I am waiting for my flights to see South Carolina to see two of my closest friends over an early and extended thanksgiving break. I took a series of buses to save money, but as this is the US and you don't choose which bus to take, I am here way before time. On the way, my bus passed through Hartford, the capital of Connecticut state. Since moving here, I have realised that many American cities don't feel like cities in the US because they don't have walkable downtowns. They have skyscrapers, which would suggest a high population density, but you don't see that in the streets. Apparently, all those skyscrapers house huge parking lots so that people can drive to and from them. Hartford was another such large soulless mid-sized city, which made me grateful to live in a college town, which has a fair number of pedestrians as well as cyclists for its size. And, of course, the only people who take buses in the US are poor people and students. I was possibly the only person above 20 on two of my bus rides. I had last visited South Carolina two years ago when I visited the same two friends. At that time, I was excited to be in the Deep South, but I was a bit disappointed. We didn't really spend time in a city, apart from touristy Charleston, and American suburbs feel depressingly similar. This time around, I will be spending time in a city, and I also have a frame of reference to compare it with. I live in a college town in the bluest state in the country, and I am curious about what America is like outside this bubble.
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