I like cheese." When I asked my roommate, Heather, what kind of music she liked, this wasn't a reply I was expecting. My only response was to lean in farther, and ask again, "I'm not sure I heard you correctly. What kind of music did you say you liked?" She looked me straight in the eye and replied as if her answer was completely in the norm: "I really enjoy cheese music." Again, I was puzzled and unable to come up with a response other than "Oh."
After some recovery time, I asked Heather to look through my list of MP3s and see if she could play some "cheese-like" songs that would give me a better idea of artists she enjoyed. As the beats of Madonna, Britney and the "not-cheese but still loved" songs of New Found Glory poured out of my speakers, I breathed a small sigh of relief. Listening to her taste in music was looking better with every song. Why didn't my roommate classify her music interests as "pop," as my friends from N.J., Pa. or N.Y. would have? Her slang comes from a place a bit farther away: England.
Watching Heather react to a new country and new ideas, and experience a culture that's completely different from Britain's has been very rewarding.
Think back to the first time you saw Beaver Stadium explode with positive energy. Though that may have been the first time you actually saw a major football game from the stands, you probably had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Here in America, almost every television is tuned to the same channel come late January. In fact, you may have been watching since the Raiders dominated the Redskins in '84, and the only way you would have missed seeing the Patriots' Adam Vinatieri celebrate his Super Bowl game-winning field goal is if you were grabbing some more drinks and finger food from the fridge.
When my roommate experienced her first football game in America, it delighted her to hear the roar of the Penn State crowd every time the Lions scored. In England, watching "American football" isn't that popular of a pastime. Instead, they have their own football, but not the kind with helmets and quarterbacks.
The world over, soccer is the popular sport to watch. Watching the F.A. Cup in England is the equivalent of tuning in for the Super Bowl here.
I've had other deep debates since meeting Heather. I had to defend calling Pepsi "soda" to my former roommate my entire freshman year. I finally got away from the rest of my "pop-drinking" floor, only to have to deal with a "fizzy drinker" from England.
Though I have to admit "fizzy drinks" is a unique way to describe soda, I can honestly say I've never heard Heather utter a "Cheerio" to me, as we've passed each other on the street. The British have their own lingo, but they shouldn't be thought of in the preconceived film stereotypes. Not all of them are the Knights of Ni questing for the Holy Grail, or have horrible teeth like the International Man of Mystery, Austin Powers.
In the same sense, I've had to break down some of Heather's stereotypes of Americans. Though everyone does compliment her accent, neither one of us has heard any American ask her if she "knows the Queen." I'm also glad Heather hasn't spotted any Penn Staters wearing the dreadful fanny packs she sees on tourists in England.
Despite all our differences, it has been quite an experience getting to know someone on a personal level from such a different culture. Expanding my own ideas as a result of hearing an opinion that completely contradicts my own has already let me become more open-minded and grow as an individual. No matter how much I change, the amount of learning and growing that takes place in the mind of a foreign student over a year is -- to me -- unimaginable. This first short month has convinced me to apply to study abroad before graduating from Penn State. If you haven't already given studying abroad a thought, go check out the Boucke Building or attend today's open house with international students. You just may be the one American tourist who looks good wearing a fanny pack.
But don't call it that. "Fanny" means something else in England.
