Reflection

I noticed on my trip to Scotland how many more non-Scots are living and working in Edinburgh as well as travelling to St Andrews. So, too, the number of Americans going to the university has also increased since I was a student. I (an American studying in Scotland) have become less-rare in the intervening years, and I don't know if that is a bad or good thing. On the one hand, having Americans living abroad only be good for them -- Americans being in the double position of being rather provincial-minded as well as knowing they belong to a superpower nation -- since there is so much that being a 'stupid foreigner' can do for one's humility and worldliness. Of course, the coarse sounds of some American accents does make for a jarring break back to reality as one walks through a throng of people.