Living in a foreign country, whose two national languages you do not speak, can prompt some interesting challenges. Receiving all banking notices and contracts in French, mail from the commune and local police in Dutch are just two of the many instances where I ran into a little technical trouble.
However, it never got on my nerves that they couldn't provide English documents to me; or that I had to go out of my way to find translations and explanations. I didn't mind putting in the extra effort- it was beneficial to all parties. Learning and adapting is innate.
It was returning to the States that really made me cringe. I have always defended Americans as not the lazy people we get stereotyped as. Yes, ok, some (78.6 million too many) of us are obese and we like to use our private transportation, but c'mon! We have led the world in technological breakthroughs, we gave the Italians the tomatoes to make their pizzas, we decided, "hey, shifting gears is a waste of time, lets just switch that to auto." I mean, the list goes on, and I think for the most part we have done more good than harm.
But now I'm confused. In Europe, I biked to the metro, took the metro for 20 minutes and walked to the office. I brought my own backpack to the grocery store (as did everyone, because the one-time plastic use bags are banned) and only bought the items that I needed at that time. Then I walked back to the house. And although sometimes I wanted to make a nice Costco run and stock up for the winter, it felt good to make such little impact.
I never thought I'd have culture shock returning to a country that I lived in for 22 out of the 23 years of my life. I felt gross seeing the Walmartites pushing their cart FULL of plastic. (maybe I shouldn't judge here, do people have secret, awesome things they do with these bags?) Either the shoppers don't know that they are being ridiculously wasteful or they don't care. Either way I wanted to punch them in the face- and I'm not a violent person.
I have been so stressed out with this problem that I have been forcing reusable bags on my family members and scolding them when I see they have not complied to my reasonable demands. I am not asking much right? I bought these bags and gave them to you. I also put extra in your cars so you wont forget. WHY DO I HEAR PLASTIC.
Another issue concerns garbage and compost and why this isn't handled better. We had to be very careful with which object went into which trash can (there could be four different bins for plastics, bottles, food, etc.) because the trashmen make sure you are not throwing away things that can be recycled. They will fine you. A good incentive to care about throwing your ish out.
There is plenty more to say here, but I shall save thy breath. The bottom line is I love America so very much and no one can doubt that. But you are FLAWED dear girl and I love you enough to call you out in hopes of making you better. We, Americans, contribute a lot to this world, so being a little more concerned and proactive about how we treat it should be a priority. People need to look up to us again, so stand up straight, think about the impact you have, and please waste less. Or I will strangle you with that plastic bag of yours. Whaaat? No I won't, but I will probably do or say something at some point and make the whole situation awkward. There you go.
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