On Slow Travel Through the USA 2021/22

USA Update:

What I enjoy about slow travel is not just the fact that I am traveling in a more environmentally friendly way (at least somewhat) but also, and especially, the feeling of being closer to everything. Closer to the ground, to the people here, to what is happening around me. Since last night, I have been traveling by train to #WashingtonDC and continuing to #Baltimore, where I am meeting with a daughter of one of 'my' DPs. Once through #Ohio, #Pennsylvania and whatever other states are in between. Many (intercity) buses are currently no longer running in the USA or are operating under significant restrictions – Covid has grounded many operations, albeit only at certain locations. The very different Covid policies of the individual states remind me a bit of the diverse big cities – one street so, the next very differently and radically. In terms of multiculturalism, this is also extremely exciting and invigorating. The diversity and the hopping from neighborhood to neighborhood is – as also already experienced in #NYC – impressive. Fascinating: languages, religions, mindsets, attitudes, appearances, skin colors, backgrounds, identities. The common thread is the diversity. I would have said that I have experienced a lot of diversity and have been able to experience it, but what I have encountered here in some places is even more of it, more of everything. In #NYC, I didn’t have to walk through the city for two hours to feel like I had traveled around the world. The same goes for #Chicago; although it was a bit more challenging for me to ‘walk around the city’: yes, there are sidewalks there as well, but they are barely cleared, and to add to that, from about five days, four days the entire city was a continuous sheet of ice – at least on the sidewalks, not to mention the suburbs (often also without sidewalks). In #Detroit – Motown – the love for cars is so pronounced that I can only describe it as pedestrian-unfriendly terrain on a grand scale. I have never really understood the love for cars, and it seems to be most extreme in #Detroit, but in general: being without a car often astonishes the locals; as well as the fact that I try not to take the plane at least once in the country – at least I try. Since these news can often become lengthy, here is a small list of, let’s say, oddities and anecdotes:Detroit – Covid doesn’t seem to be a real issue hereOn the way through Pennsylvania: posters, signs Pro-Trump, Make America great again, Fuck Joe Biden,…Cleveland, on my way to the station: the Uber driver who thinks I’m crazy for going to Chicago: murder and mayhem, robbery, ‘one of the most dangerous cities in the USA,’ nothing would draw him there, especially due to the mayor, who only makes everything worse – during the conversation, it comes out that it is (not just) a female mayor, whom he thinks is incompetent, but also that she is black and openly lesbian… Puh, I was glad to arrive at the station, as he was just explaining that we in Germany have lost our faith in God and thus the country is on the brink of doom… Nevertheless: conversations with Uber/Lyft drivers are highly fascinating. That would be a real subject worth investigating: What do completely unknown individuals talk about on short trips from x to y using Uber/Lyft? What do they not talk about? What music is played? How are the vehicles internally “decorated,”…And this brings me to the next point: in Chicago, I had to become a user, maybe even an enthusiast, of Uber and Lyft; otherwise, it was hardly possible to get around – and yes, I admit, there were moments in Chicago where I didn’t feel particularly comfortable. I noticed that I had experienced this unease in LA and also in San Francisco back in 2009 and hardly anywhere else – in all my travels I have undertaken, especially alone, and even if hardly anyone will believe me: in Detroit I didn’t have that feeling.Back to diversity: even though I am mainly on the trails of East-Central European diaspora groups and thus only gaining a restricted view of the USA anyway: fascinating to meet these people, to talk, to work with their archives, to search, to find, a real discovery. Moreover, to see the history (East-Central) Europe from another and especially expanded perspective and to experience it – in the very literal sense – being there is indeed something different from just reading. The most exciting was recently #Hamtranck – a self-contained small town in the midst of Detroit – mostly populated by Poles in the early 20th century, then by many, many others. At some point, many of these individuals moved to other suburbs or states, and in the last approximately 20 years, there has been a significant influx of Muslim groups – from Albania, Bosnia to Bangladesh. The Historical Museum Hamtranck is a kind of neighborhood initiative that thrilled me – as did the very friendly help from the Ukrainian Museum there. I have the feeling that the closer I get to smaller initiatives and museums, to previously very (!!) untouched archives – which are sometimes just a storage place for all kinds of things – the more exciting and helpful the people become. It’s much more about a give-and-take from my side, just showing up and chatting, and suddenly I find myself with x, y, and z, who tell me about their lives and the lives of their families – even if I constantly cause confusion: someone from (East) Germany, no family connection to Poland, to Ukraine or such and now in their premises in the USA. The days in Detroit were not necessarily that targeted, thus my dissertation might not be finished for decades, but for a few days, all that makes a lot of fun, and anyway: it’s back to Washington DC to the already (pre-)organized work plan.