Not Just an Eating Disorder

Why are Americans so fat?

This question is frequently pondered and expounded upon by various academics and health professionals, all offering different ideas about the core reasons why over a third of the US population, both adult and adolescent, is obese. Some propose solutions, including banning fast food, requiring restaurants to post calorie counts for their offerings, and even implementing special soda taxes. However, these control freaks forget that looking at obesity solely from the food angle misses out on over half the problem.

Walking into a typical chain grocery store, it doesn't take too much imagination to see where an unhealthy diet could come from: shelves full of prepared foods steeped in unnecessary sodium and MSG, corn syrup, and artificial flavors and sweeteners, all offering themselves as cheap and easy alternatives to things like fresh fruits, veggies, and grains. And let's not even talk about what you can find in the frozen food section (2 words: El Charitos). My guess is that the produce section of most grocery stores, particularly in the South, is visited a little less frequently than the paper and cleaning products aisle. Needless to say, if you show up at the cash register with a bundle of red chard, it may take the cashier a minute to locate the proper code for it since they don't sell it too often.

With that said, I know plenty of people who eat loads of unhealthy prepared food and even straight-up junk food who are actually quite healthy and in great shape. The difference is, they actually get off their butts every now and then to exercise and play. That's the missing piece of the puzzle: it's not just what you put into your body and how much but how you actually consume those calories that determine your body shape.

About a month ago, the results of a national study were released stating that over 80% of Americans don't get enough exercise at work. No kidding? As if we really needed a study to tell us that, though. I mean, how many steps do you take during a day at the office? How many people physically do anything as part of their job? As if total reliance on automobiles and hours and hours per day spent sitting in front of the television weren't enough on their own, we welcome 8 sedentary hours every workday.

So what is it that's making Americans fat? It seems the answer is employment. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating unemployment, but I am suggesting that if you have some free time or happen to be between jobs, there's no reason you shouldn't take the opportunity to get yourself into great shape. Just take a 2-mile walk every day, and by the end of a few weeks, you'll have calves of steel. Unless you stocked up on Lay's and Little Debbie's to keep around as snacks...

Identity Crisis

Talk about culture shock.

For 8 months in Europe, I never needed to drive. I took trains, buses, and coaches across the continent, and I loved not needing a car. Flash to 3 weeks ago, when I arrived back in the US. There is no public transportation in the South, and I've probably averaged driving 50 miles a day getting across the sprawl.

Europe: I could walk into any store, buy a bottle of wine, and walk out without needing an ID or a brown bag to hide it in. After buying said alcohol, I could walk to a park or get on a boat and openly drink with friends, and nobody passing would even bat an eye. US: Alcohol has a pretty bad rep, and drinking when you're under 21? Criminal. Drinking outdoors? Only on very special occasions, where there are plenty of police patrolling to keep the rowdies under control.

Despite priding itself on being freedom-loving, the US has some pretty serious hangups involving things I perceive as "personal freedoms" that Europe doesn't. Whereas Europe is open and free with alcohol, PDA, and body image, Americans have a confused and at times repressed relationship with drinking, sex, and skinny people.

I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, I'm fairly European in my behaviors, consumption patterns, and appearance. On the other hand, Europe doesn't want me. The US may be the only place in the world I'm allowed to call home for the moment; I can't even go live in Canada without some serious visa paperwork! Going through customs in Philadelphia was a bittersweet moment: the man behind the desk welcomed me back to the States, and I couldn't help but feel a little sad, knowing that I'd feel a little out of place but with nowhere else to belong.

Fortunately, it's not nearly so dire as I paint it. There is a sunny side, and that sunny side is Americans. I may not be a fan of American consumerism, the valuing money over all else, a culture of disposability, sexual repression, confused body image, and dependence on cars, but the people are the best I've met anywhere. They're welcoming and kind, friendly and willing to chat with and befriend strangers. I've felt so energized since being back, and it's largely due to the people I've been able to surround myself with for the past few weeks. Southerners are great, and despite the negative points about being back in the US, I'm happy to try to add a drawl to my speech to fit into my new niche.

Never Upgrade

This has been my mantra for technology: once you've gotten it working, don't upgrade it.

