have no fear because I am here...
I got an email today from Sarah Hood. She and Felicity Pino headed over here Friday to visit Emily and me and she was wanting to know what to tell her parents about safety concerns. I've gotten a couple of emails from some of you and so I thought that I'd cut and paste the email I sent her so you guys can be assured of my safety over here. Read on.
Here are some of my thoughts. One, right now, I don't think Britian is under any bigger threat than America. Because America is the one who attacked Baghdad this morning, there would more likely be an attack on American soil than British soil. Two, the Iraqi army is sooooo much smaller than the American and British troops and will be so pre-ocqupied with their deffense that an offensive is
highly unlikely.
Three, it's true that there are people who feel that the American government is the spawn of Satan (Bush in particular), but these people, for the most part, recognise the difference between an average Joe America and the government. Some might ask you, hostily, 'Why does America do this?' 'Why are Americans so stupid about that?' but that is so rare that it's almost exciting when it
happens. The key is just to keep a low profile and not do anything to promote the American stereotypes. That means, on the Tube and in public places, keep quiet. Nobody talks on the Tube, so when a bunch of people get on who are loud, obnoxious and generally not aware that everyone is giving them death stares, it's almost always a group of Americans. This doesn't mean that you should be mum the whole week, just be aware of your volume. Don't talk politics in the open. Basically, as our programme and the British Home Office told us, be alert, but not alarmed. Spike, our programme Bobby (policeman) told us that they are not overly worried. They would tell us if there was need for concern.
Four, neither the MU study abroad office, the International Enrichment staff, nor the U.S. Embassy have emailed us with any concerns and we have been given no reason to think that our time here is going to be cut short. The war is supposed to be quick, just a couple of weeks, so I don't think there's much to worry about over here. Your biggest complication, I think, is going to be the fact that Americans are freaking out and cancelling flights. The worst will be your flight may be changed or delayed. Make sure you call the airline the day before just to make sure things are on schedule. That's logistics, not anything to get worked up about, though. You'll get here when you get here and we're going to have a blast!
I hope that helps assuage your fears!
observations
-To note a difference between cultures: the Americans are freaking out about the war (which is understandable) and cancelling flights, etc while the British are thinking, 'Well, it's going on, so we'd better live with it, but I'm still heading to France for holiday!'
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