Monday, March 2, 2009
I know it's tired for an American to talk about the "culture shock" when returning to America from wherever. Still, when I arrived in Penn Station in New York at 5pm a week and a half ago, I most definitely had it.
Some immediate observations from an American on America and Americans:
-Americans are big. Not obese, not even necessarily fat, just tall, thick. Grande. Super-sized.
-Not only are people big, but so is everything: the streets, the stoplights, the taxis, the burritos.
-Americans are ugly. Really people, genes are better in Europe. I saw more blemishes on one subway ride than six months in France.
-The infrastructure (airports, trains, etc) is dated.
Nevertheless, it feels kind of real, in a way that the kiddie-pool of Western Europe does not.