Last week, sitting in my tutorial and listening to a presentation on an article about the Internet in Trinidad, I came to a sudden realization: I have never been as foreign as I am right now in my department.
The epiphany occurred as I puzzled out comments by two of the presenters. The Internet, to them, has an identity. Not just any identity, but an American one. "What?", I thought.
As soon as the presentation ended, I raised my hand to address one of the discussion questions, which regarded the identity of the Internet, and individuals' identification while using the internet. As I asked the question, "I don't know if I'm the only American here..." I scanned the room of twenty or so people, and got nothing. Nobody moved, nodded, shook their heads... only my professor chuckled.
Shocking. Even in Scotland, I couldn't attend any of my classes without at least being in the company of one other American. Here, the classes are completely dominated by Canadians (although I don't think I was the only foreigner in class that day).
I've never felt so foreign in my life, except perhaps when I was the only American in Italy on a European exchange program.
Oh. The result of the discussion regarding the identity of the Internet (or at least what I took away): Canadians definitely have a complex about their southern neighbor.
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