International relations are an interesting sight to behold sometimes, especially if you are the 'foreigner'. Having never left the United States until this trip, it was a strange experience to be the minority or the 'other'. I've been around Americans all my life, so to me being American is the norm. However, this weekend I experienced two completely different reactions to my nationality that I found intriguing. I didn't really think that it would cause too much of a sensation being American. I traveled to London, England. In England they speak English. I just sound a little different. People would know that I was American, but that would be as far as it went. We aren't really all that different. However, my experiences have proved my assumptions wrong.
The first major reaction this weekend was a negative one. A group of us were on the train heading back to Greenwich. At one of the stops, our future combatant got on the train and sat down in the vicinity of the group. We just sat around idly talking until we came to Cutty Sark. We got off the train without incident, went up the escalator and then gathered outside the station to discuss where we wanted to go next. We heard some shouting behind us, and it continued on for quite a while. Finally we looked behind us to see our pugnacious fellow traveler howling like a wounded rhinoceros in our general direction. When we looked over she screamed, "yeah, YOU! I'm talking to YOU!" We had no idea what we had done. She then yelled, "You need to FIX your FACES!.... inaudible rambling..... AMERICANS!" Every response we had was met with irrational screaming and hatred for us as human beings. We escaped into a bar with her screams of how fat we all were following us, her cheeks positively jiggling in rage. We were legitimately scared that this girl was going to either hunt us down of stake us out until we had to face her.
The second major reaction was the complete opposite. There were two of us at a dance club talking to some people we had met. Suddenly two girls almost skip up to us with huge smiles on their faces saying, "are you American? Oh we LOVE Americans!" It was such a strange experience to have complete strangers come up to you and act as though you're some kind of wonderful, interesting rock star. Simply because we had American accents, these girls were drawn to us like we were ambassadors to a new and exciting world. We described where we were from, and quoted stereotypical American phrases such as 'ohmygod!', to the delight of our admirers. These girls expressed their desire to live in America, confused as to why we had come to Greenwich when we already lived in such a desirable place. They almost didn't want us to leave, and when we were on our way out they called after us, shouting goodbye and trying out their American accents.
Experiencing these two incidents in the same night was bizarre. I couldn't believe that there are such radically different viewpoints toward my identity as an American. I have been met with both admiration and hatred from people who do not know me at all. It was the first time that I have been able to relate to such books as Brick Lane by Monica Ali. I felt like I could understand Nazneen wanting at times to keep her head down. Sometimes when I am simply speaking among my friends, I am also aware of my accent carrying toward crowds of English people. They could love me or they could hate me based on that alone. I really couldn't predict it. At the same time though it gives me more of a desire to illustrate the kind of person I believe I truly am every day. If people are going to judge me on my accent and my country, then I want their first interaction with me to be the genuine me, so that they can understand that their spark assumptions aren't always accurate.
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