america was always a dream to me. i can’t really tell why but most likely – and as for so many people who came – it felt like the promised land, where everything was possible, where you could achieve if you only try hard enough. now being 27, it’s my fourth time here (having seen most of the east coast, ohio, new orleans and the little places in between) – i wanted to show astrid why i though i should try my luck here one day. i wanted to show her the differences, the little moments of life here – and for now ended up seeing a different america, a somehow disappointing america. it might come with age or profession, but some of the experiences we have made up until now just do not fit with my picture of this country. ok, down here in florida, people are probably sick of the tourists, theme parks and all the stuff that comes with it. but where is the genuine friendliness about americans, not the fake smiles that you see everywhere? i went down to the starbucks that is located in the hotel lobby – i ordered and received “enjoy your coffee and have a lovely day” the waitress said, when i took off. but the color of her voice – as caspar would say in peter hoegs “the quiet girl” – the color of her voice spoke differently. it’s something someone told her to say to enrich the customer experience. it’s something she has to say a million times a day, because the staff training manual tells her to. it might have been 9\/11 but this country has changed, changed for the worse. i found hope though in the most unlikely place. one of the staffers who showed us our seats in the panther’s hockey game – well he must have been well above 70, but his smile, his voice spoke different. born to imigrants in brooklyn he had worked his way up from poor kid to a senior residence in florida. he was proud of what he had accomplished and assured that “everyone could make it” – it migh be an illusion or a dream all long gone but i’d rather believe in an old man’s words then in the starbucks training manual.<\/p>\n
i believe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
america was always a dream to me. i can’t really tell why but most likely – and as for so many people who came – it felt like the promised land, where everything was possible, where you could achieve if you only try hard enough. now being 27, it’s my fourth time here (having seen…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miracle-drug"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindwork.net\/myblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindwork.net\/myblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindwork.net\/myblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindwork.net\/myblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindwork.net\/myblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mindwork.net\/myblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindwork.net\/myblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindwork.net\/myblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindwork.net\/myblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}