know your surroundings
the pushiness.
the yelling.
the shoving.
the palpable anger.
yep, i'm back in the states.
(sidenote: if you are a first-time visitor to our country and your entry point is boston, i sincerely apologize on behalf of my 2.7ish million other countrypersons. do not judge us by the chaos and disorder that is logan airport. there are some nice parts too.)
anyway, in this edition i will attempt to dissect the cues that let you know that you are, in fact, back in the good old u.s. of a.
1) if the sports talk in the line at customs is ANYTHING other than soccer or tennis, you are no longer in england, you are in the u.s. honestly, i had forgotten that baseball was still going on. not mention the fact that i fully expected the nba finals to still be playing out. what a difference 3 weeks makes.
2) the headline on bbc news this morning as i left the hotel: the israeli troops in the gaza strip. the "story of the day" on cnn at logan: some earthen dam in maryland that might break.
3) apparently there is a war of some kind going on. i'll be darned if any one in europe knows about it.
4) keep reminding yourself: "look LEFT before crossing the street." new habits are fast and easy to make apparently.
5) if you buy something for say, $4, and don't have to worry about the fact that it is actually costing you $8, you are safely back in the states.
6) wait, they make a dollar BILL? out of paper? huh.
7) are there commercials every 5 minutes on your tv? you are in america.
(more to come)
the yelling.
the shoving.
the palpable anger.
yep, i'm back in the states.
(sidenote: if you are a first-time visitor to our country and your entry point is boston, i sincerely apologize on behalf of my 2.7ish million other countrypersons. do not judge us by the chaos and disorder that is logan airport. there are some nice parts too.)
anyway, in this edition i will attempt to dissect the cues that let you know that you are, in fact, back in the good old u.s. of a.
1) if the sports talk in the line at customs is ANYTHING other than soccer or tennis, you are no longer in england, you are in the u.s. honestly, i had forgotten that baseball was still going on. not mention the fact that i fully expected the nba finals to still be playing out. what a difference 3 weeks makes.
2) the headline on bbc news this morning as i left the hotel: the israeli troops in the gaza strip. the "story of the day" on cnn at logan: some earthen dam in maryland that might break.
3) apparently there is a war of some kind going on. i'll be darned if any one in europe knows about it.
4) keep reminding yourself: "look LEFT before crossing the street." new habits are fast and easy to make apparently.
5) if you buy something for say, $4, and don't have to worry about the fact that it is actually costing you $8, you are safely back in the states.
6) wait, they make a dollar BILL? out of paper? huh.
7) are there commercials every 5 minutes on your tv? you are in america.
(more to come)
posted by cade at 5:21 PM
9 Comments:
Did you get #5 wrong?? I must have misunderstood...
In Germany (not sure about England, naturally) commercials are not 3 minutes long after every 10 minutes; they're 15 minutes long after every 40...I'm not sure which is better...
nope. a burger, for instance, would be like $4 in the states. in the uk, it would be ₤4.
now ₤1 = $1.90 (approx) so figure that its about double.
therefore, you end up spending twice as much on everything without really noticing.
and that's how they get ya.
"do not judge us by the chaos and disorder that is logan airport. there are some nice parts too."
If you're talking about Boston as a whole, name 20 nice things. Boston is a hole to be visited only occasionally, and always by public transportation, though that way is rapidly becoming more complicated.
i was speaking of the country as a whole. with logan being their first impression.
however, i disagree with boston being a hole. it has it's issues of course. but visit wichita sometime, or omaha, or *shudder* san bernardino.
thems some holes.
oh and also, i won't name 20 nice things...because i don't name nice things. it's not what i do.
perhaps someone else would give it a crack.
1) Fenway
2) Finagle a Bagel
3) The Aquarium
4) The Museum of Science
5) The North End
6) Back Bay
7) Theater
8) The Commons
9) People-watching
10)South End Sara the Duckboat
I could go on. I should be working.
fenway-ugh, sports
finagle a bagel-those are everywhere
aquarium-too many kids
museum of science-too many kids, but man laser shows were great in their time
north end-again, not too bad especially come Feast times.
back bay/theatre district-drug deals with undercover cops whipping guns out
commons-not to bad-the swan boats are good. wading in frog pond good. looking at homeless people and trying to avoid dogcrap in the grass not good
Cade, it was mostly rhetorical, the wtenty thing part, though I thank Leanne for it. However, as to your suggestions about visiting other places that are holes...now why would I want/need to do that when I have my own hole twenty minutes from home?
i got the rhetoric. i just thought it might be an interesting conversation to see what others thought.
all in all, though, in comparison to many, many other places in the world. boston doesn't have it too bad. in fact, i would argue it's got it pretty good.
Boston is a beautiful city. I don't understand how anyone could hate it. And I have to deal with it daily.
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