I break from this strategy from time to time, and I always regret it. Case in point: a month ago, upgrading Android. For some amount of time (days? weeks? months?!), my Android had been politely informing me that there was a system upgrade available for my downloading, and I always politely informed it, no thanks, maybe some other time (thought what I really meant was never).

At some point, the system upgrades got a little pushy and decided it was high time for me to download OS version Gingerbread, so they started to pop up little message boxes every time I turned the screen back on. I could tolerate the boxes for the first few days, but it really started to get to me when I had to close the pop-up message every time I wanted to take a photo.

So I gave in. I downloaded the upgrade. And I regret it every time I use the phone.

First off, the battery life is now non-existent. No new programs appear to be running in the background, but possibly the new crappy icons and "whoosh" effect when the screen turns on and off has a hand in it, especially since the whooshing happens a lot when I have the wi-fi turned on but with the phone itself idle.


Secondly, I had a major problem with my free calling setup, the cause of which is unclear to me. I wanted to initially blame the problem on the upgrade, but I think the problem may actually have been with PBXes. So for any of you still sporting a SipDroid + Google Voice setup on your Android, if you start getting any SipDroid timeouts or 401 authorization errors, two things to try that will hopefully fix your problem:
1) Make sure your SipDroid password matches the password of your PBXes extension. (Not sure how mine became different, but at one point they did.. perhaps by magic!)
2) In PBXes, go to Personal Data, then restart it.

Sigh... shoulda just tried to get rid of the annoying pop-up boxes with the old OS version.

Graffiti Walk

Something I've noticed about Europe is that graffiti enjoys a very different status within the culture than it does in the US. Whereas in the US, graffiti is generally something frowned upon, to be cleaned off an afflicted building immediately, and generally located in less-than-savory areas of town or signaling the presence of crime, European graffiti seems to be a point of pride. It doesn't get painted over quickly (if ever), and it can be found in abundance in any location. There are even some spots specially reserved for artists to come practice their spraying art.

As expected, many sprayers are angsty teenage boys searching for an outlet, some advertising anarchy or other political messages, but sometimes the art is cute, sweet, or even poetic. Here's a collection of some of my favorite, most noteworthy small graffiti works I've seen over the past few months. (My favorite one, due to its striking contrast, was mentioned in an earlier post.)

Oerlikon Nord train station

Choose Your Leader

Not graffiti, but nonetheless interesting building; I like to think it's home to anarchist squatters

"She's My Baby" in Verona. See if you can spot it!

Zurich tram

Stuttgart artist, photographing his work

"The rock of truth and the water of righteousness form life for eternity." outside Zurich

Though I don't have a picture of it, one of the most inspirational graffiti works that I often think back on is painted on a sidewalk on Euclid Avenue in Berkeley. It's a simple, blue, stenciled-looking work with a picture of a small tree branch with leaves on it and the message "breathe, you are alive."

Mild Anarchy

I paid a quick visit to Strasbourg, France, and I have to admit, I was more pleased with France than I was expecting to be. The Petite France area was quaint, the Notre Dame impressive, the Rhine calm, and the trams comfortable, but it was the food and atmosphere that impressed me the most. We all hear about French cuisine being so great, but I figured it was just European snobbery; after all, food in Italy was good, but not all of it was fabulous, and same goes for most other places in Europe I've eaten. But every meal I had in Strasbourg was really good and well-prepared.

On top of that, there's a feeling of light anarchy, layered on top of shallowly-hidden hot tempers attitudes. I feel this disregard for organized rules is best exhibited at crosswalks. Pedestrians pretty much walk when they feel like it, though they generally do it when there's only a little traffic coming; with this attitude, I almost got myself run over back in Switzerland. I suspect the anarchy would be dialed up a notch in other parts of France that aren't tempered by Germans as the Alsace region is.

The Strasbourgeois seem to stay up very late, with streets not emptying until well past midnight, and in the dark of night, there were large numbers of people hanging out in the Orangerie park, chatting, making guitar and bongo music, and generally loving life. (Despite the reputations of France and Italy, however, I still think Switzerland seems to sport the most PDA of anywhere I've been in Europe.)

Lord help me, but I kind of want to move to France now.

"The Other Place" and "The Other Other Place"

My UK tour finished up with visits to Cambridge and Oxford, back-to-back. In Cambridge, I got to go punting for the first time, and the weather was lovely the whole trip, if a bit too windy.

