Traveling Beans

Thoughts from Paris...

Well..sort of. I'm back in the UK now, but I jotted down a few things while I was in Paris last weekend. To start, I have to say that Paris is a much more impressive city than London. I guess for a lot of people this is old news, but it's my first time in Europe so I'm still doing that compare/contrast thing.

One of the first things I noticed while I was riding the Paris Metro was the huge billboard for 50 cent's (for those of you who read this and don't know who 50 cent is, he is a well known rapper) new album. Now it struck me as an odd thing at first. I just wasn't expecting something so familiar to me to be in the Paris metro. I especially didn't expect 50 to be there. But it solidified something that I had thought while I was in Cuba. Hip Hop, or more specifically American Pop music, is quickly becoming an international form of communication. Now whether that is a good or a bad thing is up for debate. Yet you hip hop is truly everywhere.

Along those lines however, I also did come across something else familiar. Salsa. While I was checking in to the hostel there was a man from Senegal sitting behind the desk. Funny enough, Senegal is in West Africa, my destination in a week. He was listening to the station, which promoted me to talk to him in Spanish. Turns out he spoke Spanish very fluently (which was good because I don't speak a bit of French). It turns out there is a pretty huge population of people in Paris who really dig Salsa, Merengue, and all other sorts of tasty Afro-Caribbean beats. Who can blame them? He was also able to tell me that in Senegal there are styles of music that have been heavily influenced by Afro-Caribbean music. It got me thinking and I may try to hop over there while I'm in Ghana...let's see what happens.

It is really easy to fall in love with a city like Paris. It has so much charisma and attitude. It's a lot like New York in that way. Despite all the stereotypes about the French being rude to Americans (or English speakers for that matter), most of the people I talked to or encountered were in fact very friendly and very helpful...even with my obvious American accent. It was funny because people would call me out on being American...and although I don't often classify myself as American, usually I say Latino, Puerto Rican, ect., none of that makes sense out to people. To them, the way I speak is American, my passport says I'm American, then the logical conclusion is that I must be American.

At first I have to say it pissed me off. Who wants to be American in at a time like this? All we do is cause pain abroad. We do a poor job at helping or own; New Orleans has exposed this all to well. The last thing I want to be called is American. Yet a trip to a quirky little book store in the Latin Quarter of Paris put things into a different perspective. I found this book of portrait titled American. It had a series of portraits of Americans, both famous and not. It had doctors, lawyers, teachers, homeless people. It was a interesting look at who American's are. Racists, Rappers, Mothers, Fathers, heroes, Soldiers, Peace activisit, Billionairs, Homeless, Poor...there was something powerful in seeing a collection of so many contradicting images put together in one book. No, this is not one of those moments where I say we should all be proud of who we are and "why can't we all just get along". That's bullshit. But, it did make me think differently about America. And it made me feel less embarrassed about being from America. There is something to be said about our democracy. There is something to be said about our country. What that is? I'm not too sure. But the book was powerful, and I found it very funny that it was looking at it so far from home. I suppose sometimes you need to step back from things for a while so that you can see it in a new light.

One thing is certain though. No matter how far I travel from America, it is always there. McDonald's, Starbucks, Toys R Us, there was even a Euro Disney in Paris. It's so disgusting it is brilliant. America has perfected the art of Capitalism and global domination so well that even the French, who are so culturally proud, are tricked into going to Disneyland and eating McDonald's and Starbucks. With all the delicious cafes in the whole of Paris, the longest line was coming out of Starbucks. Brilliantly disgusting. That's whay I say. The more I see, the funnier this world becomes. Nothing makes sense anymore sense than the day I left New York. In fact things make less sense. But I have to say...I am enjoying my self a great deal.

posted by Radio Ríos @ 5:12 AM