You are Now an Ambassador.
Sep 13 '01
The Bottom Line Be strong.
And so, only a few hours after the whole story had started to unfold, my mom emailed me.
"Be careful," she warned. "Try your hardest to speak french. You don't want people to know you're american now."
And despite the plethora of images being pounded into my skull repeatedly, and the same bleak facts being spewed from reporters mouths, those are the ones I hear repeatedly.
Being separated from the whole incident by an ocean (not to mention a bit of a language barrier) makes the whole experience even stranger. Friends of my boyfriend message me with sympathy, ask him how I am coping with this whole scenario, etc. Suddenly I am not just his girlfriend, or "the girl that speaks broken french," I am America personified.
People have told me such things before. When you're in a foreign country for any length of time, you represent all of your fellow citizens. I didn't deny that. But now, my tears are our tears. My fears, our fears. It's not a responsibility I would have ever wished for, nor one I am sure I can even fully comprehend.
The distance hasn't decreased what I feel, nor the mourning of the entire world. At our town hall, all the french flags fly at half-mast. The front of the roof of the building is normally lined with 15 or so french flags. Currently, the center one has been replaced with the american flag, and all fly low together, in sorrow and brotherhood.
Paris currently has 1100 soldiers patrolling the streets. The airport, subway, and train stations are all at high security. The American University of Paris is requiring ID for student entrance. All of this is mirrored across the nation, to a lesser degree. The president even gave a brief speech on the night of the occurance, something not even done back when the bomb exploded in the metro station a few years back.
And my personal reaction? I am scared of ever returning to the USA again.
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Epinions.com ID:
emptywishes
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Location: the land of fries and toast, apparently.
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Still alive. Find me here: http://www.francophoney.net
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