Americans: Who are we after all?

On Thursday afternoon, 16 nervous fellows met at the GMF building in DC.  The office itself is in an old East German Embassy Building, and the people inside are hospitable, organized and enthusiastic.  We spent the afternoon getting an orientation to the program, agreeing on group rules (carry your own luggage!), and getting to know each other better.  We also compared notes on what we'd packed, what gifts we'd brought to distribute to our speakers, and how to get to the post office so we could mail things home to make or bags lighter.

Later that evening, we enjoyed dinner at the Polish Embassy in DC.  It was the first taste of the kinds of discussions we would have in Europe.  It is an exciting time in Poland right now.  They have elections this month that are too close to call, and have assumed the presidency of the European Union.  Our hosts were eager to tell us about their growing economy, the changes to their culture after the fall of communism, and the hopefulness of their people.  They were particularly excited to talk with those fellows who would visit Poland.  (There are 11 total cities on the program this fall, with each fellow visiting 5.  Our collective countries are Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Germany.)

On Friday morning, we enjoyed a morning with Professor Gary Weaver from American University.  It felt like being back at Earlham.  We don't spend a lot of time talking about what it is that defines American culture, and what makes us unique from the rest of the world.  Professor Weaver's argument was that we had to spend a little bit of time thinking about that if we were truly to appreciate the differences in cultures we were going to experience on our trip. 

It was a great lecture, with too many notes to recount here.  However, a couple points he made were particularly interesting:

• Americans love melodramas.  For instance, the story of the Titanic is itself a tragedy.  However, our culture turned it into a romance movie and then a Broadway musical. 
• Americans are more religious than Europeans (that was mind boggling to me), with 20% of American Atheists reporting that they believe in God.  In most European nations, the people would be deeply concerned if a political candidate invoked God in a speech, or made attending church part of a political campaign.
• Only 18% of American citizens posess passports.  Those belong disproportionately to people 65 and older, and the children of immigrants who need American passports to travel to and from their parents' home countries. 

When the lecture was finished, we gathered our bags and headed off to Dulles.  I think most of us were in shock that we were really doing this.  The reality of leaving our families for so long was really beginning to sink in, as well as our collective sense of loss knowing that we were about to lose cell phone access for weeks! 

And we were off to Brussels!