M is for Mawiage

Ex. Mawiage is what bwings us togeva today.

I feel weird blogging about it because it wasn’t about me or my experiences. It isn’t even about my adventures abroad or new places I’ve been. To be fair, I hadn’t actually been to Michigan proper before this last weekend, but I don't think it goes under the category of "adventures abroad".

Anywho, my brother got married a couple weekends ago to a fantastic lady and yes, I went back to America for it. I feel like every time I told people my plans for the weekend, the conversation went:

“Yeah, my brother’s getting married, so I’m going to Michigan for the weekend.”

“Michigan… like in the States?”

“…Yes.”

“Wait, so you’re going back to the States.”

“Yes.”

“For the weekend.”

“Yes.”

“That’s crazy.”

“Yep.”

To be fair, it was crazy, but if you think about it, there’s no way I wouldn’t go back. My brother is one of my favorite people, and this was the best day of his life. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. And, to be honest, I was really looking forward to spending some time in the States and seeing my family. Since I wouldn’t be home for Thanksgiving, a wedding was a pretty good family-time substitute.

The wedding itself was magical. It was so beautiful and I may have cried a few times. I still get warm fuzzies when I think about it. Words cannot express how happy I am about them finally being married.

But let’s remember that this blog is about ME. I mean, really. Let’s get back to what’s important.

As you can imagine, culturally, it was surreal. As soon as I arrived at Chicago O’Hare, I became acutely aware of the cultural differences between the UK and the Midwest. My mom’s family is all from the Midwest, so I already kind of knew where I was going, culturally, but it was still pretty different to where I've been for the past three months. Also, my family is from Indiana, where they kind of have a little drawl, but once you get to Michigan/Minnesota/Ohio area, there’s a LEGIT accent. I keep telling people here that Americans don’t have regional accents – to everyone I’ve said that to, I was very wrong. I lied to you and I am sorry.

The main thing I noticed was that I felt a general sense of interpersonal disconnect, much like how I felt for the first few weeks here. When customer service people in the Chicago airport wanted to make conversation to be friendly, I felt uncomfortable and would share very little about myself because strangers in the UK don’t make conversation, and I’ve gotten really used to saying the absolute minimum to new people. Just in my interactions with anyone, it was hard to adjust back to where I was three months ago. After some awkward conversations (the awkwardness being my fault), I would walk away thinking “What is wrong with me? Why was that so hard?” It helped that Midwest culture is extra friendly and inviting. It didn’t take me long to adjust, but I needed more time to do that than I thought I would.

By the time I had to go back, I was finally in completely familiar territory. I was hesitant to put myself back in a place where I don’t entirely belong, but to my surprise, when I got back, I felt the sense of relief you feel when you return to the comforts of home.

Probably because I hadn’t slept well in 40 hours and there was a warm bed and lectures I could skip. Who knows.