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Frustration!!


I had planned my next blog to be about our trip last week, but yesterday while uploading the photos, I received a few comments on my last blog that were not exactly positive. Out of frustration, I deleted them. Last night I vented to my husband that there were more anti-American type comments on my blog from people on this side of the world. He told me I shouldn't have deleted them and left it for other people to comment on (or at least leave them long enough for him to comment on).


Here's the thing - as an American living abroad, I am quite sensitive because I was not only ignorant to what countries made up the United Kingdom and Great Britain, but I was also ignorant to the fact that in other countries around the world, America is not well liked. Because I'm the type of person that doesn’t think negatively about other people until given a reason (the elevator doesn't count - celebrities put themselves out there for ridicule or praise), I didn't think that people would treat me different because I am American. This was quite naive of me. I have had people start-up conversations with me in clubs or pubs (loud types of places) that when they realized I was American, just walked away. I've had to endure rude comments & criticism and I hear anti-American propaganda on TV, the radio and in the media all of the time. Just the other day while online (queued) for an attraction at the safari park, a child behind me used an American expression they heard on television and her mother quickly corrected her by saying 'You watch too many American programs! That's rubbish - you're NOT American you're English!' All I could do was laugh because what I really wanted to do was turn to her and inform her that there was an American right next to her and she should be aware of her surroundings before she spoke such rubbish!


 Soapbox  If there was a black person standing next to me and I said to someone 'That's crap, you're not black, you're white' in the same tone she used, would it be acceptable? It's still a form of racism and what kind of message is she sending her child?? I do have to mention that her daughter did respond well by saying 'but I am American in her best Texas accent which was absolutely hysterical!

My husband thinks I am oversensitive about this issue. But when I see a documentary on television entitled 'Why Americans love their guns' that made it look like everyone in America owns a gun and is proud of it - I get pretty riled up because I can say with all honestly, that I have never known anyone who has ever owned a gun in America that wasn't a police officer or in the military and we do not all own a gun! There seems to be a popular belief that all Americans are fat, lazy, gun in one hand - bible in the other, obnoxious bigmouths! I'd love to debate this issue, but it would be futile.


The bottom line is - this blog was created to keep in touch with friends and family because with such a vast time difference, it's not always easy to call each other. It was not created so that people can leave me negative comments about being American or un-American for leaving the country (for you moronic Americans that have that mindset)!


I moved here not because I woke up one day and thought it would be cool to drive on the other side of the road or learn to speak English instead of American (two very different languages) - I moved here because I had the dumb luck of falling in love with an English man and living here is the best thing for our future together. I'd like it if people could try considering that living in a foreign country is not an easy venture and it's been quite a vexatious adjustment that after almost a year, I am still struggling with. I still don't have any friends and spend a great deal of time just trying not to feel out of place. This is my blog - my space and I don't want it to be a public forum for political debates or just plain negativity! I can handle playful banter, but lets play nice!


 


 Flag 2     Big Ben

 


PS - if you'd like to see the photos of the trip we took last week the albums are titled Lulworth Cove, Stonehenge, Monkey World and Longleat will be added sometime today.

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Brandon Bartrim said…
I'm asking myself: How can it be that I've never ran through your site before? It's a great one!
8:59 PM
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