All Around the Town
or
And Never the Twain Shall Meet
Despite living in Dakar for over 5 years, I have a hard time remembering that the US is to the West of me. I finally figured out why. It's because, growing up on the East coast of the US, the Atlantic Ocean has for me always been the
equivalent of East. When I looked out over the Atlantic, I was always looking East. Since I have no magnetic needle in my brain telling me which way is East, when I look out over the Atlantic Ocean now, I automatically imagine I'm looking East. I have to actively work to correct this mental perspective.
In other cultural news, did you know that the French don't capitalize North, South, East, or West? Or French, American, Korean, etc. That is
apropos of nothing, but it gave me an excuse to write this sentence using a word we stole from French.
Posts
