Thoughts on Coming Home

I am currently wrapping up a three-week "furlough", as we refer to trips back to the States, and have found being back home both comfortingly familiar and oddly strange. It's as if I'm slipping easily back into old ways, but seeing them with new eyes, now that I have something completely different to compare them with.

Here are some of my most honest first impressions upon coming home and spending time in both Houston and New York:

• I find myself gawking like any immigrant at how clean, shiny, glistening & modern everything looks: roads, cars, buildings, the electronic gadgets that are literally everywhere...
• It's striking how many different ethnicities there are, and also distinct styles or subcultures. In Peru most people dress pretty simply; here you have everything from gangster chic, to baggy & grungy, to stylish and professional. (I remember this struck me in Santiago also - there seems to be much greater emphasis on and variety in fashion in a developed country.)
• Americans (or estadounidenses to be more precise) keep to themselves and don't interact with strangers much, particularly people of other races and classes. In contrast, Peruvians don't interact much across class lines, but absolutely love talking to foreigners. (I am also newly aware of the Latino immigrant community, who are everywhere, mostly in service positions.)
• The infrastructure here is amazing: transportation, communication, & technology are all available, efficient, easy, relatively safe & cheap! And the indoor heating, safe-to-drink tap water and 24/7 hot running water truly make me feel much less likely to get sick or have health problems (which of course means people get more work done and take less time off - one of the subtle ways that a rich society can keep perpetuating its own success).
• The negative side of wealth: it isolates. How can you have a sense of community when everyone drives around in their own car, has their own house or condo, and spends their spare time shopping, watching TV & surfing their hi-speed Internet? Especially after living in a more traditional society, this strikes me as really unnatural.
• Marketing and commercialization are literally everywhere. So are legal disclaimers. As my friend Andrew reminds me, the US would not be the biggest economy in the world if it wasn't also selling and marketing all kinds of unnecessary products!
• On a related note, nearly all enjoyment here requires spending money. No wonder making money is such a national obsession, and saving so painful, and debt so common! I hope, when I move back to the States, to do more activities with my friends that cost no money; good old activities which are now probably considered nerdy, like conversation, book clubs, or board games.
  
• The food... It is so convenient, yet so unnatural. How bizarre that most of what we buy at the supermarket has traveled long distances, uses preservatives or hormones, and comes in wasteful packaging. I realize that Americans are willing to pay a premium on convenience and on exotic goods, and that globalization, specialization, and corporate farming (and subsidies) make food a lot cheaper, but at some point the old-fashioned village market, where farmers & traders bring their fresh, natural, local wares to sell to their neighbors, just makes more sense and seems less... well, odd!
• Beauty & image - way more emphasized here. In Peru a much broader range of women are considered good-looking. It appears that more developed countries do get more self-conscious about image. I listened almost in shock as some of my most beautiful friends ticked off worries about their appearance.
• Despite the increasing diversity of the US, especially in the urban areas, we are still very much a country of Anglo heritage. People are definitely more tactful/repressed, or can't speak as frankly or jokingly on as wide a range of subjects, as Peruvians.
• Elevator music is everywhere. One of the most tangible differences for me between the US & Peru is the kind of music you hear in places like cabs, stores & people's homes. Goodbye cumbia, chicha, salsa & Latin dancehall - hello canned jazz!

Over all, I have a newfound appreciation for the immigrant experience - both the rich culture & community they leave behind, and the strong pull of economic opportunity in the US. Who wouldn't want their kids to be safer, have better education, and be almost guaranteed a job if they work hard? At the same time I can see how much is lost in the process of becoming American, and how culture shock, language barriers, and raising children who don't understand you can become a lifelong (and lonely) part of the immigrant experience.