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Published: December 17th 2007
What's Left Of Plymouth Rock
Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States It Seems That Some Stereotypes Do Contain Truth
Arriving back in the US was as exciting as it was scary. Coming home meant a chance to reconnect with friends, see family and enjoy foods that we had really missed over the last year, but it also meant coming to grips with the United States. After a year long, eye opening view of the rest of the world, the United States had become a big, loud, scary place in a lot of ways.
Thankfully US immigration has a setup in Dublin which allowed us to go through immigration prior to even getting on our plane to leave. That meant, much to our astonishment and happiness, that we didn’t have to wait in lines to get out of the airport once we hit Boston. Once our bags had been drop kicked through Logan airport and deposited in front of us on the baggage carousel, we set out to pick up our final rental car of the trip.
It was pretty fortuitous that we planned to spend some time with Kel’s family in Boston prior to heading home. This allowed us a period of US adjustment before the trip
Beach Rocks and Shadows
Sandwich, Massachusetts, United States was officially over. It gave us a great period to relax and get used to the United States while not being pressured by the upcoming search for employment.
After catching the bus to our rental car agency we picked up our shiny new SUV and set out for Cape Cod, Massachusetts where Kel’s parents live in Sandwich. Kel always loves getting a chance to see her parents and be at home. Sadly, it is pretty rare that we get to spend any serious time with her parents, so it’s always exciting for her when we make that long drive from Logan to Cape Cod.
The First Shock of Being Home: Getting into a car to drive anywhere in the US is a scary, scary prospect. Sure, we’ve been other places that have serious traffic like Bangkok, Hanoi, Hong Kong, London, Berlin, etc. but nowhere in the world are the cars as big and the people as in a hurry as in an American city. Just waiting to leave the airport Kel turned to me and whispered, “the cars are so big…” As if she were afraid that people would stare at her, Kel kept her voice
Mike Playing Japanese Tourist
Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States low as she whispered in awe and shock. The more than an hour drive out of Boston was a wild ride of sights, sounds and incredulousness. Our timing could have been better as we left Boston at rush hour right after work let out. Scary!
Kel’s parents were so happy to see us both, but they were practically teary eyed to see their little girl. They dropped us off at the airport on November 7, 2006 and had not seen us in person since then. I’ve seen Kel pretty happy over the past year but nothing compares to the smile she beams when she gets to see her parents again after a long absence. It was awesome!
Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday that sometimes stumps foreigners. It’s a chance for us to remember our ancestors and the hardships they survived as well as give thanks for everything ewe have received over the last year. It’s meant to be a time of family, a time of happiness and certainly a time of remembrance.
The story states that the original pilgrims who arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts struggled through their first months in their new
Sandwich Boardwalk
Sandwich, Massachusetts, United States homes. Before the pilgrims starved to death, the local indigenous peoples came to help their new neighbors. After being taught by the Indians about local flora and fauna, the settlers managed to thrive. In order to show their thanks to the Indians for their help, the pilgrims hosted their neighbors for a big meal. Ever since Americans have celebrated Thanksgiving in some way, shape or form. It didn’t officially become a set-on-the-calendar holiday for America until President Lincoln succumbed to pressure and proclaimed the third Thursday in November to forever more be known as Thanksgiving. Since that day in 1863 Americans have enjoyed a celebration of family and food.
Of course, in the last fifty years, Thanksgiving has changed as American culture has changed. What was once a humble family get together has become an almost gluttonous celebration of American consumption. Don’t get me wrong, I love T-Giving as much as the next guy, but after a year away, it was shocking to see the consumerism involved in this venerated holiday.
The Second Shock of Being Home: Everything in the United States is about sales. This means that everywhere you go and almost everything you see is
Long Distance View of Plymoth Rock
Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States dedicated to capitalism in a way that almost no other country in the world can compete with. At no time is capitalism more evident than during holiday seasons. From pre-Thanksgiving food sales, advertisements on TV or the dreaded “Black Friday” sales that happen the day after Thanksgiving, everywhere you go it is obvious that Americans live more for making money than any other pastime. While the average French village enjoys a Friday glass of wine and a fine dinner with the family, the American would rather be making or spending money. It felt incredibly strange to see this part of our culture from the outside, and now that I’ve been back a few weeks, it is even stranger to realize that I have already fallen back into the capitalistic trap like everyone else…and it, sadly, makes me happy!
