Initial Thoughts

So America, to many the land of hopes and dreams, a land where many Irish people have come and made very successful lives for themselves. A land of pride, integrity and a nation of leaders. But is America all that it seems? Most peoples ramblings in America consist of a long weekend shopping in Macy’s and trying out a bagel while complaining about having to tip the waitress. Typically, this does not give an accurate reflection of what a country is really like. So for the Summer of 2012, I am here as more than a tourist. I am officially “an alien with permission to work”, or at least, that’s what my Social Security form told me I was. To my friends Im on a J-1 visa program.

America is a very overwhelming place. Everything is big and obnoxious, EVERYTHING! Once you step off the airplane you get a sense of what America is really like. It is an uneasy feeling and a feeling of threat almost. You are assumed that you have the potential to harm America, and they have no problem in letting you know that. Interrogations by Officers from the Department of Homeland Security, body frisks and sniffer dogs are rampant. While picking up my bag, I was shocked to see a sniffer dog standing beside my hand luggage wagging his tail. From watching episodes of Customs I knew this wasn’t good. It transpired to be a sniffer dog trained to sniff for fruit, of which I had some in my bag that morning, a little snippet of information that would come back to haunt me when David Clarke rang me unexpectedly! More on that later.

From there I went through the doors to meet Kelly, who was picking me up from the airport. Or getting a ride as they say here, which means an entirely different thing back home in Ireland! The airport is very industrial and leads straight on to the highway, no welcome to the USA signs to be seen anywhere. Travelling down Route 1 was an amazing culture shock. Large restaurants and other establishments dotted along the road with massive Neon signs and flashing lights set a very manic atmosphere.

For the first couple of days I was a typical tourist. Finding my feet, sampling the fine liquors (getting well hassled for ID might I add) and rambling around were the orders of the day. My good friend David was here too, albeit getting raped by MBTA in the process! David was here for a few days before travelling to New York on business before travelling home, or so I thought.

33,000 flags to honour fallen MA soldiers on Memorial Day

I received a phone call one day whilst walking through CVS, a pharmacy that sells everything here! I was delighted, thinking it must be someone looking to arrange an interview after all the applications I filled in. No, it was a member of the Department of Homeland Security telling me that I was under investigation for attempting to smuggle fruit into the country! I felt wobbly at the knees as I attempted to explain the situation, but it transpired to be David with an American twang on his voice!

As I am here on my J-1 alone, it leaves me with lots of time to think and reflect on my new surroundings. Almost immediately, I managed to see some idiosyncrasies about life as a Resident in America. America most definitely isn’t the 7^th heaven that I saw on TV shows as a kid. It’s more a land of Irony and Paradox than it is of hopes and dreams.