Whoops

I accidentally talked in class today. On a few different subjects, mostly having to do with the generalizations made in one of the articles that we had to read for class this week. And to rebut an argument made by someone else in the class. The statistic in the article was that 49% of households in the US have firearms and this person in my class thought that statistic was wrong because she comes from a suburb of St Louis where no one has guns. And I thought she was wrong, so I spoke up about it and think that I may have accidentally gotten a little strident...

And then came the discussion on the reading that basically used America as an example of a low-context society. Now, I may be judgmental about my government, about my government's policies - criticism there is something I can handle. But when an author goes and criticizes "American culture"?! I get defensive. Not least because I don't know what "American culture" is. The US is such a varied and dynamic place, I don't know how anyone can generalize what the culture of the whole is, even in a piece full of broad generalizations. There wasn't a framework presented in the article and I thought it was unfair to say that Americans (as an example for all of western society) as a culture cannot pick up on subtleties and turns of phrase, that small talk and phrasing is never important within the "American mindset". So I got a little defensive and talked a lot. Oh well. At least I think the professor maybe knows who I am now (other than just the girl who takes notes on her laptop).

The rest of my day has been pretty uneventful. I think I am too lazy to be on exchange because I have to force myself to go out. I still haven't heard about funding so I am still grappling with the great existential questions of who am I and where am I going in this life of mine. I think I am going to go to a comedy club in Amsterdam tonight to support a girl from my home university in her first international comedy show. That is about as far as I have anything planned. Which is terrifying to me.

-B