Last night I got a really rare treat: an ENJOYABLE show happened to be on our little television. We get five basic channels which are all pretty much rubbish, 24/7. Last night was a rare exception! You might have heard of Jamie Oliver...he's a young English chef who has gotten pretty popular in the States. He's doing sort of a cooking documentary tour of America, trying out the local cuisines of different parts of the country. It's pretty interesting to look at my own homeland from the perspective of a Brit, while watching the show in Scotland.
Last night he was somewhere out West (I never caught the state), discovering authentic cowboy food. He attended a rodeo and lived out in the mountains with real cow-ranchers for a week, and along the way cooked things like huge slabs of beef and homemade baked beans in little Dutch Ovens (cast iron pots that are set in or over a campfire, then covered with coals and left for hours to cook), or cooking a steak on a stick in the fire out on the trail, the way one might roast a marshmallow for a s'more. Oh how I wanted ALL of that food. I can't even tell you. I would kill for a good steak or some smoky barbecue these days.
Along the same lines of nostalgic Americana, I've also been listening to a lot of bluegrass and old-fashioned country today, and it's all made me think that this is one of the most unique and wonderful things about the U.S. So much of much of American culture has shaped and influenced Europe (not always in good ways) and the lines between them often feel blurred....but I think one of the things that remains really wholly American is the mythic (often romanticized) old wild West and all the legacy of music, food, storytelling and pioneering spirit that goes with it.
I think one of the really exciting things about being abroad is that it makes you look at your own country and culture from so many new perspectives. Even living here with an American from another part of the country makes us realize that so many of the things we take for granted about "American" life are really just native to our own little region of the country. Sometimes when we try to explain our country over here, we find ourselves saying completely opposite things! We are also quite used to the Scots and the Europeans bringing up every stereotype of Americans as loud, fat, lazy, uncultured and stupid....and most of the time, we just laugh and admit that a lot of the negative images are largely based in truth. A few weeks ago one of my German friends asked me what the English word is for someone who is highly uncultured. I replied, "You mean an American?" and he promptly died laughing.
Anyway, all this to say, sometimes I feel homesick not just for my family or my friends, but for my homeland, in all its complexity. I recognize its flaws (massive ones), but I also see the things that make it great. Back in the States, I often tend more towards complaining about the things I dislike about my culture....but here, I realize all the wonderful things I miss about it, too.
Last night he was somewhere out West (I never caught the state), discovering authentic cowboy food. He attended a rodeo and lived out in the mountains with real cow-ranchers for a week, and along the way cooked things like huge slabs of beef and homemade baked beans in little Dutch Ovens (cast iron pots that are set in or over a campfire, then covered with coals and left for hours to cook), or cooking a steak on a stick in the fire out on the trail, the way one might roast a marshmallow for a s'more. Oh how I wanted ALL of that food. I can't even tell you. I would kill for a good steak or some smoky barbecue these days.
Along the same lines of nostalgic Americana, I've also been listening to a lot of bluegrass and old-fashioned country today, and it's all made me think that this is one of the most unique and wonderful things about the U.S. So much of much of American culture has shaped and influenced Europe (not always in good ways) and the lines between them often feel blurred....but I think one of the things that remains really wholly American is the mythic (often romanticized) old wild West and all the legacy of music, food, storytelling and pioneering spirit that goes with it.
I think one of the really exciting things about being abroad is that it makes you look at your own country and culture from so many new perspectives. Even living here with an American from another part of the country makes us realize that so many of the things we take for granted about "American" life are really just native to our own little region of the country. Sometimes when we try to explain our country over here, we find ourselves saying completely opposite things! We are also quite used to the Scots and the Europeans bringing up every stereotype of Americans as loud, fat, lazy, uncultured and stupid....and most of the time, we just laugh and admit that a lot of the negative images are largely based in truth. A few weeks ago one of my German friends asked me what the English word is for someone who is highly uncultured. I replied, "You mean an American?" and he promptly died laughing.
Anyway, all this to say, sometimes I feel homesick not just for my family or my friends, but for my homeland, in all its complexity. I recognize its flaws (massive ones), but I also see the things that make it great. Back in the States, I often tend more towards complaining about the things I dislike about my culture....but here, I realize all the wonderful things I miss about it, too.
October 24, 2009 at 6:34 PM
mmm, bluegrass.