Daniela Tuchel
Bucharest, Romania

While in Atlanta, we had the opportunity to visit a federal penitentiary there. This is a high security facility which houses 3,600 inmates including death row inmates. I was surprised by how nice all the buildings and the school and canteen looked. We visited around lunchtime and the food there really smelled delicious. In Romania, the food served in prisons is not so good. I know the inmates don’t get proper medical care and I’m not sure (their) rights are respected.

Daniel Cavero
Lima, Peru

What most impressed me here in our visits to different newspapers was the huge budgets that you have for different issues like the war in Iraq or the coverage of (hurricane) Katrina and the aftermath (and) investigative reporting. When we asked how much money is spent in this kind of coverage, the answer was always the same: “We don’t know, but it’s a lot.”

When we visited The Miami Herald they told us they have a special team for hurricanes (including) a logistics guy who works to make sure all the hurricane teams are ready when they need to be. For example, they have $25,000 cash available immediately if someone needs it. They have batteries, cell phones, food, water, medicines and gas for the trucks. …

Reporters here can spend a year or more devoted to a single subject, a single story. This allows for huge, impressive stories in the newspapers every year, every month. … That is not the case in my country. It is very difficult (in Peru) to have teams working on things other than breaking news. As an international editor from a daily newspaper, I would love to have a correspondent in every single country, or just to have the ability to send a reporter when an issue happens. You’re lucky because you can read stories written firsthand by Americans, for Americans.

Anne A. Jambora
Makati City, Philippines

This is my first time in America and from the moment I stepped out of the airport the first thing I noticed was the overwhelming sense of American patriotism. There were so many American flags just everywhere. In the Philippines, for instance, you would be hard pressed to find a Filipino proudly waving the Philippine flag in the air, even during our independence day. There is no such thing as national pride in the Philippines, everybody wants to flee from the country. Here, even homes have the American flag, which made me think that Americans, despite your diverse political beliefs, are dedicated to coming together to work for the betterment of the United States.

Anne Jambora spoke with John Schidlovsky, director of the International Reporting Project at Johns Hopkins University, in Washington, D.C.

Raj Kumar K.C.
Katmandu, Nepal

One thing I have learned a lot about is the sense of positivism, or optimism, (and) the great degree of volunteerism among the American people that I really respect. … I had the feeling before I came that Americans would be very difficult to talk to, that they would be very arrogant. … But that feeling just turned topsy-turvy when I came here. Everybody was very friendly, people would say “Hello, how are you?” even though they didn’t know me. It really radiates the feeling of something positive. In my country, we don’t do that.

Teodora Vassileva
Sofia, Bulgaria

Every time I visit a country I make my top list of the things that surprised me most. The negative thing that struck me most was that I saw a lot of homeless people and I didn’t expect this. It’s not in the news. It’s in some of the Hollywood movies but as something more exotic. The first time I remember this clearly was in Boston. I saw in a park dozens of homeless people sleeping or looking for food in the garbage. Then we visited other big cities and I saw that this wasn’t only happening in Boston. So I started to do my research. Why? Who are those people? I read a lot of analyses and two basic reasons I found (are) that it’s mainly the economic decline and the prices of renting or owning a house going increasingly high. Also … there is a kind of working poor people who cannot afford to pay for their houses, so once they are on the street it’s very difficult to go back to their normal life. I don’t know if you know how many homeless street people you have here in the United States (but) I procured several numbers, and one of them was that 3.5 million people in one year can experience homelessness here, which really surprised me. The United States is the richest country, how is it possible? I know there are homeless people everywhere, even in my country, but they are not so visible.

The top number one positive thing I saw is the enormous amount of charity and donation and volunteerism in this country. I believe that’s an incredible tradition and I hope that I can … organize people to do something like this back in my country.

Matthias Bernold
Vienna, Austria

It’s impressive how much money U.S. newspapers have. I mean, the dimension of stuff and people and expertise is overwhelming. But also the ideas are very interesting. Information is changing from a one-way track to a more open, two-way track. Readers respond, and this creates a new (avenue) of information. (But) there’s a very negative aspect (to) all this development and in my opinion it’s that people share far less information. They’re interested in far fewer things and the amount of common knowledge is declining. So what’s the result of that? Imagine being on a date. … You had a great meal, wine and everything, and then you start having a conversation with the lady or the man you like and talk about cinema. You ask, “What did you think about, I don’t know, ‘Corpse Bride?’ Did you see that?” And your partner says, “No, I’m not so interested in movies.” And you say, “Okay, well, do you think about philosophers?” And your partner says, “Well, no.” And you talk about politics and this and that and never find anything to talk about. So now take this situation to the whole society, because people are interested in only very specific fields. It’s very, very difficult to get together and discuss (things.) I think this is what’s happened to the United States. And I think this is why you see the two halves of America, the philanthropic half and the war-driven half. You see the helpful America and you see the narrow-minded, closed America. And it’s very difficult for these two Americas to communicate, not because they have different points of view, but because they have different information, a different base.

