American Views Abroad

 
A question often asked by Americans at home is if given the opportunity, would the American abroad move back to the US anytime soon. Once the language and cultural hurdles have been overcome, would you rather live here or there? Having come to terms with another kind of freedom --- the freedom to move around without four wheels, the freedom to leave the house and walk to a local newspaper or coffee shop, the freedom to take very good, reliable public transportation and to live in a very pleasant area with good cultural offerings---has an appeal that grows on you. It's startling back in the US, once outside of big cities, how old social study lessons learned years ago come to mind. We were taught the divisions in US society: city life vs suburban life vs rural life. There is such an either/or factor in all this. Either you live in a city and have, most likely, cramped quarters and high rents or you escape to the suburbs or you hunker down in the rural life. All three have very positive aspects. The countryside can be lovely, depending on where you are. Home and gardens in the suburbs can be far larger than elsewhere. Life can certainly be more convenient when you go from house to garage to car to drive-in banks and huge supermarkets. Somehow, though, it just doesn't have the same appeal anymore as deciding impulsively to enjoy the weather and walk somewhere to do something. How about biking to school instead of being forced to work around the school bus schedule or forced to work out plans to pick up the kids? It certainly makes them far more independent. Recently, I had a conversation with a German woman who works in a hospital program for the severely obese, a growing group over here unfortunately. She was shocked to hear that often in the US you have to get in a car and drive somewhere to go out for your 10,000 steps a day. For the first time she was able to understand what she read or heard at various courses. She found it very off-putting and counterproductive to get in a car first before getting some more-or-less natural exercise, like walking.

A more thorough way of looking at the factors that make a city great along with links is at www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/19/arts/rmontyler.php. Interestingly, Munich actually came in number one and Hamburg number eighteen of this survey of the world’s top twenty cities.
- posted by Gloria @ 6:57 PM