Today a colleague who is fast becoming a friend asked me: "what is it like in Minneapolis, I might be going there for some training?" "Huh?", I said.
Despite the fact that my home town is closer to Minneapolis than any other major American city, I have never been. I guess it's because I've never had any reason to go and the city has never given me a reason. I get enough Norse settlers and cold weather at home. He wanted to know what kind of weather they had. I could help him out there: Hot in the summer, cold in the winter, bring a jacket because it could change any time. He was also interested in the culture. I was a little bit puzzled. I've never considered cities like Minneapolis or Calgary or Milwauke to have any culture to speak of. But I proved myself wrong when I started thinking about what people would eat or do in their spare time: "Well, I guess there are a lot of Germans and Scandinavians. From what I know of them (and myself), they're pretty quiet and eat meat and potatoes. Like folksy, rock or country music and would most likely spend their Friday nights in poorly lit bars." Then he asked if he would see any Indians. This one really had me stumped, because this colleague is from Pakistan, has lived in many countries around the world and runs an Indian restaurant here in Santo Domingo when he is not teaching English. I figured he was talking about American Indians, because that's what everyone here calls them, swallowed my Canadian political correctness and dove in to the conversation: "Yes, I'm sure you would, in fact one of my favourite authors lives there, Louise Erdrich. She is half Ojibwe, I believe. You could visit her bookstore. I'm sure you'll be able to see some East Indians too."
I've spent so much time trying to be normal here that I've forgotten how different the cultures I come from are. This is still a monolithic culture. The only difference between big cities and towns are the numbers of people and fast food chains. To be fair there are a couple museums and Universities, but not much else changes. Seeds of difference are beginning to sprout here. Far too often, though, they are killed before they get a chance to grow.