bejohnson
07-05-2004, 02:27 PM
I love it.
Kathryn Bangs: Stranger in a strange land (http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2004/07/05/news/opinion/opin713.txt)
Monday July 5, 2004
By Kathryn Bangs, Journal columnist
Rapid City Journal
BERKELEY, Calif. - The other day my meditation instructor was performing Reiki on me (a healing technique that does not include any contact only the transfer of energy), before I went to my Capoeira lesson (combining Brazilian martial arts and dance). It may have been the medicinal marijuana that California gives out to anyone with scoliosis, but I spontaneously started laughing.
Berkeley is just so different from South Dakota.
Technically, Berkeley is part of America, but the beliefs, customs and language are as foreign as little green men.
Living in Berkeley sometimes feels like being a contestant on a Spanish game show. The audience and the other contestants seem to understand the rules, but I am standing, dumbfounded, debating what to do with the bean bags, storage boxes, and vat of spaghetti.
For starters, saying people in Berkeley are liberal, is the understatement of a lifetime. I may seem liberal in South Dakota, but here I might as well be Rush Limbaugh's long-lost daughter. A month ago I was surrounded by yellow ribbon-clad cars swearing their support for our troops. In Berkeley, the yellow ribbons are replaced by anti-Bush stickers that move from polite indignation to obscene sexual puns.
In the Midwest, you can find American flags and family barbeques on every corner. In San Francisco, Old Glory is replaced by gay pride flags and family-friendly entertainment includes singing drag queens.
Even the laws seem different in Berkeley. For instance, it is perfectly fine to smoke pot, but forgetting to recycle your pop can is a crime punishable by death.
The innocent bake sales of my youth have been transformed into a different practice. Now, when I am offered a fresh sugary treat, the ingredients instantly concern me. In Berkeley, marijuana is as common as baking soda in these desserts. It doesn't matter if they are brownies, cookies or lemon cake, they are anything but innocent.
In some countries people greet each other by bowing, some kiss each other on the cheek. In Berkeley, people "connect." You can connect with someone with a look or a touch. In my group of friends, "connecting" with someone calls for a painfully long hug, synchronized breathing, and piercing eye contact. It can take 30 minutes to leave a party because you can't just say goodbye to everyone, you have to "connect."
The word "connect" is not the only word with an alternate meaning on the West Coast. In some ways, Berkeley has its own, unique language. Suddenly being "present" doesn't indicate your geographical position. And your "energy" describes anything but your molecular content.
The most bizarre language choices in Berkeley are the pick-up lines. There have been lists of funny pick-up-lines circulating online since the Internet's inception, but they have nothing on Berkeley lines. Instead of complimenting your skirt or (in more crude situations) your legs, Berkeley people compliment your aura. With completely straight face someone told me that I "glow." Not my skin, not my eyes, but my aura. In case you were wondering, according to this guy, the color of my aura is purple.
In most places a man might send his girlfriend flowers after a good date, not me. I receive a text message with a single word - "Namaste." After a Google search and a good laugh, I found out that this traditional Hindu greeting translates into "I bow to the divinity within you."
I am a girl from South Dakota. I simply don't know what to do with this except laugh.
I was thinking of traveling abroad this summer, but I think I made the right choice by coming to Berkeley. Berkeley's different beliefs, customs and language are probably as far away as you can get from the Midwest.
Kathryn Bangs, a graduate of Stevens High School, is a junior at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and is spending the summer in Berkeley, Calif. Contact her at katb@gwu.edu.
Kathryn Bangs: Stranger in a strange land (http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2004/07/05/news/opinion/opin713.txt)
Monday July 5, 2004
By Kathryn Bangs, Journal columnist
Rapid City Journal
BERKELEY, Calif. - The other day my meditation instructor was performing Reiki on me (a healing technique that does not include any contact only the transfer of energy), before I went to my Capoeira lesson (combining Brazilian martial arts and dance). It may have been the medicinal marijuana that California gives out to anyone with scoliosis, but I spontaneously started laughing.
Berkeley is just so different from South Dakota.
Technically, Berkeley is part of America, but the beliefs, customs and language are as foreign as little green men.
Living in Berkeley sometimes feels like being a contestant on a Spanish game show. The audience and the other contestants seem to understand the rules, but I am standing, dumbfounded, debating what to do with the bean bags, storage boxes, and vat of spaghetti.
For starters, saying people in Berkeley are liberal, is the understatement of a lifetime. I may seem liberal in South Dakota, but here I might as well be Rush Limbaugh's long-lost daughter. A month ago I was surrounded by yellow ribbon-clad cars swearing their support for our troops. In Berkeley, the yellow ribbons are replaced by anti-Bush stickers that move from polite indignation to obscene sexual puns.
In the Midwest, you can find American flags and family barbeques on every corner. In San Francisco, Old Glory is replaced by gay pride flags and family-friendly entertainment includes singing drag queens.
Even the laws seem different in Berkeley. For instance, it is perfectly fine to smoke pot, but forgetting to recycle your pop can is a crime punishable by death.
The innocent bake sales of my youth have been transformed into a different practice. Now, when I am offered a fresh sugary treat, the ingredients instantly concern me. In Berkeley, marijuana is as common as baking soda in these desserts. It doesn't matter if they are brownies, cookies or lemon cake, they are anything but innocent.
In some countries people greet each other by bowing, some kiss each other on the cheek. In Berkeley, people "connect." You can connect with someone with a look or a touch. In my group of friends, "connecting" with someone calls for a painfully long hug, synchronized breathing, and piercing eye contact. It can take 30 minutes to leave a party because you can't just say goodbye to everyone, you have to "connect."
The word "connect" is not the only word with an alternate meaning on the West Coast. In some ways, Berkeley has its own, unique language. Suddenly being "present" doesn't indicate your geographical position. And your "energy" describes anything but your molecular content.
The most bizarre language choices in Berkeley are the pick-up lines. There have been lists of funny pick-up-lines circulating online since the Internet's inception, but they have nothing on Berkeley lines. Instead of complimenting your skirt or (in more crude situations) your legs, Berkeley people compliment your aura. With completely straight face someone told me that I "glow." Not my skin, not my eyes, but my aura. In case you were wondering, according to this guy, the color of my aura is purple.
In most places a man might send his girlfriend flowers after a good date, not me. I receive a text message with a single word - "Namaste." After a Google search and a good laugh, I found out that this traditional Hindu greeting translates into "I bow to the divinity within you."
I am a girl from South Dakota. I simply don't know what to do with this except laugh.
I was thinking of traveling abroad this summer, but I think I made the right choice by coming to Berkeley. Berkeley's different beliefs, customs and language are probably as far away as you can get from the Midwest.
Kathryn Bangs, a graduate of Stevens High School, is a junior at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and is spending the summer in Berkeley, Calif. Contact her at katb@gwu.edu.