Once you begin life Someplace Else, you begin to adjust. Someplace Else could be five miles away or five thousand. It matters not. In the same city I have adjusted to new neighborhoods, noticed the many little differences in many little things, such as the quality and quantity of coffee houses with free wi-fi, the presence of a natural food store, the cleanliness of the bus lines that stop there, the murals or graffiti, a difference in the cost of car insurance.
Now that I've been living Someplace Else for about half a year, it was on a recent trip with my new family to Disney World in Orlando that I felt a touch of what Orlando must look like people who have never been there before, people who (gasp) may have never seen a supersized anything.
Suddenly the average size of a person was quite noticeably different. We're not talking height, or basic body type per se, but rather that on average, people in and around the Disney Parks were in what seemed to me, a rather unhealthy state of obesity. Orlando itself, the land of never ending competition between chain restaurants and strip malls and outlet centers forced me into a big 'aha'.
I realized that had I been from say, a small town outside the States, and travelled for my first time to the States, to see Orlando in all it's glory, this would be my impression of America and her people. Some of the words I would use to describe the area surrounding Disney's parks are: big, repetetive, too much, loud, turkey leg fast food, and really white sneakers.
Et, voila, a stereotype is born. Got it.
