Tuesday, November 18, 2003
today was a great, great day.
i had a trainee today on Hospital, as always. this guy was from Australia. but he had lived in Bettendorf, Iowa since he was fourteen and had lost his accent. anyway, i knew something was amiss, because he kept pronouncing "Finkbine" as "FinkBEAN." so i asked him where he was from, and as he told me about Australia, his Australian accent gradually came back. it was funny. i guess people tend to compose themselves a particular way in order to fit in, and when those little social barriers go down (i.e. when i was interested in where he was from), so do the pretenses.
i wonder, if i lived in Australia for five years, would i retain or renounce my middle American accent? i guess it has something to do with development. i went to high school with a guy who was born in England and lost his accent around ninth grade. but his parents, who had lived in Iowa just as long as he had, of course, both speak perfect British to this day. i guess adolescents are more geared toward conformity than older folks. it would be difficult for the average teenager to go through high school in America if he or she sounded like Harry Potter.
jake and danny and i spent a long evening looking at old pictures, including several rolls from our high school orchestra's Europe tour in 2000. and it's making me REALLY want to travel the world again. i haven't left the USA since three years and four months ago when we got back from Germany. i haven't left the Midwest since our New York trip for new year's. i haven't left Iowa since two months ago when we drove to Minneapolis. i haven't left the Iowa City/Coralville area since a few weeks ago when the guys and i went to Toddville (or "Fuckville" as we call it) to try to see auroras. i haven't left my apartment for over two hours. etc. etc. etc. the point is, i want to travel abroad again.
i went to Wild Bill's Coffeeshop today. that place is great. normally when i think of coffeeshops i think of track lighting, abstract paintings and pretentious people stirring their double lattes and arguing about Robert Frost or whatever. but i walked into Wild Bill's (which is in a classroom in the school of social work on a really beautiful secluded part of the UI campus), and the guy who runs the place was sitting at a table building a gingerbread house. he immediately saw me and engaged me in friendly conversation, and we exchanged a dollar bill for a mug of hot cider. i felt like i was in preschool. i loved it.
i had a trainee today on Hospital, as always. this guy was from Australia. but he had lived in Bettendorf, Iowa since he was fourteen and had lost his accent. anyway, i knew something was amiss, because he kept pronouncing "Finkbine" as "FinkBEAN." so i asked him where he was from, and as he told me about Australia, his Australian accent gradually came back. it was funny. i guess people tend to compose themselves a particular way in order to fit in, and when those little social barriers go down (i.e. when i was interested in where he was from), so do the pretenses.
i wonder, if i lived in Australia for five years, would i retain or renounce my middle American accent? i guess it has something to do with development. i went to high school with a guy who was born in England and lost his accent around ninth grade. but his parents, who had lived in Iowa just as long as he had, of course, both speak perfect British to this day. i guess adolescents are more geared toward conformity than older folks. it would be difficult for the average teenager to go through high school in America if he or she sounded like Harry Potter.
jake and danny and i spent a long evening looking at old pictures, including several rolls from our high school orchestra's Europe tour in 2000. and it's making me REALLY want to travel the world again. i haven't left the USA since three years and four months ago when we got back from Germany. i haven't left the Midwest since our New York trip for new year's. i haven't left Iowa since two months ago when we drove to Minneapolis. i haven't left the Iowa City/Coralville area since a few weeks ago when the guys and i went to Toddville (or "Fuckville" as we call it) to try to see auroras. i haven't left my apartment for over two hours. etc. etc. etc. the point is, i want to travel abroad again.
i went to Wild Bill's Coffeeshop today. that place is great. normally when i think of coffeeshops i think of track lighting, abstract paintings and pretentious people stirring their double lattes and arguing about Robert Frost or whatever. but i walked into Wild Bill's (which is in a classroom in the school of social work on a really beautiful secluded part of the UI campus), and the guy who runs the place was sitting at a table building a gingerbread house. he immediately saw me and engaged me in friendly conversation, and we exchanged a dollar bill for a mug of hot cider. i felt like i was in preschool. i loved it.
