Cultural differences
Hii!! So, I have been to the United States to work and It was honestly such an awful experience... First things that happened was that I was filling out a form that asked about ancestry and color, I am white, but they stopped me because they said I was mixed because my mother is black and my father is white... I honestly don't understand this obsession with race and ethnicity that people have there. In Brazil, this thing called "mixed" doesn't exist, we have "pardo" which in truth no one knows how to explain what it is. My mother and father are mixed, and so are my grandparents and greatgrandparents. And I found out that there I was "exotic" not only for being Latina but for being the daughter of a black woman and a white man, and here in Brazil that is as common as it gets. There everyone treated me with contempt, as if I had never seen a cell phone or been to Burger King. I lived in São Paulo, literally the largest center of economy and technology in Latin America. I had to keep explaining that I knew how to use an ATM! I met a woman and she was really nice to me, and I asked her what she ate here in the States, because I only ate my own food, and she said "White people food or black people food?" and I was so confused! What's with this segregation there? All-white neighborhoods, all-black neighborhoods... What about the aboriginal people? What about all the other ethnicities? It's like everything is black and white, and I thought I would be welcomed by the communities there, but even the people of Latin descent treated me badly, and I heard more times than I can count that "You're white, there's no way you're Latin." Well, I went to this girl's house, and she told me that I was going to eat "Real black food" but it all tasted bland and artificial. There was no natural seasoning! Not a bit of Urucum! No bay leaves, no coriander, just pre-made seasonings! I'm happy to be home now, because there people are cold and don't know how to season food, here everyone is warm and I missed eating Bobó de camarão and Mandioca!
I'm so sorry you had that awful experience :< As someone that live in the Bible belt in the US alot of people are ignorant, confidently, irrationally, painfully so. There's alot of racism too sadly and segregation of things. White and black churches of the same faith have really different ways of how they do thing, alot of people don't know how to cook, fast food is so saturated here it's insane, along with precooked frozen meals. There's alot wrong and sadly I feel it's just gonna get worse the next few years.
@quietDay6527
Hi! May I ask you what was the reason why you decided to go to the U.S.?
I dreamed about visiting North America about 20 years ago, to visit my cousin. And I expected those 2 or 4 weeks to be the journey of my life: seeing another world with different people and their different everyday routines, feeling the smell of the different air, tasting their food, enjoying and photographing the landscapes and buildings I knew only from Hollywood movies.
I was refused to be given visa, because to go there I should be married, with children, owning a house, some land or a business - to have some reasons to go back. My knowledge of English was regarded as disadvantage, by the way.
Now I am freightened by the people saying things like "when you leave a plane in America you can feel the anger and frustration in the air" or "everything you say might be regarded as offensive and instantly met with a due response". And I thank God I am not there. Though I believe there are still thousands of loving, hard-working, intelligent and valuable people in every country.
What I could say it looks like you are one of the pride descendants of the thousands years old South American civilization. Don't let anybody take it from you, wherever you go! 😊
@quietDay6527
More to the subject of food: Yes, I believe food can be one of the factors we may feel good somewhere else than the place we were born.
One of my relatives who finally went to the U.S. said what she had missed so much was the taste of our bread and the real kielbasa (Polish sausage), and she was surprised that grapes had to be thoroughly washed - with some washing liquid! - before eating.
I hope you find some people, places or foods there to make you feel like home 😊