Jun

Quaintness, Rudeness, and Bad Food

by Joyce McGreevy on June 5, 2017

An urban view of the Grand Canal, Dublin counters cultural stereotypes of Ireland as “quaint” and “rural.” (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Beyond quaintness and cottages: This, too, is Ireland.
© Joyce McGreevy

A Travel Guide to Cultural Stereotypes

“Do people in Ireland talk normal?” the 13-year-old girl asked me. “You know, do they say things like cowabunga?” As cultural stereotypes go, this was one of the more intriguing. I’d never thought of cowabunga as a barometer of normality.

Cowabunga is a bundle of cultural stereotypes. Considered surfer slang, it’s a word no real surfer would utter. But actors playing surfers on Gidget, a popular ‘60s TV show, used it frequently. In the ‘90s, animated series like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons resurrected cowabunga.

A sign in Lahinch, Co. Clare shows that despite cultural stereotypes, surfing is popular in Ireland. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

In Co. Clare, Ireland, surf’s up, but stereotypes are out.
© Joyce McGreevy

It began in 1953 as cowa-bonga, a phony Native American word used by a phony Native American character called Chief Thunderthud on The Howdy Doody Show. Not that anyone would have said Native American then.

Today, we’re more PC, yet cultural stereotypes persist. Here are a few I’ve encountered.

Jollity On Demand

“People are so unfriendly there.” This is one I hear a lot about Eastern Europe. Sometimes even from people who have been there.

A statue of Tsar Samuil in Sofia, Bulgaria embodies cultural stereotypes tourists often have about so-called unfriendly Eastern Europeans. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

If this is your image of Eastern Europeans, you’re missing out royally.
© Joyce McGreevy

There are entire threads on travel forums devoted to the question of whether people in Eastern European countries are friendly. How does this alleged lack of friendliness manifest? Do Bulgarians spit in your soup, Croatians curse your birthplace, Montenegrins shove you aside to cut in line?

None of the above. No, the Big Problem, say many first-time, short-stay visitors, is that Eastern Europeans don’t smile enough.

A smiling woman in Sofia, Bulgaria counters cultural stereotypes about so-called unfriendly Eastern Europeans. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

A smile is not a commodity, but a response. Take the time to engage, listen, and learn.
© Joyce McGreevy (in Sofia, Bulgaria)

Let me see if I understand. We blitz through countries that for over 2,000 years have been invaded and occupied by everyone from the Goths to the Venetians to the Ottomans to the Soviets, yet we’re surprised if the locals fail to greet us with instant warmth?

A smiling group of people in Sofia, Bulgaria counter cultural stereotypes about so-called unfriendly Eastern Europeans. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Oh, those “unfriendly” Europeans!
© Joyce McGreevy

What if we decided to see what we could learn by practicing patience and respect for cultural differences? What if that which we hastened to label “unfriendliness” was simply reserve?

As I talk with people in their home countries, there often comes a moment when the conversation shifts from a basic exchange of information into genuine connection. Those moments are why we travel.

Such moments don’t come instantaneously.

But what about instances of undeniable, cannot-believe-they-said-that rudeness?

Let me ask you: Have you ever encountered rudeness in your own country? And if so, did you extrapolate from said rudeness that everyone in your country must be rude? (Except you of course.) I’m guessing not.

Oh, I see: Wherever we go, whoever we meet, we’re complex individuals interacting with other complex individuals.

Good things happen when we remember we’re all in the human race together.
© Joyce McGreevy (in Copenhagen, Denmark)

Dishing the Dirt

Food stereotypes make me do a slow boil. According to food stereotypes, Chicagoans are obsessed with deep-dish pizza, the Nordic diet consists solely of pickled fish, Tuscan food is overindulgent, and Irish cuisine is a contradiction in terms.

A sign advertising tacos in Copenhagen counters cultural stereotypes about dining in Denmark. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

From tacos to traditional Nordic…
© Joyce McGreevy

A sandwich and beer in Aarhus inspire a writer to dispel cultural stereotypes about Danish cuisine. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

food is deliciously diverse in Denmark!
© Joyce McGreevy

Only it’s just not true.

