Everybody in the World is Celebrating Memorial Day

I remember working at the cemetery and everyone aways referred to Memorial Day as Christmas for cemeteries. I, personally, forgot this year, but, then, I celebrated in November.

I think it's funny when Slovak people refer to "everyone in the whole world". They think people are just like they are everywhere. I have to remind them that Slovak people are the weird ones, not the rest of the world. Then I stop and I think about how few cultures I truly know intimately. I know American and Slovak cultures and a little bit of French, but that's it. How is it that as americans we think the world revolves around us and that we're the normal ones? We're such megalomaniacs, but then I realize that that's normal. Even the Slovaks do it.

It's interesting and slightly dissimulating for a culture to value and even covet our products and certain elements of our culture and still abhor the culture in general. Chinese people love Nikes, Yao Ming and the NBA, but that doesn't mean they're anything like us in any way. We can't even imagine how different their values are. They certainly don't think we're right or that they shoud try to live the way we do. French people love to sample all cultures. When I lived in France, I was so frustrated because everyone wanted to go to Ethiopian or Chinese restaurants. I wanted French cuisine! However, I guarantee that doesn't mean they want any part of the American dream or blending races and cultures, and that's especially true if your skin is anything but pale, pale white. Slovak people love american movies and tv shows. I don't care how much they hate America, they all watched Dallas and 90210 with a kind of hysteria that matched our own. Milan knows those shows better than I do. They might also spurn America's use of bioengineering in our food, but they still refer to everything that's good as "America", but not usually to my face. The funniest part of that is that many Slovaks do not distinguish between North, Central and South America. Just like everything in Eastern Europe is Russia for us. Forget knowing anything about which countries used to be in the Soviet Union.

It's just become kind of funny for me how focused we are on our own cultures. No matter how into international travel you are or how you try to educate yourself on world affairs, you want to live the way you live, not the way they live. After a couple of days of weiner schnitzel in Austria or Germany or several months of saurkraut in Slovakia, or even several months in France eating baguettes, you're going to begin searching desperately for that hamburger or that peanut butter and jelly on soft, shitty white bread or a nice tossed salad. That goes for everyone, not just americans. Milan cooks Slovak food when he's at the lake because our food doesn't cut it for him. Steak every day wouldn't give him peace. No matter how hard someone studies English and how much they love america or how many "I heart New York" t-shirts they own, they still think the way they live is better, and for them, they're right.