Won't be able to post this for some undetermined amount of time since it appears that my host managed to booch scripts pretty badly. Aka, my movable type is down. Bah.

So I've been home from DC for 3 days now. So much to write down to remember, so many pictures to get transferred from film to digital so I can put them up. I need to find somewhere that scans from negatives. My prints are absolute shit. They have digital artefacts on some of them. I know what grain looks like. This is so not standard 400 ASA grain, it's the kind of crap I get on my pics from my digital camera. I really suspect that they're scanning the negatives and printing the pictures digitally.

Which would be fine, if it didn't look like shit. I'm really annoyed by this. It makes the actual prints I got done un-scannable. GAH! I at least have some pure beautiful shots.

I think I learned a few things this trip. The most remarkable to me is how fundamentally different the states and Americans are from my home and myself. I think the culture shock was such a surprise to me because I expected something a lot more similar. I mean, we look the same, we talk the same (for the most part), we watch the same TV shows, the same movies, so much is the same, and should be the same. But it's not.

I remember one of my history teachers once showing (as we studied the American Revolution) that the beginnings of each of our countries set our national identities. Set the type of personality we had en masse as a Country. Now that I've had some time experiencing the US from within her borders, I really believe he was right. Canada achieved her freedom as a country with patience and diplomacy. The US through war and aggression. And it really does show.

It shows in the language, the slang used. The flags everywhere. Even remembering the undeniable tragedy of 9/11 is so in your face. The presentation and choices of quotes on the WWII memorial. Personalities.

I was so out of my depth. I'm honestly so glad to be home, where everything makes sense. Where I understand where people are coming from, because I come from the same place. Where *I* am the freak because I fly my flag on a pole (kinda) year-round.

I want to travel more. I want to experience more of the world around me, including the States. I'm just reeling a little from having my assumptions both proven and dis-proven; depending on which one I was holding onto at that moment. I had never travelled in the States as an adult, and alone. The world looks different from that spot.

I'm also very very hesitant to explore in depth my reactions to the states on here. It's just what's coming out of my fingers right now. *laughs* I know some come from a place of strong bias, even to the level of hate, many Canadians have for the states. I know I'm biased like that. But that's not all of it.

And there's my 30 minutes.