Tang Ju
Shanghai, China

I’m really impressed by the diversity and richness and the dynamics of the American culture. We’ve seen the most cutting-edge technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and I’ve heard the weirdest theory I’ve ever heard, in Seattle at the Discovery Institute, about “intelligent design.” In short, this theory holds that certain features of the universe or of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than by an undirected process such as natural selection. … I don’t know if you agree with this or not, but this sounds pretty hard for me to accept. There’s one logical question: According to their theory we were designed by an intelligent agent, so who designed that intelligent agent who designed us? And who’s the ultimate designer? According to their theory — since everything should be designed — there can’t be an ultimate designer. So there seems to be no answer to this question, to me at least. I don’t know who will outplay whom in the debate over intelligent design vs. evolution, and I don’t know what kind of influence this will have over high schools in the United States and over the society as a whole, which already (seems) a very religious one to me.

But don’t worry, I think maybe that’s the beauty and dynamics of the American culture. It is the diversity that helped drive your society to give people choices, what you want to believe, what you want to choose to believe. And I believe the United States can use (this) diversity as a strength rather than a weakness.

Raphael Gomide
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

I think the United States has become a much more diverse country in the last 15-20 years. There are a lot more people coming from different parts of the world and being integrated into the country, which is really good. (And) I see a lot of students here at Macalester and other schools who have had an experience abroad. People have learned to speak different languages and people seemed very interested in talking to us. So although there are still some difficulties concerning race and also some discrimination towards Native Americans or foreigners, I think America is getting a lot better. And I think this diversity is helping America become a better place. And still, I noticed a sad thing. …The differences are still there. I noticed it very clearly in a play we watched at The Second City in Chicago, (where) there were white Americans and black Americans. The two of them would only play the white jokes or the black jokes and it was very clear for an hour and a half that they had different roles. It seemed to me as if there were two different humors, two different cultures, in the same country. I think that’s very odd.

I’d (also) like to talk a little bit about the invisible America, which is one of the major strengths of this country: that is, the amazing network of foundations and philanthropy and volunteerism. … I checked the figures and the U.S. Census Bureau says that one-third of Americans between 21 and 24 are volunteers, 40% between 25 and 34, 50% between 35 and 54, and 39 % of the Americans of 75 years old are volunteers. These are incredible numbers, it’s a kind of culture that some of us sometimes have a hard time understanding, why people would be so generous and why people devote their time to others. The top 100 foundations in the country invested $11.2 billion last year in charity. (That’s) about the same (as) the annual budget of my state, so it’s a big figure for me. And I think this is really what makes America a very good place, a very special place.

Pilar Conci
Buenos Aires, Argentina

I was surprised by the large amount of immigrants and the role they play in American society. Before I came here, I knew a lot about statistics and figures about immigration and diversity in the United States. But going all over the country, seeing those figures with my own eyes, was shocking. Every city we went to there were a lot of immigrants in all layers of society. (Most) were in low-paying jobs, such as the staff in the hotels we went to. Actually, I think that maybe there’s not one American maid left in the hotels here; all of them are Mexican, Puerto Rican or from Central America. And that also says a lot about your workforce and the development of your economy. (It) says that Americans don’t take those jobs anymore because they can get better ones, and also, at the same time as the government is fighting immigration, the economy needs those immigrants because otherwise who would make the beds of your hotels, or who would offer you a larger meal for 50 cents at McDonald’s? But I also learned that immigration in this country is about positions of power and prestige in society. During our travels we met a lot of well-educated immigrants who have very important positions. (For example) we met with a top scientist at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and with the managing editor of The Miami Herald in Florida. And we met with first-generation Americans who went to school here and got better educations and better positions in society than their parents. We also learned how American universities need to lure foreign students to fill their programs in science because not enough Americans are interested in that. And so those foreign students are immigrating for good and becoming American citizens. So I guess I was able to see both sides of immigration. I met Mexican and Central American staff workers at the hotel where we stayed in Chicago who complained about their long working hours and their low pay, but who would have a much harder time in their own countries should they go back. So they’re staying. And we met with people who made so much money in this country as immigrants that they devoted themselves to philanthropy and charity.

What probably surprised me the most is how open and tolerant American society is towards those immigrants and their cultures. … I didn’t think before I came here that the United States was a more open, tolerant society than my own, but I discovered that it is. And actually if you take a look at what is going on in France right now, and the rest of Europe, you can see that handling diversity is not so easy. That’s why I think you should treasure this ability you have as a society and you should work hard to maintain it because it is one of your biggest strengths.