One of the last things that we were told in America
was: „This is actually not the end, it’s a beginning.“ Well, I can’t say I completely
agree. I mean, of course we still have our projects and reunions and all kinds
of interesting BFTF-related things, but
the institute as it was for 4 amazing weeks, is over. Over and finished.
I have been home for 3 weeks now and life is pretty much
back to how it used to be before BFTF. After coming back I had a whole week of
catching up with sleep and then I went to work for two weeks in a row, so I had to concentrate on other
things. I guess that helped a lot with the homesickness I felt towards the
BFTF. So now it is finally time to pull myself together and write a short
summary, mainly for myself.
These four weeks were definitely the most
interesting, breathtaking, amazing, beautiful and, to be completely truthful,
sometimes hard weeks of my life. I had so many new experiences, both small and
big.
I learned a lot about America. Before I started my
trip, I still had the „American Dream“, but I was also totally sure that in
reality, that kind of thing does not exist. But in USA, to my great surprise, I
found out that there is an American Dream – it is the diversity, the fact that
different places in America are so different that everybody finds their own
special place, place where they fit in. I went to 9 states (Indiana, Illinois,
Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, District of Columbia,
Virginia), although I only drove through most of them. So I only spent some
time in Indiana, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.
My absolute favorite was D.C. This city has so much
space. It has many European-and-old-looking houses and kind of an old charm,
but at the same time it is very lively and modern. People in suits and ties are
cycling around the city, wearing backpacks and you can see people running
everywhere. The city is pretty big, but it has many green areas and it very
very clean.
I also learned that political opinion in USA is very
important – whether you are a Democrat or a Republican. Indiana, the state I
spent the most time in, is mostly Republican. As a European, it was sometimes a
bit hard to understand their principals. People in Indiana are also very
conservative, at least from my liberal European viewpoint. Maybe the
conservatism has something to do with the fact that people there are mostly
very religious. Young couples should not move in together before they are
married (imagine how many couples in Estonia never get married and just live
together and raise a family). If you are from Estonia, the world’s least
religious country, it is impossible to imagine how big impact do their beliefs
have on the people. But I guess until it helps people keep away from all kinds
of bad things like alcoholism or crime and makes them better people, religion
is a good thing.
Americans are very open and outgoing. The first
couple of times we went shopping it actually freaked me out a little when
everybody was always saying „Hi, how are you doing“ and asking if I needed any
help, if I was looking for something specific or just trying to somehow keep up
the conversation. At first I felt like I was constantly being pressured into
buying more stuff, but as I got used to it, it started to feel normal, maybe
even too normal because after I had come home, I felt like everybody in the
stores was being exceptionally rude.
Yesterday was Estonia’s 20th Reindependence Day (if
there is such a thing like Reindependence Day in English language, but I hope
you get the point). Then I started wondering what is the common thing that
makes the nation patriotic? In Estonia, I guess, it is the feeling of one
nation, our history and our songs (well, you know, the Singing Revolution and
so on..). But what makes Americans patriotic, what ties them together? They are
from very different ethnical backgrounds and cultures. Well, I think that there
are two things – religion and the American Dream. Even though there are so many
different religious beliefs represented in America, the country’s motto – In
God we trust – says it all. And the American Dream, the melting pot, I’m sorry,
a salad bowl (because it is not advisable anymore to say melting pot), the idea
of freedom and equality.
I learned a lot about US political system, law
system, different European cultures and so many other things, but I learned the
most about myself. I learned that I am very liberal, open-minded about most
things, but I can take comments about my country very personally and, even
though I am usually the least patriotic person you can imagine, I got really
really patriotic in USA.
Every time I told somebody about where I was from, I
said that Estonia is in Northern Europe just below Finland. I never mentioned
anything Eastern just because then people think that we speak Russian. Do not
get me wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong about speaking Russian, but we
have our special, beautiful and rather unique language. But one little girl
came to ask me about my home country and the conversation was something like
that:
Girl: „Hey, I heard you are from Russia.“
Me: „Where did you hear that from?“
Girl: „My parents told me.“
Now I want to point out that I had talked to the
girl’s parents before and I gave my usual Northern-European-country speech. So
I was very surprised, how they somehow could still relate Estonia to Russia.
Well, then I explained to the girl how I live in Estonia and speak Estonian,
which is totally different from Russian. I don’t think it made a difference,
but at least I tried.
Well, I am definitely not done yet, I will
write a couple of more thoughts on America, BFTF and everything else in
general.
