An American in Paradise?

It's always been true that I've never felt more like an American then when I'm in another country.  All of a sudden I seem to represent "American" and everything I say or do is construed as speaking for a nation.  Even today we were in a crowded market and I kept getting caught in traffic jams of people.  My guide said to me that I just needed to push my way through and my response was "if you push it's normal, if I push I'm the rude American shoving people out of the way."  This is the first country I've been to in a long time, maybe forever, where being American is actually an asset.  It literally has opened doors for me.  Show up at a museum just as they are closing for lunch - oh she's an American, come in, we'll eat later.  Go through security - oh she's an American, we don't have to check her bag.  I'm not used to being loved just for being American.  I've been liked, tolerated, and called imperialist aggressor but loved, that's just not something I can wrap my head around.

So I visited the capital city today.  It has 2 names depending on who you ask but whatever you call it I didn't really like it.  It's known for it's old city which like every great architectural wonder I have ever visited anywhere in the world was covered in scaffolding and mesh fences.  I've pretty much come to the conclusion that this truly is an ancient architectural style!  It's just a crazy busy city and it's growing very quickly.  They're building 5 star hotels, malls, fast food restaurants and amusement parks.  I think it's just getting too big too fast and it's losing the feeling that once made it special.  Of course, you didn't hear me complaining when I was eating chicken fingers in the food court at the mall!

In a few hours I leave for the airport to start the second part of my journey.  It'll be a long day of travel and sitting in airports which I'm not looking forward to but stay tuned for the next edition of Where in the World is Kerri O'Shea - maybe I need to make the clues a bit easier in the next round!