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Saturday, January 14, 2012

Sharing American Culture

Today I had a moment of realization an "aha" sort of thought... do you know what I mean?  It will take my blog in a different sort of direction but will remain the same in ways... actually I hope it will improve upon the direction I am heading...

Let me explain.  I  have always wanted to travel to another country.  I have had my eye on several European countries since I was a teenager.  I enjoy reading books, websites, and blogs from authors of other countries.  I am fascinated to learn about other cultures.  I love finding treasures from other countries at the antique shops and I often wonder about their origin and sometimes trace where they are manufactured and the history of the object.  This always leads to new information and journeys about other countries.   Even when traveling from state to state here in the US I find it interesting because the culture in general is different in each state.  I know that someday I will travel to other countries when the time is right and experience the culture and traditions first hand.

My "aha" came as I was talking to a dear friend of mine about an exchange student here in the US.  She has been staying with my friends relative for several months and will be returning home this weekend.  My friend and I were discussing how the exchange student enjoyed being in America and how she enjoyed her stay here.  I found myself fascinated of course with where the exchange student was from and how the culture differed from America.  This is the very same reason she came here... the very same reason hundreds of thousands of people come to America every year, and the reason we American's travel and sometimes relocate to other countries.  We as humans have the desire to understand and  experience other cultures and see how it is that others live their lives and the differences and likenesses that we have.  As a mom and wife I am so fascinated to learn how mothers and wives and women live their lives and go about their daily tasks and chores in other countries and how alike or different our lives are.
 
I am blessed to have readers from other countries that read my blog.  My "aha" moment came after getting off the phone with  my friend and realizing that as much as I want to learn about how life is lived in other countries, the same desire is there from others to learn about my day to day life as an American woman.  What I take for granted our do out of routine may seem very different and unusual and fascinating to someone else who has a completely different culture.

I will be taking my blog on the same journey but have switched paths so to speak.  I will be explaining things a little more, tools I use, how I go about my daily life and things I take for granted to help others that want to learn as I do about other cultures learn about life in America, at least in this part of America because this is where I am and this is what I have to offer.  There will be times for my American readers when an explanation I give seems obvious but I would like readers from other countries to understand and be able to learn, as much as I enjoy learning from others, one day when the time is right they too might be able to visit America just as I would like to visit other countries.

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