Everything free in America

After a week and a half without air conditioning, I'm very ready to head to the frozen North in twelve days (well, Denmark's not frozen yet, but at least it's closer.) I'm trying to convince my sister that her habit of leaving the computer and lots of incandescent lights on is not helping the situation.

On Saturday my parents and I went to the annual party at Dad's cousin's farm in the mountains. It was everything a family party should be, with babies and dogs and lots of corn on the cob and pie and a bluegrass band playing in the barn. I fell asleep looking up at the metal roof through the rafters, listening to the firecrackers and hoping the guys setting them off hadn't been drinking too much.

Arianna says Irish men get their conception of American girls from TV and therefore think we're all from California and have sex on the beach all the time and will therefore wish to do the same with them. Mom says people in England thought we all had swimming pools in our backyards and lots of money. I keep wondering what assumptions my Danish host family will have about me as an American and about the country in general. I wish the parts of US culture that were broadcast to the rest of the world weren't McDonalds and imperialism and Baywatch and Sex in the City. If I could, I would like the world to see this farm in Nelson County, stumble through a square dance with us, have some cheese grits, laugh at the kittens licking butter off people's corncobs. Surely this would improve international relations.