mf.rox

I just started watching Supersize Me, and I had to turn it off because it gave me a feeling of dread. On of the things it said in the movie was that 1/4 of Americans eat at a fast-food restaurant every day. I really can’t believe that. It’s like nothing I can even imagine. Does this mean my life and experiences are so far from those of most Americans? On one hand, I’ve assumed that for a long time. On the other hand, having a little, concrete example of a basic but major lifestyle difference really freaked me out.

It dawned on me last summer that every time I go back to the US, people are fatter and ruder. This sounds like a really mean thing to say, but on the other hand, it’s true. It’s like there’s been an exponential explosion in people’s weight, just during the five years I’ve been in China. Sizes that I NEVER saw in real life, only on documentaries about obesity, seem to be common now. A guy on the plane from San Francisco to Cincinatti needed an extension on his seat belt because he couldn’t get the normal one around his waist. The woman sitting next to me was angry at me because she asked me to put up my armrest so she would have more room (she was already several inches into my seat, so I couldn’t sit without crossing my legs), but I wouldn’t do it. Plus, people were so nasty. Some security people in one airport openly made fun of my clothing. It was I was trapped amongst a bunch of overgrown 12-year-olds.

Just now, after watching the movie, I was fretting about this, and came to the net bar to vent. The first thing I saw on Yahoo news was an article called, “Modern Americans: A Rude, Boorish Lot?”

Sometimes I feel like, “Who are these Americans?” I don’t seem to fit in with a lot of people in the US, politically, culturally, religiously, etc. It seems like I can’t understand a lot of people’s points of view at all.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 14th, 2005 at 9:52 pm and is filed under General, Movies and TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.