Times change, people change : Compare and Contrast

Hello all

Firstly, please forgive the lack of images in this blog, it took a weird look when I did, so figured it'd be easier without that weird look.

Recently I've been going through a bit of a change on several levels and one I would like to talk about is something that a few years ago would have seemed quite strange, my growing interest and love for the United States. Now, before I start going into why, I would state that I am proud to be English and will always consider England home, no matter where I end up.

I hadn't really thought of my opinions of America until this evening when I got talking to some Americans on the train home, one of whom I now have a date with on Friday. After I had gotten off of the train, I started thinking about it and I actually have a lot of love for America.

Firstly, and probably most important, arguably my closest friend lives in America. I may not talk to Megan that often but it's nice to have someone who genuinely seems to get excited whenever we talk and she actually appreciates me as a friend, there's nothing complicated about our friendship, it is what it is. We talk when we can and I actually enjoy talking to Megan.

Because I don't see her at all (we met via an internet forum) it makes every conversation feel, I don't know, special. I don't get that with anyone else, not even my other close friends Ellen and Charlie (and that's meant with no disrespect to either of them). I feel like I can just relax with Megan and I don't get that with enough friends other than the aforementioned Charlie and Ellen. These three, and another woman I'm about to talk about, are four of the few genuine people I know.

That moves me nicely onto Angelica. I mentioned Angelica in another blog recently and we have recently become friends again. Angelica isn't someone I will claim to know well, but much like Megan is someone who I enjoy talking to on the rare occasions we do talk.

Hopefully when I go over to North America soon, I can see both of them and it's bizarre that I don't find many people that interesting to talk to, but I have yet to be friends with an American that I didn't find interesting. I love talking to interesting people, or at least people that I find interesting, and I don't get that enough.
Anyway......conversations with Megan leads me onto my next point, the American accent. Now, the American accent used to drive me nuts, the way they used to say every single part of each word drove me nuts. For example, I used to live in Nottingham, and the way the vast, vast majority of English people say that (and given that it's our city, we should get the choice) is generally along the lines of "Nottinam", basically a silent g and h, but the Americans would say in "NOTT-ING-HAMMM", basically saying every single part of the word. They say words pretty much how they're spelt, which is a bit odd.

It did take quite a while for me to get used to Megan's American accent during our first telephone based conversation, but after a while I didn't notice it anymore. It's a bit like 3D at the cinema in that sense, it amazes me at first but it soon wears off. Even during the conversation with the Americans I mentioned earlier, you still notice the accent on some level, but I just stopped noticing after a while.

Then we get onto what is probably the most controversial part of this blog, the national anthems. America's is loud and proud, it takes you on a journey and tells you how proud they were to come into emergence. England's national anthem asks a theoretical diety to save a non-elected sponger. The Americans celebrate history, we celebrate an old woman who offers pretty much fuck all to any part of England except for the tourist industry. Below are the two respective national anthems.

 

The American national anthem is just so much better than our national anthem, it's passionate, it's a story, it's just so much better than our's on so many levels that it just becomes ridiculous. Although technically England doesn't even have a national anthem, God Save the Queen is the whole UK, not just England.

The Americans also know how to put on a show. Although I have no love for the sport, look at the massive deal they make about the Superbowl, the biggest game of their national sport. It's a spectacular even full of imagination and events that take your breath away......the English equivalent is the FA Cup final where you might get a marching band, if you're lucky, and fireworks that you could buy from poundland. It's not the same by any stretch of the imagination.

I do plan on visiting America in the near future and I think I finally have my plan sorted out for the most part. The plan is to go to New York and stay for a few days, in those few days I intend on going to see everything I want to see there...which, amongst many other things, includes.....

• The Statue of Liberty
• Madison Square Garden
• Times' Square
• My friend Angelica, whom lives just outside of New York

Then after four/five days there, it's onto Washington DC, a mere three hour coach journey....apparantly. There I intend on seeing...

• The White House
• The various memorials to dead presidents
• The Smithsonian

And the finally after that, travel down to Nashville to see Megan (assuming she would want to).

As I say, I am proud to be British but my future is in America at some point, whether it be this year, the next, or in several years to come.