Tuscany is where I learned how to transform leftovers into frugal feasts. Today’s Nordic menus are wildly diverse. Deep dish? Pull-eeze. Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods offer a world tour of culinary traditions.

When Things Change, But Stereotypes Persist

As for Ireland, oh what a drubbing it once took from critics. “The drama of Irish cuisine is not that it is bad. It’s that the Irish believe it is very good.” So sneered the authors of a French travel guide in 1964.

Good Things Café & Cookery School in Skibbereen, Co. Cork counters cultural stereotypes about dining in Ireland. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Good Things Café & Cookery School typifies today’s Irish cuisine: organic and artfully prepared.
© Joyce McGreevy (in Skibbereen, Co. Cork)

Today, Irish chefs and home cooks are transforming organic resources, artisanal traditions, and creative innovation into superb everyday dining experiences.

But outdated cultural stereotypes stick like burned rice.

People enjoying home cooking in Galway counter cultural stereotypes about Irish cuisine. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Despite the stereotypes, Corned Beef & Cabbage was never popular in Ireland.
Try homemade pâté, fresh-baked breads, and local cheeses.
© Joyce McGreevy

The Quaintness Stereotype

One of the most entrenched stereotypes is the idea that whatever country “we” are from is always ahead of the curve, while “those other” countries struggle to catch up.

When I was living in Ireland, some American friends would say, “You don’t have electricity there, right?” I hasten to add this was in the 1980s, not the 1880s.

“That’s right,” I’d chirp. “We line the airport runways with candles and flap our auld arms for takeoff.”

People at a digital archiving class in Clifden counter cultural stereotypes about Ireland, a leader in technology. (Image © Brendan “Speedie” Smith)

In Clifden, Ireland, neighbors gather to digitize, tag, and annotate images of days gone by.
© Brendan “Speedie” Smith

In fact, my first job in Ireland is what introduced me to technology. Back in the ‘70s, many a Galway University graduate worked by computer. The Irish have always been early adapters and innovators of technology, which plays a critical role in the economy.

Students in a coding and app making class in Galway counter cultural stereotypes about Ireland, a leader in technology. (Image © Brendan “Speedie” Smith)

In Ireland, app-making and coding are part of primary (elementary) school curricula.
© Brendan “Speedie” Smith

Likewise, texting was commonplace in Europe and Asia long before it caught on in the U.S. As Scott Campbell, professor of telecommunications at the University of Michigan explained in a 2012 CNN interview, texting was slow to take off in America because differing networks did not work well together in the early days of mobile communication.”

A woman using a smartphone in Sofia, Bulgaria counters cultural stereotypes about Eastern Europeans and technology. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

As of 2017, 97% of Bulgarians use cellphones, compared to 95% of Americans.
© Joyce McGreevy

An End to Cultural Stereotypes
So how do we put an end to cultural stereotypes? In fairness to the cowabunga girl, she didn’t make pronouncements, she asked questions. More important, she listened to the answers.

So that’s 1 and 2 right there.

She came away knowing that the Irish do a great many wonderful things with language—things that win Nobel prizes for literature and that change laws to ensure equal rights for all. It just so happens that saying cowabunga and sure n’ begorrah aren’t among then.

A sign in Lahinch, Ireland advocating for equal rights dispels cultural stereotypes tourists often have about traditional societies. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

When we stereotype cultures—whether positively or negatively—we miss what’s real.
© Joyce McGreevy (in Ireland)

I came away learning that 13-year-old girls who dare to ask imaginative questions deserve thoughtful answers.

Step 3 is to question our own assumptions. Once when a friend ranted about “loud Americans in their loud clothing,” I couldn’t resist pointing out that by the speaker’s own criteria, soft-spoken Americans who blended in were powerless to balance the cultural stereotype—they existed, but by definition, you’d never know it.

That’s the thing about cultural stereotypes. We can always find evidence to support them—but if we look past our first impressions and give each other a chance, maybe we can move beyond them.

Explore the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland here.

