{"id":400,"date":"2010-12-22T10:54:54","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T08:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/inforeignparts.net\/blog\/?p=400"},"modified":"2010-12-22T10:54:54","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T08:54:54","slug":"miami-beach-december-15-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travel.multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/2010\/12\/22\/miami-beach-december-15-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Beach: December 15-21"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Deutsch unten<\/A>]<\/p>\n

21 December, 7:30pm (on the plane)<\/em><\/p>\n

My week in the luxurious and tourist-y surroundings of Miami Beach was as uneventful as I had hoped. I found myself coping surprisingly well with the radical change from poverty to consumerism (there was a lot<\/em> of shopping, starting with warm clothes because the weather was considerably cooler than I\u2019d expected when getting rid of most of my clothes in Jacmel) – but relating to people proved more challenging.<\/p>\n

I did not seek out company from anyone, preferring to go for walks (along the beach, to the Botanical Garden and the Holocaust Memorial) or curl up in bed with a book, my laptop or American TV (which is almost unwatchable due to the high frequency of commercial breaks). It just felt like the most natural thing to do, giving me time to get used to the prospect of re-joining \u201cnormal” life and people. After seven days of this I\u2019m still feeling somewhat reluctant at the thought of having to put my experiences in Haiti into words, trying to connect them to the life experiences of my family and friends.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some serious disconnect in my mind, which I noticed most clearly when I went on a bus and boat tour of Miami – the city and historical bits were fine (although everything feels so much less vibrant, so very civilised), but the boat trip around the artificial islands in Biscayne Bay with the celebrity villas just made me feel like an alien. How can anyone seriously care about where JLo and Ricky Martin live, standing there gawking as if rich people\u2019s houses were of any relevance at all? I have rarely felt more disconnected from my surroundings before.<\/p>\n

Having this week was definitely helpful and will hopefully help me acclimatise to life at home at bit more quickly. Being in frequent Facebook contact with my GVN family helps, too – just knowing that there\u2019s other people in the same situation feels good. And I love knowing that a number of them will go back next year, keeping alive the connection with Jacmel and the people I\u2019ve come to love there.<\/p>\n

On a more cheerful note, today at the airport I managed to upload my Miami photos to Flickr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"South<\/a> \"South<\/a> \"South<\/a> \"South<\/a><\/p>\n

—
\n<\/a>21. Dezember, 19.30 Uhr (im Flugzeug)<\/em><\/p>\n

Meine Woche im luxuri\u00f6sen und touristischen Miami Beach war so ereignislos wie erhofft. Der krasse \u00dcbergang von Armut zu Konsum fiel mir \u00fcberraschend leicht (es gab viel Shopping, angefangen mit warmen Kleidern, da das Wetter um einiges k\u00fchler war als erwartet wenn ich die meisten meiner Kleider in Jacmel liess) – aber der Umgang mit Menschen fiel mir schwerer. <\/p>\n

Ich blieb f\u00fcr mich, ging spazieren (den Strand entlang, zum botanischen Garten und dem Holocaust-Denkmal) oder machte es mir im Bett mit einem Buch, meinem Laptop oder amerikanischem Fernsehen gem\u00fctlich. Es f\u00fchlte sich nat\u00fcrlich an, gab mir Zeit, mich an den Gedanken zu gew\u00f6hnen, wieder Teil des \u201cnormalen” Lebens zu werden. Nach sieben solchen Tagen f\u00e4llt mir der Gedanke immer noch nicht ganz leicht, meine Erlebnisse in Haiti in Worte zu fassen, sie mit den Erfahrungen meiner Familie und Freunde zu vereinbaren.<\/p>\n

Diese Unvereinbarkeit in meinem Kopf wurde mir besonders klar auf der Bus- und Boottour von Miami, auf die ich am Montag ging: Die Stadt und Geschichte waren okay (obwohl alles weniger farbenfroh wirkt, so zivilisiert), aber w\u00e4hrend der Bootstour um die k\u00fcnstlichen Inseln in der Bucht von Biscayne mit den Villen der Stars f\u00fchlte ich mich wie eine Ausserirdische. Wie kann es jemandem wichtig sein, wo JLo und Ricky Martin leben, wie kann man da stehen und die H\u00e4user von reichen Leuten anstarren, als ob sie irgendwie relevant w\u00e4ren? Ich habe mich selten so fremd in meinem Umfeld gef\u00fchlt. <\/p>\n

Diese Woche war definitiv gut f\u00fcr mich und wird mir hoffentlich dabei helfen, mich etwas schneller an das Leben daheim zu gew\u00f6hnen. H\u00e4ufiger Facebook-Kontakt mit meiner GVN-Familie hilft auch – schon zu wissen, dass es andere Menschen in der gleichen Situation gibt, f\u00fchlt sich gut an. Und es ist toll zu wissen, dass mehrere von ihnen n\u00e4chstes Jahr zur\u00fcckgehen werden und so die Verbindung mit Jacmel und den Menschen, die ich dort sch\u00e4tzen gelernt habe, aufrecht zu erhalten.<\/p>\n

Um mit einer froheren Note zu enden: Heute am Flughafen schaffte ich es, meine Miami-Fotos auf Flickr<\/a> hochzuladen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Deutsch unten] 21 December, 7:30pm (on the plane) My week in the luxurious and tourist-y surroundings of Miami Beach was as uneventful as I had hoped. I found myself coping surprisingly well with the radical change from poverty to consumerism (there was a lot of shopping, starting with warm clothes because the weather was considerably … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Miami Beach: December 15-21”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,25,13,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photos","category-americas","category-haiti","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/travel.multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.multifaceted-abnormal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}