I am Nathan Swann from Mount Airy, which is almost forty-five minutes west of Winston-Salem. Right now I am attending the UNC School of the Arts located in Winston-Salem and have been for two semesters and have just started my third.
My father, David Swann works as a CEO for Cross Roads Behavioral Health Care in an office located in Elkin, NC and controls the Health Centers and hospitals located around Surry County and Iredell County west of us. I am not sure when his parents located to the United States, but my family's history on his side can be traced back to the colonial time, so they have been around for a long. His family came from England. My mother, Joy Swann, is a teacher at Dobson Elementary School located in Dobson, NC in the middle of Surry County west of us. Her family is from Germany and immigrated to the United States just after 1900.
The Global Village is ever expansive and I tend to connect and learn from other cultures using the media to its advantage. Newly arrived teenagers should avoid driving without a license. I had friend that never received a license and was pulled over by police officers and his fine was very high, which doesn't include the cost of a Lawyer if you want to have it dropped. The United States likes to be called authentic in a variety of cultures, but in food, you may find the most authentic American food is fast food such as McDonald's. Two summers ago I went to Italy and visited Rome, Florence, Milan and also stayed in some mountains near Milan called Lake Como. I enjoyed my stay there and the food was the best I ever experienced. The best meal I had was in Lake Como and after ordering the fish, the cook would go out on a boat and catch it for me. This meal took quite a bit of time, but that is one of the differences from the United States I enjoyed. Italy's meals was paced and long while in the United States they are fast and even in some places it seems the cooks and servers try to rush me out of their restaurant.
I grew up in a small town called Dobson, moving there from Charlotte when I was five years old. At the same time, there was mass immigration of Hispanics from Central America and I had a hard time literally fitting into a school because there were so many kids suddenly coming into the school. Since then, I have made friends with the Hispanics of my community, I might can even say that the majority of my friends of from Hispanic back ground. Many people back where I live expect me to speak Spanish fluently or at least know quite a bit of the language, but that has not been the case and my friends have done nothing to teach me. I do enjoy having friends of different cultures and love the cuisine of Central America. Their families have invited me over for many classic and authentic meals from their culture.
I would really like to travel the world someday and visit, not every country, but most, and try their food. I think I can learn a lot about anyone's culture by eating their food. What matters to me in this world is that I am an informed person for the world. I don't want to be ignorant of my culture, someone else's culture.
I look forward to learning a lot from this class as I enjoy learning and valuing other cultures.