Comment on the post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Joyce McGreevy Comments

Life Lessons/Stereotypes/Worldwide Sites

Mar

Travel Tips: Check in More, Carry on Less

by Joyce McGreevy on March 13, 2017

Instead of packing in more and more, reflect on traveling light. (Bergen, Norway)
© Joyce McGreevy

Lessons Learned from Traveling Full Time

Travel is packed with learning experiences, like when to check in and what to carry on. Here are a few travel tips and lessons learned from traveling full time.

Don’t get jet-lagged before the flight.

An in-flight view of Arizona inspires a writer’s travel tips about what not to carry on, like stress and too much luggage, lessons learned from traveling full time. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Don’t fry before you fly. (Somewhere over Arizona)
© Joyce McGreevy

Does your travel checklist rival the Labors of Hercules? Racing from mall to mall, turning down invitations from loved ones, packing at 2 am for a 6 am flight—that’s no way to transition into travel.

Other countries have stores, too. Currently, I’m on a tiny Greek island located a day’s journey from anywhere. With a population of around 1,000, there are just a few shops in the island’s only town—and each is remarkably well stocked.

Leave it, don’t lug it.

A cat curled up in an open suitcase inspires travel tips about what not to check in or carry on when traveling full time. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

You can only carry so much. (Evanston, Illinois)
© Joyce McGreevy

If you wouldn’t wear x number of outfits in a month at home, don’t pack x-times-y-squared that number for a week abroad.

On one 3-month trip, I hiked in the mountains, swam in the sea, attended a wedding and went to a movie premiere. Everything I wore fit in one small suitcase—and there were still items I never needed.

Know your own essentials.

I always pack a favorite apron. The kitchen may be rented, the country as yet unknown, but the moment I put on my apron, I feel at home.

For me, travel includes cooking, chatting with greengrocers, and a local cooking lesson or culinary walk. It deepens my sense of home, wherever home happens to be.

A man selling figs in Kadikoy, Turkey inspires culinary travel tips and other lessons learned from traveling full time. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Eat the food, drink the water, talk with strangers. (Kadiköy, Turkey)
© Joyce McGreevy

Never let complainers rain on your plane to Spain.

No matter when you travel, someone will say you shouldn’t. It’ll be too crowded, deserted, hot, cold, expensive, touristy, and so on.

About Barcelona I was told, “You’re going in winter? That’s totally the wrong time.”

“What time of year do you recommend?”

“Don’t know, never been there. But winter, yuck. I hear it rains all the time.”

Do pack your sense of humor.

It didn’t rain that winter, but that’s beside the point. One summer I had an unexpected layover in Reykjavik. With 10 hours before check in, I’d pre-arranged a private tour. Excitedly, I exited the airport.

A rain-obscured view of Iceland inspires travel tips about keeping one’s perspective and other lessons learned from traveling full time. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Behold! The beauty of Iceland!
© Joyce McGreevy

The wind shoved me back into the terminal like a wall of NFL linemen. I had two choices:

carry on, as in rant and rave at the weather gods.
carry on, as in do the limbo under the gale and go meet my driver.

I shocked Stefan by showing up and then spent the day absorbing insights while everything around us absorbed the rain.

Photo ops be damned. It was a marvelous day—and Iceland will still be there when I return.

Likewise, don’t be too quick to bypass places that others dismiss. It’s often just a matter of broadening your radius. Walk around, meet people who live there, and see for yourself.

A tower at Malmöhus Castle, Malmö, Sweden inspires travel tips about visiting underrated cities when traveling full time. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

When people say things like, “Oh, Malmö, Sweden isn’t really Sweden,” go anyway.
© Joyce McGreevy

Don’t turn precaution into paranoia.

Yes, there are places where pickpockets and others of ill intent operate—it’s called Earth. Travelers anywhere should take sensible precautions. Just don’t believe everything you read online, including about your own community, or you’ll never leave the house.

Separate facts from urban legends of the “OMG my friend’s cousin’s dentist knows this tourist who got into a taxi and had a kidney stolen” variety.

Be for real.

Don’t be the person who keeps asking, “How much is this in real money?” or “What time is it really?” The money’s real and the time zone that matters most is the one you’re in.

Hikers above Royal National Park in New South Wales, Australia, inspire a writer’s travel tips about enjoying simple pleasures while traveling full time. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Hiking in Australia: Our packs were light, but our hearts were full.
© Joyce McGreevy

Try local foods and brands. At a sacred pageant in Italy, one dialogue shattered the hush:

Traveler 1: “Didn’t the drugstore have deodorant?”

