That's part of it, but (and apologies for pretentious rambling) being there also made me think about... inclusion, I guess, and how it's understood differently in the US.
Take religion, for example -- it was interesting to me to read the guidebook and see it had info on different places of worship and where to find them. That's something I've never seen in a Finnish info package for a secular event, and it struck me that that must be how the American idea of religious freedom comes up in practice. I'm so used to thinking of religious freedom being respected by not talking about religion in public spaces at all if possible. I knew it's a fundamental conceptual US/Europe difference (freedom to do smth vs. freedom from smth) but it was cool suddenly seeing an example of it. And it wasn't just the religion thing; it's kind of hard to explain, but there were these little social cues in interactions that I could only identify as vaguely "American."
I think this sort of ~open atmosphere of self-expression could be seen as the positive side of US culture, even if I think it would get exhausting living like that... All in all it was just weirdly fascinating seeing Americans irl -- I haven't met many. They really exist!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2019-01-11 23:37 (UTC)Take religion, for example -- it was interesting to me to read the guidebook and see it had info on different places of worship and where to find them. That's something I've never seen in a Finnish info package for a secular event, and it struck me that that must be how the American idea of religious freedom comes up in practice. I'm so used to thinking of religious freedom being respected by not talking about religion in public spaces at all if possible. I knew it's a fundamental conceptual US/Europe difference (freedom to do smth vs. freedom from smth) but it was cool suddenly seeing an example of it. And it wasn't just the religion thing; it's kind of hard to explain, but there were these little social cues in interactions that I could only identify as vaguely "American."
I think this sort of ~open atmosphere of self-expression could be seen as the positive side of US culture, even if I think it would get exhausting living like that... All in all it was just weirdly fascinating seeing Americans irl -- I haven't met many. They really exist!