The Trail's Our Thing

Sophie is now visiting another friend in Santa Fe, and maybe even reading this blog! We really enjoyed having her visit. She was an easy houseguest who joined our family very comfortably, and she was very interested in experiencing our part of America. She loves to come to America and we love to go to France!

Sophie was really the first foreign friend who has come to visit us. I found myself looking at our way of life, our surroundings, and customs from a different perspective, trying to explain them, wondering how she was responding to them. Some things made me very proud and some made me very embarrassed. Here are some of my observations:

- Despite our current economic problems, most of us in the USA really do have a lot: big houses, cars, appliances, electronics, closets full of clothes, music, books, etc.

- Restaurants serve really big portions.

- There are lots of overweight people here.

- Eating out is really pretty inexpensive, especially compared to France.

- People here are mostly very warm and friendly, especially welcoming to a foreigner. Casual conversation is very easy.

- Knoxville, Nashville and Tennessee are interesting places that have played important roles in history.

- Pat Head Summit is one of the most amazing women in America.

- If you live in Knoxville, you must own several pieces of bright orange clothing.

- American teenagers are attached to their cell phones, mainly for text messaging.

- It is great that you can now watch television episodes on your laptop computer.

- There are really way too many mobile homes, and many of them aren't well maintained.

- There are too many billboards on the interstate that really do detract from the natural beauty of this area.

- We have many more big stores, restaurants, fast food places, gas stations, movie theaters than we could ever possibly need. (Not that I'm wanting any more to close...)

- Businesses, shopping centers, subdivisions, parking lots etc. have taken over what was once very scenic countryside. Our beautiful vistas seem to be disappearing.

- The old wooden barns weren't built to last. It seems like most of them are falling down, and no one seems to care.

- There are an awful lot of commercials on television for pharmaceutical products, including some that seem very personal.

- The ads for car dealerships, with the shouting salesmen, don't make you want to buy a car.

- Some people from East Tennessee have accents that really are hard to understand, and some words we use here don't seem to be English.

- It's nice to have two very different places that feel like home.