Oxford was also quite nice, and a lot of the students had examinations that day, which meant they were running around in their navy uniforms with little pink carnations pinned to their blazers.

Neither is a school of slouches, with both places having lots of famous names associated with them: for starters, Cambridge has Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin; Oxford, Lewis Carroll and JRR Tolkien. Both have lots of character created by the lovely old stone architecture, spared from the bombings the rest of England experienced during WWII. The main differences I perceive in the two towns is that the colleges in Cambridge play a greater role in shaping the image of the town (or is it city? I get confused about the European standards); Oxford's colleges tend to be a bit more hidden, and Oxford itself has wider streets that seem a little more car-friendly.

I always figured myself for an Oxford type, based on the fact that I have friends associated with Oxford, but I have to admit, I think that when it comes down to it, I'm more of a Cambridge fan.

Nemo Me Impune Lacessit

I just got back from an excellent 2-week trek across the UK, and I thought I'd share my thoughts about the cities I visited in a fairly organized manner. For each city I visited, I will list the best and worst things about it. Coincidentally, I've also started watching some British trash television, including a show called "Snog, Marry, Avoid," and I will be assigning one of these three judgments to each city I present. (Snog = kiss/make-out, for you non-Brits.)

First off, Scotland, and more specifically, Edinburgh!

Let there be no mistake: I love Edinburgh. I think it's my new favorite city. I had consistently seen this seat of Scottish Parliament as the Top City to Visit by many people's standards, but I just had no idea. Originally, I wasn't even planning on staying a full day there, so I'm quite happy I ended up making it a slightly longer stay! As it was, I could have stayed for a week and not been tired of looking around.

Best about Edinburgh: Where to begin... it's clean, the architecture is absolutely beautiful, the skyline when you walk to the city centre from the bus station is just stunning, the weather was a nice sunny/cloudy/sprinkling mix, stores are open on Sundays (!), the museums and Parliament are mostly all free to visit, the Leith River walkway is a lovely 12-mile stretch of walking path, the Caledonian Backpackers Hostel was fantastic, and THE CASTLE (enough said).

Worst about Edinburgh: That I can't just up and move there (thanks for nothing, EU).. also, you won't find too many unintelligble Scottish accents here.

Snog, marry, avoid? Marry, baby; this city is awesome!


Next up, Aberdeen.

Bleh, the City of Granite is not high on my list of places to re-visit, despite its having a nice Robert the Bruce statue.

Best about Aberdeen: seeing a pod of dolphins swim by at the beach on the North Sea, the cool Kordova Klub pub near the train station, proximity to Edinburgh (only 3 hours by coach)

Worst about Aberdeen: that everything's made of this gray, institutional-looking granite; every museum in the city is closed on Mondays (when I was there)

Snog, marry, avoid? I'd avoid Aberdeen. Sorry, this place was just gray and not much fun.


Final stop in Scotland: Inverness.

Inverness is a pretty nice little place. It was chilly and super-windy, but fortunately, I was prepared for a little northern weather in the Capital of the Highlands.

Best about Inverness: ceilidh bars with traditional music, cool travelers in the Student Hotel, nice bridges over the River Ness, Loch Ness, Culloden Battlefield, walking from the Battlefield to Clava Cairns and Milton of Clava, the castle near the city centre, lots of good restaurants, tons of whiskey distilleries (including the small Bendromach distillery; the Malt Whiskey Trail goes through the area), thick Scottish accents, rainbows everywhere (I saw on average one a day)!

Worst about Inverness: needing to take a bus/train to get to a lot of the good cultural stuff, though it wasn't too complicated or expensive, and the view was nice; the damp chill and high winds that kept me somewhat chilled the whole time, especially when I didn't dry my hair after showering one morning

Snog, marry, avoid? Snog and maybe marry. Inverness seems pretty nice, though I don't know what it would be like to live there. I'd probably spend more time in the Highlands than in Inverness, quite frankly.


As for the title of this post, "No one attacks me with impunity" is the motto of Scotland, and it's written in many places: over the doorway of the Edinburgh castle, on coats of arms, and even in one of the holy chapels in Edinburgh! Fun fact.