News Back Home

I remember my first trip abroad. I was 14 and traveling with the German Language School Conference. Our three-week trip consisted of two homestays: two weeks with a family in Germany and one week with a family in Austria.

We were given much advice to ease the culture shock and to transition into the immersion experience. In particular I remember that we were advised against calling home. Of course, we all called our families immediately upon arrival, but thereafter we were advised to stay immersed in the local culture and not worry about what was happening on the other side of the Atlantic. This was before online social media and just barely after e-mail started to take off. Immersion, for me at least, was relatively simple.

Sixteen years later--theoretically 16 years wiser--I find it far more difficult to stay immersed in the local culture. Some of the [dis]connection is intentional and some of it just happens. During the week, I work in an office where I am constantly connected to the Internet. It is very easy to check Google News or the Rachel Maddow Show or listen to English-language podcasts on iTunes, for example. I do read the German news, but not nearly as often as I should. That said, I don't surround myself with English-speaking expats either. I live with native German-speakers, speak German all day every day, and enjoy exploring German (and European) culture.

Then something happens that draws my attention back to the U.S.  This week it was the Supreme Court  rulings, in April it was the Boston Marathon bombings, in January it was President Obama's Inauguration, and so on. And it's certainly not all bad. The mid-morning timing of the Supreme Court's DOMA and Prop 8 decisions, for example, combined with the 6-hour time difference to Germany and the wonders of Facebook and mobile technology, allowed me to celebrate the historic victories yesterday online with many of my friends while they in turn were celebrating in the streets in the U.S. And this is a key point: so many current events that happen in the U.S. don't make the news here until the next day. (Of course, the reverse applies to global news reaching the general U.S. public as well.) Not only is there a time lag in communication of events, there is a conceptual lag, too. We simply care most about the things we know best. My mind may take in and process German news and culture, but when it comes to major U.S. events, my heart is most often immediately there on U.S. American soil -- and I think it's okay that way, too.