Little Pieces of Culture

The program is not a literal exchange in that Halima will not be coming to my school even though I am going to hers. All international teachers spend six weeks hosted by a U.S. university before becoming hosts themselves. Halima visited Nebraska, Indiana, and Washington, D.C. when she spent her time here. When I first heard that those were the places she had visited, my reaction was that she had not seen a true representation of the United States. What about New York? What about California? What about Texas? It all goes back to that unanswerable question of what the "real America" is. And, of course, what about Florida, the state in which I reside? How can I as one individual properly represent the whole diverse state of (often wacky) Florida, not to mention the whole extraordinarily diverse United States? It's clearly not going to be possible. There is no easy way to sum up American culture. I will just have to use as a starting point a couple of the (somewhat wacky) gifts I plan on bringing: an "Art Deco of South Beach" calendar and a canvas alligator-and-flamingo print tote bag.