Into the cave...
Today was going to be our big day. It was the first day of Frieze Fest, one of the (if not THE) biggest art fairs in the world. And it was about a block away from us. Poor Terin (at least it'll look good on his resume) is in charge of putting together this audio documentary we're making on the festival for Resonance FM. He did a very good job of organizing the whole thing, and I know he'll do a really good job of putting it together. But since we are basically trying to do this for Terin now, everyone is a little stressed out over it. We had to schedule times to go to the festival because there isn't enough audio recording equiptment for all of us. Terin organized it so that the first group (profiles and narratives) had to be there at 10:30, and my group (Vox Pop, reviews, and creative responses...I'm doing a review with Stacy) had to be there at 1:30.
Unfortunately (or fortunately...depending on how you want to think of it), the group that got up this morning to go to the festival found that since we aren't licensed journalists, we can't get in to the Press/VIP day. So it has been postponed until tomorrow. Everyone went back to sleep and woke up at noonish, and in our room, we stayed in here all day fixing our blogs and working on projects. I didn't even leave my room until about 20 minutes ago when I went to get dinner. So I really don't have anything eventful to talk about.
And yet I will keep going. I feel kind of bad that I didn't go out today, but this place just isn't as fun to randomly go out in as New York. I suppose that the deal here is that I feel weird about just being a foreigner. In New York, most of the people weren't actually from there anyway, and there were so many people from out of the country that it seemed like they belonged there anyway. But here, I feel like if I open my mouth, it's given away that I'm American. And in a place where I've actually seen a sign that says "Nothing good ever came out of america," that's a little scary. I never know whether people hate me or not, or whether they're ripping me off, etc., because some people don't care, and some people do. I also don't know whether I'll feel like this in every country, or if it's just here in the UK. It's like everyone here hates us because of what our country does, and I wish I could just wear a shirt or something that says "I don't approve of it either" and be done with it. But then people don't believe you, or think that you do in some other kind of way. I know Britain has kind of always hated us, but I don't know about the other countries. how do they feel in the Netherlands? I have a feeling that people really aren't going to like us in Germany...So yeah. I guess I'm just getting a little taste of what it's like to be stereotyped. Which I'm sure is good for my character or something.
Well, that's all I've got for today.
This blog is officially international!! I'll update this map everytime someone from a different place visits.
posted by Julia @ 2:01 PM
3 Comments:
You know, I hadn't thought of it that way, but I think the whole "we hate America" is part of why I don't ever feel comfortable in Austria. Obviously it's a little different since I am sort of Austrian and you're not really British (except in several places in your geneology, I'm sure) but there's always that feeling of being judged by the government's actions. Bleh.
So wait, someone in Saudi Arabia reads your blog? I suppose by the placement of the dot, it could almost be Kuwait, it's hard to tell...perhaps even way south in Iraq, but it looks a little off for that.
There's a shirt you can buy in virtually any language that says something like "I'm sorry my president is an idiot. I didn't vote for him." Here are some that have 6 languages on one shirt: http://www.cafepress.com/americanapology/137430
I recall that in England everyone was always asking me if I had picked up a Britich accent yet, but I actually found myself kind of emphasising my American accent. Since I'm not the sort who has ever much cared about feeling like an "outcast" I never felt weird about being in a country that hated Americans. Especially since the average person you meet in the foreign country isn't going to be mean to you because of it or something, even if they maybe secretly think less of you for your nationality. As you've seen, they'll chat with you on the street about the exchange rate and smoke crack with you just like anyone else.
You can point out that your great grandfather (Bill Bragger) was from Bristol.
I totally know what you mean. In Japan I look really different, and people stare at me. It doesn't happen in the touristy places, but when I'm going grocery shopping people don't even try to hide it. I got stopped by a cop once, and he started asking me where I was from and what I was doing in Japan. He seemed like he was being friendly but I could tell he was making sure I was supposed to be there. It weirded me out.
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