This summer Aya came with me to America for the second time. The first time was just after we had started dating, her English wasn’t as good, and I was very busy seeing friends and family. This time around we had roughly the same amount of time, but all of those things had changed. We did still see a lot of family, but this time it was as my wife and I think she was more comfortable with our relationship and her language ability was definitely stronger as well.
Aya got to eat American style, chase around nephews and nieces, and practice driving on the right for the first time. She also got the full experience of the Hurley family as my grandmother and a bunch of other family from that side came to meet her for the first time.
As per my own experiences I have a few observations about America. Since it has been some time since I have been back and each time I feel a little more distant there were things that struck me as being “American” vs. just something that I was used to. The thing most on my mind is of course food. It was great to be back in the land of every flavor and variety, but I gained almost 10lbs in 6 weeks. Americans eat way too much meat, not that I ate any of it, but they do. Every restaurant and grocery was packed with meat. On the other hand, things that aren’t explicitly meat as a rule do not contain meat. This is not so in other places. America does a good job of telling you exactly what you are consuming. There are labels everywhere, but apparently not enough people actually read them or care enough about how many calories they are consuming. It appears that now everyone has a tattoo. I understand why some people get tattoos, but I think a lot of people get them to be individuals, which is now a moot point since so many people have them. Many of them are also ugly and ill placed on the body. I will never get a tattoo. I went to the movie theater twice and both times was aggravated that most people in the theater left their trash in and around their seats. Why!? Is it so hard to pick up your cup when the movie is over and carry it with you the 30 steps to the trash can on your way out? I don’t understand. Another thing I don’t understand is the lack of sidewalks. America is built for cars, which doesn’t work out very well for you if you don’t have one. I have learned that cars are a big waste of money and energy. Public transportation is awesome, when it works, and every major city should be pushing the cars out and the trains and buses in. Which leads me to my most felt but probably least shocking observation; Americans are wasteful. Big houses, lights left on, too much food, cars too big, not enough public transportation, way too much air conditioning, etc. People are terribly concerned about fuel prices, but don’t see the link between consuming fuels in ways other than a gas tank that then contribute to higher fuel prices. I also enjoyed some things about America. One thing I loved about America was the effort to provide for different lifestyles. Every grocery and major restaurant had something to offer for me as a vegetarian. America has a huge variety of food choices and choices in a lot of other areas too. It is a consumer’s paradise. People in the US have it so lucky, but most don’t know it because they rarely look outside of the US. Even the poorest Americans have access to clean water, clean air, and a land where social mobility is still possible through education and hard work, even if it is less than other developed nations. I think more than anything else this trip put into a better perspective what it is that America has to offer me. I will likely always be American and America will always be my homeland, but the more time I have spent outside the U.S. the less I have felt compelled to return. I spent a lot of time with other teachers and with family which gave me an insight on what life might be like if I moved back. From a teacher’s angle, things are dark. Teachers aren’t well respected or supported in the U.S. Most states are facing budget cuts which are forcing them to stop hiring and sometimes cut back on the number of teachers they have. In addition, unions across the country are feeling the crunch from right wing politicians and a down beaten populace
led to believe teacher’s salaries are cushy . This despite that almost every report you can find lists teaching as one of the lowest paying jobs
given the amount of education required and time dedicated. Sound bites make for better news than actual research though. Students’ attitudes are getting worse, according to almost everyone whether or not they are in education. America itself is a mixed bag. I have family there which compels me to return and the ease of access I have to anything I want is amazing. However, gun nuts, religious nuts, political nuts, and the overall animosity towards intellectuals and social responsibility in America continues to turn me away. I don’t know what the future will bring. Perhaps in 2 years I will be accepting a job back in America, but for now it’s just a nice place to visit.
11 comments:
Two tickets per ride, what a waste of paper. My favorite picture is of Aya in the car at your cottage. Somehow she reminds me of Mary in that photo.
p.s. linking to NEA for facts about how teachers are underpaid is a bit like linking to the heritage foundation for facts about how lazy poor people are.
By the way, I actually found the food labels in Japan pretty good too. It is just that everything had fish in it.
Fixed, check the link now. What tickets? Bay Beach? hahaha, one of the cheapest places around. I wonder if they get subsidized.
Yes, Bay Beach is subsidized. It is a city owned park, not private for profit.
Teacher unions were their own undoing. They obtained benefits which were far beyond what the general public who subsidizes these benefits have for themselves. Some of the union leaders got too greedy and it reflects poorly on the vast majority of good teachers.
The way it worked in Wisconsin was that the teachers union had a long term agreement with the state government that the teachers union would get a certain amount of money per year to split between pensions, benefits, and salary. For tax reasons, the union almost always put the bulk of the money in pension and benefits. This led to 1. on paper low salaries for teachers, but high pensions and benefits, and 2. benefits that make people who don't understand the situation angry.
At least that's what I heard. Both sides of the debate are beating their chests and bending the facts.
*a certain amount of additional money (yearly raise)
The same thing happened/is happening in the private sector/manufacturing. Unions served their purpose in protecting against labor exploitation in the early years, but became greedy, and now the pendulum has swung too far... too much of a good thing.
What do your Mom & Dad think?
What Dave said is correct, unions had an agreement for annual pay increase with the state gov. Much of that went into benefits. When governor Walker said things like, "I asked the unions to pay into their own health care insurance (just as their Wisconsin neighbors do) and they said I was being unreasonable," and "I requested that they contribute toward their own pensions (just as their Wisconsin neighbors do) and they screamed it was unfair." That is very misleading since those benefits and pension are part of their salary agreement. It would be like asking them to pay twice. In addition, the decline of unions has mirrored the declining gains of wages for middle class income earners in relation to productivity. There is the idea that as wages and benefits decrease there is less incentive for workers in that particular career to stay in the area where the decreases are taking place, essentially people move and Wisconsin would lose teachers and other public workers to states with better benefits/wages. From the research I have done that is normally a negligible number, but in this case I am one of that number.
It's convenient that your situation fits the story, but you and I both know that is NOT why you moved.
I'm not saying that. What I am saying is that it makes me not want to return, which is exactly what I said in my post on Toronto. Why would I want to come back to pay cuts, less respectful students, and social animosity towards people in my profession? I think I will stay abroad where my profession held more highly.
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