riding home after work today, the bus was packed as usual. it's a million degrees, and it seems none of the #6 have airconditioning. sigh. i'm standing in front of this sleepy asian girl, she looks about my age, and she's wearing a skimpy shirt like everyone else on the bus and you can see her 2 vaccination scars, a smallpox one and another. she's too young to be vaccinated for school (like, say, my parents were) so she must have gotten it done when moving to the country. i start thinking up stories for her- was she old enough to remember immagrating? do her parents speak english? does she still speak their language? what is it like growing up with parents who speak a different language than you? then i realized how many assuptions i was making about her- maybe this isn't home for her, and she's just traveling. it's always interesting to me when my boring commute home is someone else's excting adventure. i wonder if she feels the same way about chicago as i do with germany, full of excitement and adventure... of course, she could be american born and bred, and she went to, say, south america or someplace and had to get vaccinated for that. who knows? after all this surmising, perhaps i should have asked her, and found out which was right.
i think i'm aware more of sterotyping since i'm reading culture shock germany, recomended by jamie. i'm not convinced, actually. he makes some sweeping generalizations, and a few of them are kinda true, but lots aren't. for one thing, the book was written almost 10 years ago, and that changes the general attitude of a culture, i think. i mean, american culture is definately different than 10 years ago, so i'm sure german culture is too. i think goethe's split soul that he talks about is true, though- and with a past like germany's, who wouldn't be confused about nationalism? it's very different from americans, who are PROUD to be americans ("where at least i know i'm free") regardless of all the bloody, shameful events in our history. and yes, americans say things just to be nice, but germans aren't that brusque- at least not the ones i've encountered. perhaps the north germans are rudely (but not meanly) straightforward, and the south germans seem to tell you the brutal truth as nicely as possible. he says germans are pessimistic, and i don't know if i run with the wrong germans or the wrong americans, but i think people here are much more pessamistic- we exaggerate too much, germans are more realistic. finally, he talks about how wonderfully mild german climate is and what a difference there is from north to south. yes, i guess the beach is on the north coast and there are the alps on the south, but please, compared to america- it's like a 5grad difference from north to south on the weather map. and ever german i know complains bitterly about the weather. i know alot of americans who complain about the weather, too, but i think there's more reason in most of america... of course, any time germans are in america, they seem to be much more optimistic and view extreme weather as an excting adventure!
anyway, before that i was reading short stories by lesléa newson (of heather has two mommies fame) and learned all sorts of lesbian stereotypes i didn't know. at least, i think they're stereotypes. the biggest is the whole butch/femme thing. and how they are only attracted to each other and there has to be one of each in a couple. or the concept of "lesbian until graduation." i believe it, but it's disturbing anyway. all in all, i guess i just found the stories depressing, for the most part. things i learned: jewish relatives are unbearable and ununderstanding (hey, no surprise for me, but still...) moving in together ruins relationships, and no one ever wants the same amount of sex, and if that doesn't kill the relationship, having kids will. ugh. makes me happy to be single.
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