Being a foreigner
It's funny the way people treat you when they realize that you're a foreigner. If you're outside the "basic" countries of your comrade citizens, such as how Canada and Mexico are for yankees and Sweden and Estonia are for Finns. Especially if you're living in a country.
I've always taken the approach of immersion, fully blending to my current environment and survive with the local language and culture. It's fun to measure my knowledge level by testing myself against different barrier thresholds, now I'm in the four-questions barrier in Latvian and getting better all the time. The question barriers are all about the fact how many questions and witty ripostes you can deliver home before one has to switch to a more universal language to tell that I have no idea what that last question meant.
Still, for the issue of being a foreigner. First of all, the locals are friendly towards me, because I'm something special. I'm a red M&M in a bowl of brown ones some neurotic psycho has sorted for his weird fetish nights. This means that when I speak, people tend to listen, because I bring the wisdom of the large world or something. Honestly I have no idea why this reaction should be as it is, of course my background has been playing with kids around the world, so I might have some zany issues with my views. But when I've asked this from other ex-pats, they have told the same story. Cool thing is that I get to meet people I wouldn't usually meet, but now I can - because I'm a friggin' foreigner.
The coolest part however is the fact that now I'm meeting fellow foreigners and natives of my home country and they also have a quirky view of me, they think I'm a god somebody, whilst if I'd live in Finland I would probably just be any man on the street. Being an ex-pat is always a humbling experience, no matter how long you do it. Changing the scene is like changing your brain, it's just weird at start and you can't do anything except wonder why it feels like people are staring at you. It's hard to get by and the worst thing is the relying on others, even though it can be a prolific experience.
On a personal note, if you haven't heard about a band called The Cat Empire and like cool Ska-Jazz-Dub-Rock-Goodfeel-tunes , you're going to love this band. They're an Oz band and totally kick ass. One of the bands of the year for me, they even have super-cool signet rings in their web-shop. The little nerdy music fan within me starts to raise his head when I listen to this music.
Also, there are more and more people reading my writings, it would be pretty cool to actually here something about you. Especially about the contingent on the East Coast in the States, which seems to have taken a massive approach. Spread the word and hit me with a message to know what you think about my stuff, if you even do :) Hate mails are just as appreciated.
Also, I'm thinking of moving my blog to my own server, does anybody have any idea if I can move my old posts there? Of course I can just use Ecto and republish them to Wordpress, but if it could be done any easier, it would be cool. Blogger has made it quite annoying to do any kind of design on the site.
Holla back, aight!
I've always taken the approach of immersion, fully blending to my current environment and survive with the local language and culture. It's fun to measure my knowledge level by testing myself against different barrier thresholds, now I'm in the four-questions barrier in Latvian and getting better all the time. The question barriers are all about the fact how many questions and witty ripostes you can deliver home before one has to switch to a more universal language to tell that I have no idea what that last question meant.
Still, for the issue of being a foreigner. First of all, the locals are friendly towards me, because I'm something special. I'm a red M&M in a bowl of brown ones some neurotic psycho has sorted for his weird fetish nights. This means that when I speak, people tend to listen, because I bring the wisdom of the large world or something. Honestly I have no idea why this reaction should be as it is, of course my background has been playing with kids around the world, so I might have some zany issues with my views. But when I've asked this from other ex-pats, they have told the same story. Cool thing is that I get to meet people I wouldn't usually meet, but now I can - because I'm a friggin' foreigner.
The coolest part however is the fact that now I'm meeting fellow foreigners and natives of my home country and they also have a quirky view of me, they think I'm a god somebody, whilst if I'd live in Finland I would probably just be any man on the street. Being an ex-pat is always a humbling experience, no matter how long you do it. Changing the scene is like changing your brain, it's just weird at start and you can't do anything except wonder why it feels like people are staring at you. It's hard to get by and the worst thing is the relying on others, even though it can be a prolific experience.
On a personal note, if you haven't heard about a band called The Cat Empire and like cool Ska-Jazz-Dub-Rock-Goodfeel-tunes , you're going to love this band. They're an Oz band and totally kick ass. One of the bands of the year for me, they even have super-cool signet rings in their web-shop. The little nerdy music fan within me starts to raise his head when I listen to this music.
Also, there are more and more people reading my writings, it would be pretty cool to actually here something about you. Especially about the contingent on the East Coast in the States, which seems to have taken a massive approach. Spread the word and hit me with a message to know what you think about my stuff, if you even do :) Hate mails are just as appreciated.
Also, I'm thinking of moving my blog to my own server, does anybody have any idea if I can move my old posts there? Of course I can just use Ecto and republish them to Wordpress, but if it could be done any easier, it would be cool. Blogger has made it quite annoying to do any kind of design on the site.
Holla back, aight!
posted by Unknown at 10:00 pm
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