Traveler 2: “Yeah, but not American deodorant.”

School yourself.

Consider a travel tip every schoolteacher knows: Build background. You’ll create rich context for your experiences.

Here in Greece, I’ve been taking classes in Greek history, language, and mythology. It’s about experiencing shivers of recognition, epiphanies about the culture, and the sheer joy of deepening my sense of place.

Saving up long-term for travel? Building background is a great way to stay motivated. Listen to Italian as you fold laundry. Find cross-cultural connections in your local museums. Follow a podcast like “Londonist.” Read Turkish novels, listen to Bulgarian music.

Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery inspires travel tips and other lessons learned while traveling full time. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Heads up! Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery shows why museums are must-see’ums.
© Joyce McGreevy

Do take a second look.

Sinclair Lewis said that those who see one cathedral ten times have seen something, but those who spend half an hour in each of a hundred cathedrals have seen nothing at all. Revisiting places is revelatory. Go beyond “been there, done that” and take a closer look.

An ancient stone lion in Bodrum, Turkey inspires art-centric travel tips as a writer checks in about lessons learned from traveling full time. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

In Turkey, art may imitate cats . . .
© Joyce McGreevy

A scene of feral cats posing like statues in Istanbul, Turkey inspire art-centric travel tips as a writer checks in about lessons learned from traveling full time. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

. . .and vice versa.
© Joyce McGreevy

There’s a world of places to explore—wherever we are. Take travel tips from the Slow Food movement: Don’t rush. Do savor.

Oh, I see: The most important lesson learned from traveling full time is that we’re all traveling full time. Eventually, our mortal passports won’t be eligible for renewal. Until then, check in more often, carry on less “baggage,” and be here for this journey of a lifetime.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Joyce McGreevy 2 Comments

Art of Travel/Life Lessons/Worldwide Sites

May

The Travel Sketchbook

by Eva Boynton on May 23, 2016

A hand holding a travel sketchbook on a hike, illustrating that many an aha moment waits inside. (image © Kolby Kirk).

There’s an Aha Moment on Every Page!

For me, it’s impossible to start a trip without this one essential item: my travel sketchbook. It is my eyes, my memory, my inquisitive mind on paper. Together we take on the world.

It is in the act of drawing that I learn to look, listen, perceive, and remember. In fact, I have not experienced a place fully unless I have sketched it.

Drawing of a jungle collection and inside of a house, showing an aha moment within a travel sketchbook (image © Eva Boynton).

For travel sketchers like me, there is something powerful in the act of drawing—the magnetic draw to draw. The gift back is a travel sketchbook that offers surprises, discoveries, and a souvenir collection of aha moments.

OIC Insights about Time

It was during a train adventure from Chicago to Los Angeles that Ken Avidor sketched the changing landscape. In the process, he realized he could record the passage of time on a single page—something impossible to find in a snapshot.

Roberta and Ken Avidor may be the ultimate sketching duo, always set to travel! They live in an apartment at the Union Train Station with no car and two folding bicycles. At a moment’s notice, they hop a train with travel sketchbook in hand to discover and draw.

A drawing in a sketchbook of scenes from a train window, showing an aha moment about capturing time in a travel sketchbook (image © Ken Avidor).

Travel is about movement and each travel sketchbook captures the changing frontiers. Ken Avidor explains, “The thought that often occurs to me is I am the first person to sketch this. . . . It’s kind of territorial, like a dog marking a tree.”

Roberta had another insight about time. Unlike photographers, she was able, through her drawings, to invent, erase, stylize and organize how things changed in front of her eyes. On this page of Roberta’s travel sketchbook, she captures the transition from city to country.

Drawing of New York City apartments fading into Indiana fields, showing an aha moment in the travel sketchbook (image © Roberta Avidor).

OIC a New Strategy for Preserving Memories

In the pages of Suzanne Cabrera’s travel sketchbook, she embeds clues to preserving memories. Like a detective or archeologist, Cabrera often sketches single details that connect to a story (or create one!) and forever solidify a memory.

