For your amusement

I found this description of the U.S. in a Minotel catalog (European-based hotel chain), underneath their listing for a hotel in Boston:

"So much of the country has been filmed, photographed, painted and written about that you need to peel back layers of representation to stop it from looking like a stage setting. This can make the country seem strangely familiar when you first encounter novelties like 24-hour shopping, bottomless cups of coffee, 'have a nice day', drive-thru banks, TV evangelists and newspapers tossed onto lawns. But you'd be foolish to read too much into this surface familiarity, since you only have to watch Oprah for half an hour to realize that the rituals and currents of American life are as complex, seductive, and bewildering as the most alien of cultures..."

Reading this made me think of visiting the Houses of Parliament in London. When I toured it years ago, there was a painting of the Mayflower, which basically looked like 10 pilgrims heading out in a rowboat across the Atlantic. I wasn't sure whether they were supposed to look gutsy or desperate or just a bit crazy, but whatever the point of it, I was very amused of the Brits' portrayal of the beginnings of America.

Sometimes I think one of the basic benefits of travel is seeing your own culture, or perhaps yourself, from a new, fresh, or different perspective.