Well, it's technically July 5th, but I'm still feeling very patriotic. America rocks. Since we got here a few weeks ago, I've been able to catch up with friends, I've eaten a ridiculous amount of fast food, and the feeling that I've probably met every white person I see is finally wearing off. I thought that, since I've been blessed enough to be here for the past few summers and I'm used to being blown away by Walmart and having power again, that I'd share some of the less obvious impressions of the motherland.
#1
Milk
I drink milk as if it's the active antidote to some sort of poison a malicious, pet-stroking super-villain shot me up with a few days ago. I have a theory that that's the reason I have never broken a bone. Also because I am not active.
#2
Smells
Let me put it this way-- In America, everything smells good to a certain extent, all the time, and occasionally there's a skunk or something and it smells terrible. In Africa, the good smell is the abnormal smell.
#3
Netflix
I know I'm several years late to this party, but Netflix is officially the best thing since sliced bread. It has made my laptop and Xbox 360 into LOST machines, and I'm enjoying every second of it. Also, I'm only in Season 2, so no spoilers.
#4
Postal Service
Things ship fast. Crazy fast. When we ordered Halo: Reach, it arrived in Mass. on September 14th, a few weeks after we pre-ordered it, and we finally got it on October 1st, half a month later. That was a record turn-around-- mostly it's a much longer process. I ordered a few games a couple weeks ago and they were on the doorstep (in the mailbox) within 5 days.
#5
Cops
I enjoy seeing cop cars here, knowing that they almost definitely do not contain a corrupt Senegalese jerk. I hate Senegalese cops.
#7
Stress
There's no overarching sense of danger in every moment of life. That sounds several tads over-dramatic, I know, but it's one of the biggest differences in the two countries. Senegal's not a dangerous country (or wasn't when I left), but the whole feel is different. A trip to downtown Dakar is a seek, strike and destroy mission at best, but there are whole parks in Boston just waiting to be napped in. People go there for fun, not because they have to.
-Will
"How could I possible be expected to tolerate school on a day like today?"
1 comment:
you're wrong about the smells thing. dakar's smells, sewage, salt, body odour, smoke, sizzling hot blue sky, spicy colognes and overwhelming perfumes. fabrics. water. colour. sickness, disease, life, people, people, people.
a blend that makes the most beautiful scent to me, a scent of living
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