Drawing of a stapler, showing the aha moment of a travel sketchbook (image © Suzanne Cabrera).

A drawing of a bag on the ground, a clue to a aha moment (image © Suzanne Cabrera).

Cabrera says, “Ask me what I did this time last week and I may not have the slightest clue. Ask me what was going on in any drawing I’ve included here—even one that dates back years ago—and I can tell you everything.”

For her, the small and unremarkable provide powerful connections (like pieces in a mind puzzle) to a particular experience or story. Often Cabrera’s travel sketchbook reflects her perusing mind. It offers a blank page to clarify her personal thoughts.

Drawing of a man, showing an aha moment in a travel sketchbook (image © Suzanne Cabrera).

In her sketchbook, Suzanne sees clues to her travel memories. I see clues to an aha moment: drawing creates narrative, an illustrated autobiography of the sketcher’s memories, perceptions at the time, and later reflections.

OIC So Many Ways to Sense a Place

When Fabio Consoli packed for his world bicycle trip, he made sure to find space for an important tool: the travel sketchbook. Pedaling on bicycle creates an intimate connection to a place, experiencing the elements of the environment first-hand. Consoli found a similar experience with his travel sketchbook.

A drawing of a bicycle and cycle kit, showing the aha moment of the travel sketchbook (image © Fabio Consoli).

While perusing the souks (markets) of Marrakech, Consoli discovered a red pigment that he could mix and use as watercolor. Then he happened upon a bigger discovery: the use of local materials in his travel sketchbook gave him an even greater sense of place. The smell and taste of his materials instilled a memory of his travel moments in a way that an image cannot.

Scene from a travel sketchbook reveals the artist's aha moment. (Image © Fabio Consoli)

Consoli talks about his many travel destinations: “I don’t choose the places because they are interesting to draw. In reality, it’s the place that chooses me.”

And Consoli brings home a bit of each place in his sketchbook. He now uses local fruit, coffee, soy sauce, and wine for color in the location he is drawing. His sketchbook not only serves as a visual memoir but an ongoing sensory experience of the places he has visited.

OIC a Great Way to Slow Down and Focus

If you decide to walk the forests of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) or hike the steep stairs to Machu Picchu, you might run into Kolby Kirk sketching a tree, a bird, a noteworthy leaf, or an ancient ruin.

A journal with writing and drawing of a campsite, showing the aha moment of the travel sketchbook (image © Kolby Kirk).

In 2001 Kirk backpacked around Europe, all the while sketching and writing. His aha moment came at the Temple of Apollo in the ruins of Pompeii, Italy. While drawing, he was flooded by a herd of tourists who snapped photos and rushed on to their next site.

Kolby Kirk explains, “I realized that the act of sketching—paying close attention to the details of the scene—was etching this moment into my long-term memory. I can still remember that day, that moment even, now nearly fifteen years ago. I wonder if the same could be said by those tourists?”

A sketchbook with drawings of Pompeii and writing, showing the aha moment of the travel sketchbook (image © Kolby Kirk).

In Kirk’s sketchbook he gives time and appreciation to a place and, thus, sketching becomes an act of compassion giving him time to look, draw, and study his surroundings.

OIC Power in the Travel Sketchbook

Each mark made in the travel sketchbook absorbs the artist’s experience of a place and imprints its memory.

Drawing of a cactus by an eight-year-old, showing an aha moment uncovered in a travel sketchbook (drawing © Charlotte Conk).

While cycling in Mexico, I met a family of cyclists who were traveling with their sketchbooks on a trip from Canada to Panama.

I asked eight-year-old Charlotte Conk what she had learned from drawing during her travels. She replied with a smile:

“That the arms of people do not go on their head.”

Her travel sketchbook is a portfolio that shows a developing eye.

Charlotte’s aha moment—learning to look a little harder—is powerful in its simplicity, providing an insight that she’ll use the rest of her life.

Thank you to Roberta and Ken Avidor and Jefferson Lines, Suzanne Cabrera, Fabio Consoli, Kolby Kirk, Charlotte Conk, and all the other artists who offered photos from their sketchbooks. Thank you for inspiring me to continue my travel sketchbook!