Can You Say Globalization?

It's amazing how much other countries know about the United States and how little we know about the rest of the world. Before we left Penn, we were given a quiz on how much we knew about Australia and I'm embarrassed to say that I couldn't name the capital nor the prime minister.

But yet, I come to Australia and people ask me where I'm from. I tell them I'm from the US and they respond, "what part?" I tell them that I'm from Pennsylvania...Philadelphia to be specific. They ask which "uni" I attend and when I say the University of Pennsylvania, they know exactly what I'm talking about. One student was telling me about how beautiful the football stadium is at Penn. How interesting that a student who has never been to Pennsylvania can tell me about the details of Franklin Field, a stadium which I certainly take for granted. If anything, this has taught me that I really need to brush up on my knowledge about the rest of the world.

I've also found that people around the world are enthralled with US politics. During my first week, I met a Chinese student with an Irish accent who was wearing a Barack Obama t-shirt. Today, I went to the bookstore and saw a Barack Obama bobble head. When I was ready to check out, I saw a paperdoll book of Michelle and Barack Obama. Later down the assembly line, I saw a Hilary Clinton voodoo doll with, "she's too liberal" inscribed on the back of the box.

Talk about Globalization!