Michigan – Back to the West.. well, a different part of the west.

2006 – Detroit, USA

I wasn’t as excited when I was told I would be sent to Detroit and Chicago for a few weeks. I mean, it was cool, however the United States just wasn’t exotic. Plus it’s full of those annoying Americans who all think the US is at the centre of the world. Man I was really, really wrong.

Americans in America are extremely hospitable, friendly, and fall over themselves the help you out. However they did always seemed to think I was British. Always asking what I was doing, and how I liked the place, I never had a lunch time alone where the hosts wouldn’t offer to take me to another American institution. Coney Island, Appleby’s, cheeseburger joints, all were covered off (and probably a few more). Sure, they weren’t all fine dining experiences, but they all tasted OK and it was fun just to see what they were all about.

I’m a sucker for pop culture references, and I found that during my time in both Detroit and Chicago I was seeing things in real life, and correlating it to something that I’d seen in TV or on movies. I had many moments like “Hey, that’s the train lines they drove under in the Blues Brothers” or “Woah, the Amish people really do dress like that” or “Hey cool, a trailer park”. Everything new I experienced in real life seemed like it was still a little familiar – almost as if I was living in a television series, and I loved every moment of it.

There seemed to be so many people who are just funny – I’m not sure if they were trying to be or not. Like a guy who walks into a Subway and when observing the menu, sees fit to tell everyone around him who’ll listen just how hungry he is. Or the fully grown man who’s listening to his MP3 player who just decides to start rapping along to Jay-Z, and with an emphatic “Wooh” jumps on his skateboard and pushes quickly through the crowd. Or the guy standing next to me also watching the rapping skateboarder, observing “Man, that guy is crazy”, and then turns to me and asks for a dollar.

I don’t know if I like America for all the right reasons, but it’s a hellova lot of fun. So many Australians look only to Europe or Asia when planning their travels, and ignore the entirely new experience they can have in the US. By ignoring the yanks, you’re the one who misses out, not them.