Living in America.

Originally from good ole Ireland and now living in the states I get a lot of questions of this nature, whats the major difference between Ireland and America. I am thinking I am in the unique position now of being able to answer that question really well. But when I come to think about it I realise that people are mostly the same and life is what you make of it, of course you have minor cultural things like accent and weather. For example America is a cleaner place, rarely would you see any kind of minor litter on the roads, also I find that americans will walk around a lot without even looking or being aware of cars in a shopping mall or food outlet area, in Ireland you better have your wits about you as the automobile is king and pedestrian lights are for pedestrians.

I have this paranoia or fear that America is also more dangerous and that if you piss someone off whilst driving that they will flip out on me...perhaps a misplaced fear but a fear nonetheless. For a young Irish lad growing up in the 70's and 80's in Ireland, America held such mystery.. the expanse of the country and the hollywood aura it portrayed. I thought that every city was like hill street blues and dangerous, now I know that is not necessarily true but bad things do happen.

Today I celebrate 3 years in this country and soon to be 3 years married, 3 wonderful years of experiencing new things and a new culture of new food and new environments, I have gained a son also and its a joy to see his world expanding every day learning new things and taking on some of the things I have taught him. Life can be funny, when I was this innocent kid from 70's Ireland I never imagined I would one day be living in America. Its such a funny country too, a place where its all too easy to get a gun and a place where you can't hear a bad word on television (I ask you...which would be more detrimental to your health), a place where religion is taken way too seriously and a place where we have to god bless everything. I would just say "god bless the world".....peace!!!.