Foreigner

So, I've been a couple months living in Belfast, and i have to say that being foreign hasn't been what I'd expected it to be. I suppose that I came prepared for the worst: culture shock, feeling alienated, etc. It hasn't really happened. A good bit of the reason for that is because making the move from America to N. Ireland is far  less drastic than making the move to, say, Saudi Arabia or something. But I also just don't mind being or feeling foreign.

Some people have a problem with that feeling, and I think that the people who do are probably the ones who feel really at home and involved in the culture of where they're from. Like the sort of person who runs for local political office would have trouble being a foreigner. Personally, I think that there's a lot less pressure that comes with being one. You don't have all of those funny cultural expectations that you have everywhere else. Here, people don't expect me to have certain political affiliations or enjoy wearing pink and lime green polka dots (which is a fine trend for many people, it's just not something that I enjoy), or be that "sweet" southern girl that I so often just don't feel like. I'm sure that there are expectations of me here, but I don't know them. Besides, the biggest American stereotypes that I've heard are that Americans are loud and obnoxious, fat, and sexually promiscuous.But I sorta break all of those pretty quickly.

I guess that what I'm saying is that I enjoy having people expect me to be different, whereas at home I feel like they have to discover that.

I think that the more that we assume about people (and we all do it) the less we actually know about them and understand them. But I guess that that's a challenge for all of us: we shouldn't assume that people are like us, we should just try to understand them where they're at.

Here's a pic. of my school for the blog!

~Lindsay