For Thanksgiving we drove into the Boston suburb of Belmont to have dinner at Kel’s cousin Dawn’s house. Yearly Kel’s whole family, and a few friends, get together at Dawns house for one of the great meals of the year. Dawn, Kel’s other cousin Jody, and many other members of the family help in making a feast that could fill up
Enjoying the Sandwich Boardwalk
Sandwich, Massachusetts, United States any person’s stomach no matter how big an eater they are. With a full helping of turkey, mashed potatoes, squash, cranberry sauce and all of the other major T-Giving dishes, Kel and I did our best to gorge ourselves American style. Coming home for Thanksgiving was perfect timing because it gave us an excuse to eat until we wanted to burst…and that was before dessert was served! I joke that regardless of how much Kel’s seen and eaten all over the world and how wide our understanding of what food can be and what can taste great, there’s only one way to have Thanksgiving dinner for Kel . . . the way her family makes it in Belmont, Massachusetts. No substitutes for her!
The Third Shock of Being Home: Over a year of travel abroad we have dealt with our fair share of stomach/intestinal distress. Often shifting from one country or region’s food to another is enough to make one’s stomach revolt. Also, as any traveler will attest to, any good trip will involve at least one bout with an intestinal bacteria or virus which could knock down a Cape Buffalo. But, despite toughening our stomachs, nothing
Mayflower Part Deux
Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States we did could keep us from getting sick eating American food. It was incredibly shocking to realize that the food that I was raised on could cause me to get sick for so long. For weeks after touching US soil I was sick. Never before had a country’s cuisine made me mildly sick for so long. The highly processed food in the US is murder on one’s intestinal tract.
Living Like Tourists Over the few days that we were in Massachusetts we actually continued to act like tourists. We spent our time seeing things we had seen millions of times but seeing them in a new way. Kel, who grew up around Boston, had never actually visited Plymouth Rock. We stopped and took a few hours to explore the Plymouth area and take some pictures.
In her parents’ home town of Sandwich, we took some time to explore like outsiders. We went down to the beach on a sunny day and enjoyed the coast like we had done in Croatia and Australia. We took pictures of things we had seen many times before but had never even thought to enjoy.
The Fourth Shock A Massachusetts Fall
Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States of Being Home: All around you, every day, are things that are worth looking at that, because they are a part of your everyday environment, you completely ignore. Often, at least in the US, there are historic sights everywhere you go but we never take the time to enjoy them because we are too busy just living our lives. For the first few weeks after we got home we enjoyed everything we saw. All around us were sights worth seeing that we had never even thought to enjoy. We vowed to ourselves that we would continue to see the things around us that were worth seeing and maybe just travel a bit in the area when we were bored in order to continue really enjoying the world around us.
While the trip home was scary and more than a bit of an eye opener, it was also something we had longed for while we were tired on the road. So many times while we traveled we had wished that we could just be home. It ended up being sad to end the trip but incredibly cool to see our families and feel the comfort of knowing where we
A Revered Reverend
Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States were and how to navigate our way around without having to do serious thinking. No matter how much money you have or spend on a trip like this nothing compares with your own bed, your own favorite meal or the comfort of being with your family. Will we travel more…you bet. Will we travel soon…as soon as we can. Should you expect more blogs from us…you can count on it!
Thanks so much for reading. We wrote this as much for you as we did for us. There’s one more blog entry on its way which will be the standard retrospective everyone on Travelblog.org does. I hope to have it finished before New Years.
Happy Holidays! Mike and Kel
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Kathy Martell
non-member comment
Massachusetts Visit
Enjoyed reading your blog about Cape Cod and Plymouth. I was just there in August and had a fantastic time. The history around Plymouth was astounding. I loved the Statue of the 4 Fathers. Did you see it up on the hill in Plymouth. I too walked on the boardwalk in Sandwich. I was surprised as to what people in Massachusetts considered a boardwalk. Ours in Seaside, Oregon is between the beach and the town with lots of shops or hotels on it. Both versions are very unique. Happy traveling and Merry Christmas! Kathy