Although we occasionally checked in with the home front while we were overseas, for three weeks we had very little exposure to news headlines and social media. I'm not saying that was a bad thing, but it meant we were met with some surprises when we returned home. One very encouraging surprise was that the Internet had been flooded with reports and stories from international visitors who had come to the United States on the occasion of the World Cup and had had their stereotypes of America and Americans overwhelmed by reality.
For the last 20 years or so I have experienced a lot more foreign travel than I ever imagined, and one thing I have noticed is that very few people have any idea of how vast and how diverse America is. Looking at a map of Texas alone, superimposed on a map of Europe, I see that it covers all or part of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia, and Poland! That kind of vastness is hard for many Europeans to imagine.
As for culture, even Americans get their impressions of our country from Hollywood and whatever highly-curated news filters their way—how much more so those who don't live here? I've learned the futility of trying to convince Europeans that their conception of America does not reflect the reality of America, but where I failed, the World Cup succeeded. Visitor after visitor reported, with amazement, "Everything I was told about the United States was wrong!" They were astounded by what they found, so different from what they had expected, everything from the flavor of ranch dressing to the kindness and warm welcome they experienced in the Deep South—from the people they had been taught to hate. (Indeed, I had to unlearn that low opinion of the American South myself, having grown up in the Northeast.) Americans, trapped in self-flagellation because we allow our flaws to mask our strengths, need to see our country through such eyes!
Why is this relevant to our trip? Because these happy stories mirror ours, both on this trip and indeed on all the trips we've taken to foreign parts. "Everyone said" that the French, especially Parisians, are rude and hate Americans, but our experience was exactly the opposite. We met one, just one rude cab driver in Paris; everyone else was friendly and kind and patient with my very broken French. In our experience—which can't be the same as someone else's but is the only experience by which we can truly judge—people in Europe, and Japan, and Brazil, and The Gambia are as kind and friendly as people anywhere, and do not universally hate Americans. My greatest surprise on this trip was the respect and even admiration we heard expressed for American leadership; I had expected dismay and contempt. Fear-mongering reports flow both ways across the Atlantic!
But we rarely talked politics, at least not directly; ordinary stories about our own lives and all that we have in common were what everyone delighted in sharing. We spoke with people from all over the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Norway, Sweden, Zimbabwe, South Africa, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Germany, Turkey, and more—and found nearly everyone to be interesting, friendly, polite, kind, and sometimes above-and-beyond helpful.
Not everyone can, or should, take a Mediterranean cruise or travel far to see World Cup soccer in person, but surely the world would be better off if we spent less time listening to stories that make us angry and more time experiencing the humanity of our neighbors.
