Hail to the Victors

Before the two lovely exchange students would sit with me they had to know, I wasn´t rooting for France was I? No I assured them, I don´t like the French, so by process of elimination I´ll root for Italy. They were happy to hear that, ¨we´re Italian¨ the first one said in perfect English with what seemed to be a US accent. ¨But you live in the US right?¨ I asked? No, it turned out they were from Toronto. Whatever, Canada is like the 51st state.

¨Where are you from¨ they wanted to know. This is actually a question that has always given me some difficulty. And these days I really don´t know what to answer. If you reply, ¨The US¨ to anyone from the US or Canada or anyone who has ever been there they will immediately ask where in the US. That´s when things start to get complicated.

The last place I lived was Seattle, but I was raised in Cleveland and right now I´m pretty sure I´m going to move to San Diego when I get back. The real answer is kinda nowhere, so I said Seattle, which generally makes my life easier. ¨But what´s your nationality?¨ they cuter one asked. Oh, I saw where this was heading. This is the other turn this topic of conversation always takes. ¨Well my nationality is I´m a citizen of the US, but my family is from India.¨

¨Oh, well then you´re Indian¨ the less cute, although still quite lovely one, said. I told them I thought it was strange that they called themselves Italian although they lived in Canada their entire lives as did their parents, they had never been to Italy to visit and didn´t speak a word of the language. ¨Oh but we´re still Italian, eh¨ they assured me. I guess everyone is Italian when the World Cup Finals roll around, well excpet for all the Frenchies.

But the truth is, I don´t really feel Indian. Not like these girls felt Italian for whatever reason. I spent a great amount of my childhood in denial about the fact that I was Indian, or not Indian as the case may be. And while I´ve come to accept that there are a great deal of things about me that are undeniably influenced by my parents homeland, I never really identified myself with that land. Unless of course it happens to be more convenient in any given instance.

At some point in the last few months I realized that my Spanish has become better than my Hindi ever was. I remember the last time I was in India and was talking to one of my Aunts and I felt proud that I somehow managed to find the Hindi words to thank her for the meal I just ate at her home. And she smiled and nodded at me and then turned to her sister and asked her what I just said. Sigh, I never realized quite how sad that is until just recently.

Of course I´ve never really felt quite at home in the US either. Lately I´ve been toying with the idea of moving to India at some point and actually learning the language. I don´t think it would be too hard, if I can learn Spanish in less than a year than Hindi should come faster, maybe. I used to jokingly tell people that I was a ¨citizen of the world¨ when they would ask me where I was from, but I don´t think most people read enough Greek philosophy to get the reference and no one really found it funny.

In between high-pitched shrieks at mostly inappropriate times the Italian / Canadian girls and I managed to share some travel stories and views on the world. Apparently these two college students were quite upset with the recent election of the Conservatives party to the Canadian parliment. Canada is becoming just like the US they complained. ¨And you know, people in the US are just kinda off¨ the cuter one told me.

Hmmm...funny I was under the impression it was the rest of the world that was kinda strange. Yes I suppose there are a great deal of things that are unique about us folks from the US. Everyone seems to thing we´re arrogant and yeah we have our moments. Everyonce in a while we decide to start bombing people but I like to think that´s just our ¨Can Do¨ attitude coming through. And yeah we´re kinda isolationists, except when we´re not, but hey we do have two big oceans on either coast and only two neighbors to deal with.

¨You´re just a young nation that doesn´t know any better¨ the less-cute one told me. Yeah I suppose we´re young, but we have the longest form of functioning government of any nation in the world, I replied. And sure one of these days maybe we´ll figure out the same lessons that the ¨mature¨ countries of Europe have, but I still can´t imagine any other country I´d like us to emulate. There are a lot of things that are wrong with the US, I´ve come to believe, but nothing that can´t be mediated by what´s right with the US.

¨Why don´t you like the French?¨ the cute one asked, ¨is it because of the Iraq thing?¨ No I told them the fact that if it wasn´t for the US, they would be speaking German from Paris down to the Riveriera and somehow the French have decided that they don´t like us in the last 50 years annoys me greatly. ¨Well if it wasn´t for the French the US Colonies would never have been able to win their independence from the British¨ the less cute one said. Touché.

As the second extra period came to an end the cute one asked me what happened now. I´d watched enough World Cup Futbol at this point to be able to explain the shoot-out. She started chewing her fingernails. As the Italians scored the fifth penality kick high-fives and hugs went all around. Before we parted ways they asked me to change my plans about moutain-biking on Cotopaxi, ¨it destroys the vegetation and it takes some plants 20 years to grow in the Andes¨ the cute one implored. ¨Well if those plants don´t want to get run over they should get out of my way¨ I told them as I went off to find a steak.