Thursday 8 July 2010

Of things American

Having settled in for our prolonged visit, a feeling encountered on our last visit has already raised its head,the feeling being isolation. In the last few years We have spent about 2 years in total here and the grand total of American acquaintances...Zero. Now there may be many factors combining to produce this poor result ,my character being one of the major no doubt(highly likely) but I still feel something is missing that I can't quite pin down. Mrs OTW spends time every week with a group of yummy mummies and yet the only one of them she has formed any friendship with is...an English ex pat! and Mrs OTW does not have the same twisted personality I carry with me ( a theme here perhaps). Exposure to Americans and their culture over the years led me to believe that there were many similarities between the two nations I live in that would cause common ground to act as a bridge but time has shown just how foreign I am...much to my dismay. It is not as if I don't embrace many American pass times and loves, NFL,guns,cars,burgers, you name it...I love it. Family OTW are still considering moving to America on a permanent basis at some point but the thoughts of isolation and the knowledge that I am irredeemably English is proving food for thought...what to do? well enjoying this glorious Californian summer would be a start I suppose.

9 comments:

Lord Roby said...

Somehow, I think if you where in 'good old' Atlanta with Hurricane Alex,shooting deer,drinkin moonshine and hangin with the hillbillies;you just might come to a different conclusion.Vive la difference!

Thud said...

Ah but again he is a 'good old' Huyton boy!

monkey said...

bloody hell sounds like our 21 days to go needs to be 21 seconds to go.

Trubes said...

Oh Don't please don't emigrate to the States Dear Thud...
'Your Country Needs You'!
DT and I are so looking forward to meeting you and 'au famile', for Dim Sum at The Tai Pan.

Di.xx

Electro-Kevin said...

Everyone I know who has an American connection says the same thing - very superficial.

"We must do lunch together."

"Okay. When ?"

"Errr ... we must do lunch together."

"I heard you the first time. Okay. When ?"

"Err ... we must do lunch together ..." and on ad nauseum.

Bro and Sis in-law were expat in Boston. Cakes brought around by the barrow load when they arrived - not another word said after the first introductions.

Brits only even after 5 years.

NotClauswitz said...

Well, to my mind the Napa-Sonoma Marin County region is populated by the Affluent and Snobby, maybe even worse than the Peninsular BayAryans I come-from - but it's not necessarily the foreignness or anything.
A friend of mine from College went and lived in San Francisco for five years and didn't make ANY friends - and the only people who even said hello were those who lived on the same floor at his apartment. Meanwhile the denizens of said city pride themselves on how open minded they are. Yeh right. It's a lot of hipper-than-thou bullshit. They're morons who live on a giant earthquake crack - yet think they're the oracle of Delphi. Boo-yaa, they wear the black turtleneck and drink Italian coffee.
As nice as winery people generally are they too can be kinda close-focused, maybe if you do go shootin' you'll meet and cross paths with a more broad spectrum of folks.
http://www.sonomashooting.org/links.html
I dunno, I was always a lone and had to make my own fun.
:-)

Old BE said...

Obviously I realise where you are is quire different, but in New York the entire "young persons" culture seems to revolve around nobody knowing anyone the whole time. I don't think it's that you are being excluded, but that Americans possibly don't forge the kind of tight alliances that Brits do.

A crazy generalisation I know, but the American culture seems to be to make and break friends easily. Friends for an evening at a bar, never hear from that person again.

BobG said...

The problem is that you're spending too much time in California; most of the rest of the US regards California as a foreign country.

Weekend Yachtsman said...

Get the kids playing hockey, then you'll be fine.