and i thought some clever things were said. don't get me wrong, i'm not onverting or anything, but it doesn't mean i can't listen and agree with some of the stuff. example. we talked about grace at sunday school, and i'm not sure what that actually means, but to that notion they attached understanding, compassion, mercy, self-control. the lady's conclusion, if people do happen to divorce, or if somebody decides to wear a head-covering or not for instance, is that god is above it all, above all the little things, and grace should help us deal with this basically. the word i'll use instead is, tolerance, and my reference is spinoza. ne pas rire, ne pas pleurer, comprendre. just like the fact that i'm not religious doesn't prevent me from understanding why people would gather and feel the need to attribute everything to this superior entity, which is really a way to try and explain everything good or bad that's happening to them and the world. i think i even worked on a big presentation about that in 12th grade. and even though i have an agnostic point of view, every once in a while i like being in a place where there's no sarcasm or cynicism, where i can be grateful and thankful for everything that's happening to me.

music. you got a couple examples of southern country music earlier :) i'll just add this one band, DC Talk, which i googled and youtubed, and oh guess what it's a christian rock band. "Christian Rock, there's an oxymoron for you." it's just like in that movie saved!, i just can't wrap my head around the concept.
woo-hoo jesus rooocks!
yeah no that's just weird.

 

where the hell was i ?

 

 

i don't know if you read huckleberry finn, but if you did maybe you remember about these two families who have been in a feud for centuries. well i'm told that somewhere not far from where i was, there's like some kind of village where everybody's somehow related to each other, but they're in an argument of some sort, so they keep shooting at each other. and then there's the chicken plant. where the manager got into a feud with the postman, so now the chicken plant, which is in timberville, has its address in broadway so that these two won't have to face each other.

i hung out with margaret too. she's 17 and about to start her senior year. and she's a little different, as in i know she wants to get away from that place for a little while, and she does not just believe everything she's told. she wants to take a year off and go to argentina. she maybe wants to live in a big city like new york one day, and she has to live with fact that her family looks at her like she's crazy when she says that. she wants to know more about islam and the muslims because "all that people know around here is that muslims blew up the twin towers, so that everyone thinks islam equals evil". and she's constantly asking me questions about france and french people and how it is on the other side of the ocean. i really like her. i like that she's so curious and doesn't settle with the environment she was born into.

food section ;) now their major food groups are peanut butter, corn, hamburgers and watermelon. everytime we would have would have a ham-butter-pickle sandwich, they're having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. the peanut butter pie was not a enjoyable experience for me, and neither was the reese's cup. and you know how i feel about corn. great blackberry pie, brownies and chewy chocolate chip cookies though :) i did go to a small town quaint local diner-style restaurant, including the old blonde waitress with bad teeth walking around with the coffee pot, the jukebox, the booths, the plastic plants, the inexplicable paintings and the small town folks. " -so is it quaint enough ? -are you kidding it's perfect :)"

"that's the problem when you tell people that you live here, because there are so many clichés, and most of them turn out to be true."

and on the way back sunday night, the bus driver was speeding enough that i was in new york a hour earlier than scheduled. then i got a freaky cab driver, the kind that tarts talking to you non-stop and telling you he loves pretty girls, which is when you feel just as safe as if you'd been walking on the street.

 

congratulations if you stayed til the end, apparently i had a lot to say :p