Jess in HD

Whenever I came home from Uganda for a visit, my friends would always ask if I was going through culture shock. The answer was yes, but not in the way people may have imaged. Sure, the hipster on the ironic pee wee herman bike wearing bumble bee sunglasses drinking a chai latte on the streets of the East Village was a bit different from stopping at the machomo stand filled with grilled 3-day old goat (or dysentery on a stick) and bottles of warm coke. On a more serious note, sure, poverty was so extreme in Uganda that acquiring food stamps would seem like winning the lottery. But actually dealing with that extreme contrast wasn’t so hard. I mean, what can you do? Well, I was working abroad to help fix it. Freaking out wasn't going to contribute much. I could imagine if I started lecturing everyone about global inequality. I think a Ugandan would smile at first and then stare at me blankly. An American would think I was like one of those militant Vegans that tries to make you feel guilty about eating eggs. Uh, don’t come between me and my food, hippie!

In actuality, the thing that always startles me when I fling myself back and forth across the planet is what I missed culturally from the US. There are constant debates about what American culture means and if there’s really any culture at all. But in some ways living outside the US has helped magnify American culture for me. I guess it’s because I have something to compare it to. American is not Ugandan. It’s not French or Russian either. So when I come home and the whole country is going on about Geiko commercials and tea baggers it seems like it is being shouted at me. “GEIKO WILL SAVE YOU MONEY!” “WE HATE EVERYBODY WHO IS DIFFERENT FROM US!”

When I came home for a visit a year ago, the whole country had gone HD. I couldn’t figure out what it meant and why it was necessary. I was the luddite who wouldn’t go from cassette tape to CD. I was struggling to figure it out and it was EVERYWHERE. Every commercial, news program, electronic equipment, water cooler conversation: HD HD HD.

When I came home again for my brother’s wedding a half a year later, HD was so entrenched in our vernacular that people were using to describe states of mind. That’s when I got it. Yes, I could imagine thoughts and feelings and observations in high def. (That’s high definition or HD, ya silly luddite) The reason I finally understood this as a concept was because when I would come home, I was experiencing American culture in HD. The things I dreamt about when I was gone (watching Friday Night Lights in real time on Kate's satellite or eating an everything bagel) and the things I stressed about (Obama being perfect, my mom) came into very sharp relief.

A friend of mine suggested today that instead of a geographic blog that I create a blog that could go with me wherever I might go. It was like she read my mind (Again! Get out of my head Jeanne!) I haven’t been a big fan of my DC blog, because I think my observations are a bit confined and boring really. I’m hoping this new blog can travel with me from the Harris Tweeter to the Middle East. I know HD as a technology may not last into the distant future, but I think the concept as a state of mind might, at least for me. I've renamed and removed my DC blog and replaced it with this one. Here it is, Jess in HD.