The Gap Year

From July 2002, I'm travelling from my hometown of Mansfield, England, to nine other Mansfields across the United States; I'll be getting work experience (unpaid) on local newspapers, making friends and generally having a good time.

I'm also publishing a weekly column about my travels here on my web site, and hopefully in some of the newspapers I'll be working for over the five months of my journey.

Starting in Mansfield, MA, I'm then planning to move to Mansfield, CT, PA, OH, MI, IN, AR, TN and TX, flying home just before Christmas.

This Week's Column
Last updated January 5, 2003

Well, I skipped a week in my column, but that's simply because I forgot it was Sunday, my regular update day, and I forgot about this column entirely. I've been so caught up in being home, being with friends and family, and being plunged suddenly into the holiday season. (I never quite got into the holiday spirit during my December in America - possibly because the weather just wasn't dull and grey enough.) Not being on the road, I lost track entirely of what day it was. My apologies.

How can I sum up six months of travels in one column?

Well, the first conclusion may seem obvious (and I've certainly mentioned it before) - but it's probably the most important. America is big. Mindnumbingly big. Stupefyingly big. So big that most Britons - and many Americans - can't quite grasp the size of the place. Over here, we're used to having a small, easily manageable island. We're British - most of us, anyway - and we're proud of our small, embattled, windswept little island. (In fact, I happen to like this small, embattled, windswept little island, thank you very much.)

America is almost like having fifty separate countries that just happen to share a currency and a few laws. It's somewhat like I imagine my continent will become if we ever band together into a United States of Europe - everyone broadly tolerates each other, but there are wildly different views from one side of the continent to the other (and people sometimes get snooty, or scared, or suspicious, of people from "other parts").

As for the third question I posed last week (what, exactly, is American football all about), well, that can be answered in one word. It's about fans. A slightly longer explanation: no matter where I went across the country, I met a lot of people who supported their local football team. Even now, I personally support the Green Bay Packers, a northern football team, since the most fervent football supporters I stayed with supported them. And when you have a couple of dozen teams, each one pooling players from an area, on average, bigger than my entire country, the competition can get pretty fierce - and the fans can get very enthusiastic.

America is a great country; and Americans are a great people - patriotic, kind, and generous. There is, of course, a darker side to the story - I saw some of the shadier side of America while I was travelling on Greyhound Buses. There's also the ever-so-nagging feeling, as a foreign citizen in an airport or bus terminal, that one of the transport police might just arrest you as a terrorist. I'm not kidding - perhaps it's just a little healthy paranoia on my part, but it seems that while Americans at large welcome outsiders, the government and police are none too happy with them. Fortunately, I spent very little time with government and police, and a huge amount of time with the more friendly side of America.

My closing sentiments, then, after six months of columns? They would have to be this: you Americans have made a wonderful country since you threw us out, all those years ago. Don't let the shock of recent events, and the need for more security, screw it up now.

My thanks to everyone I met along my journeys, and a happy new year to all of you.

Thank you!

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