www.theironhorseinn.com
One of the greatest and most pleasant surprises I had when I came to the US was just how pretty it is and how nice the neighbourhoods are. Unfortunately- the images that most people outside of the US see daily on the TV and Movie screens are of run down cityscapes and violence. I remember seeing nice neighborhoods in the movies and thinking that they were only where the extremely wealthy lived and were not typical of life over here. Well now that I am living here, I find that the common images portrayed in most of the TV shows and movies could not be further from the truth. I was really surprised by the attractive diversity of the homes people live in over here. Each neighborhood has hundreds of different style homes from small and simple to large and extravagant. I particularly love the older style wooden homes in most historic districts across the country.
In Ireland all of our modern housing estates have rows and rows of similar
houses ,with little diversity among them. I am so delighted to actually be able to live in one of the most beautiful historic homes in this part of Texas - the Iron Horse Inn Historic Bed and Breakfast, in Granbury.
Also the impression I had was that the American people were not a religious people. Again how wrong I was. I was immediately struck by the
large number of different churches and denominations there are over here. Also, the rates of church attendance are much higher here. Particularly living in Texas, I am pleasantly surprised about how open people are about their faith - here at our bed and breakfast, we have many people who say grace before their breakfast, and while religion is seldom a topic of conversation, a matter of fact way of mentioning their faith is common here. I remember how private people were about
their faith in Ireland and how disillusioned they were in the church there.The America I live in is far from the America I grew up seeing on the TV and in the movies!
I envy your experience in living in different countries. I want to visit your great country of Ireland someday. I have relatives over there, but no idea who :)
ReplyDeleteWhat you saw portrayed about the U.S. is what is broadcast by our 'unbiased' press & entertainment people (most of whom are liberals and do not attend church http://www.mediaresearch.org/biasbasics/)
I don't understand why they dislike their own country so much and want others to see only the negatives.
Fortunately they will probably be changing their presentation of the U.S. now that one of theirs is in office again and they have to make it look like he's doing a great job LOL.
I appreciate you pointing out that we are a much better country than is shown abroad. Welcome! I loved Pres. Reagan's statement to the effect that you can move to Italy and you won't be Italian. You can move to Germany, but it won't make you German. But if you move to America - you can be American!