Real Pennsylvania

New Zealanders are all kind of one in the same. That is the people who’ve grown up in Hawkes Bay or rural Southland haven’t grown up that much differently from someone who grew up in inner city Auckland or the suburbs of Wellington.  Sure I never got stuck in a traffic jam growing up and didn’t have many clothes stores to choose from but city and rural experiences are not too dissimilar. 

The thing about America though is that regions, cities and states differ a lot.  Where you come from plays a huge role in how you speak, the music you listen to, who you vote and what kind of car you drive. The more I get to stay with friends around Pennsylvania the more I get to appreciate how different this country is !

This weekend I got a taste of true Pennsylvania – visiting the Amish and the Mason-Dixon line !

On Saturday morning my roommate Brittney and I spontaneously decided to drive to Lancaster for the day to see the Amish.  The Amish are a religious subculture that live mainly Southern Pennsylvania who reject modern day culture and technology. They continue to live as though it were the 1870’s –wearing old fashioned clothes, driving horse and carts and farming without technology and modern day techniques.  As well as this they speak Pennsylvania Dutch and refer to Americans as “ The English”. 

It took us about three hours to drive from State College to Intercourse, just outside Lancaster. We visited some Amish markets which were full of traditional home cooked food – I tried my first whoopee pie (so good) and bought caramel chocolate pecan fudge. As well as food the Amish sold a lot of home made candles, leather goods and hand lotions made from goat milk. 

As we wandered up and down the main street in Intercourse Amish drove past in their horse and buggy’s or push bikes. The women all wore long skirts and the men had beards and wore shirts and long pants.  Britt also told me about the Amish Rumspringa – a kind of ‘rite of passage’ given to Amish boys when they’re about 18. During this time, they’re supposed to experience the outside world and travel. However, Britt told me that most of them spend the entirety of their Rumspringa drinking and partying which I’m pretty sure is not the idea the church had in mind …

Amish horse and carriage 

We then had lunch at crepe café in Lancaster and decided to drive to Britts house about an hour away on the Mason-Dixon state line ( the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland).

Britt lives in New Freedom and calls this area, right on the Maryland border “ the real Pennsylvania”. Surrounded by farmland and red barns almost everybody drove pick-up trucks and blasted country music from their windows.  There were even a few Trump flags and Confederate flags and symbols decorating houses and cars. It kind of felt like being in every small American town in the movies and just about every country music song ever. 

New Freedom, PA

We ended up staying the night in New Freedom and went out to a diner place for dinner with Britt's Mum and some friends.  It was just like being in Napier – Britt had gone to school with a couple of the waitresses and knew so many of the people who came into eat.  

On Sunday morning, we woke up early and went fishing.  Yes, fishing.  You would never catch me going fishing at home, but I figured this was my time to try something new and live the “real Pennsylvania” life.  We drove out to this tiny stream, in which I’m pretty sure no fish were actually living and cast our lines. When I say ‘cast our lines’ I refer to everyone else, I was pretty terrible and most of the time my casts ended up in the grass.  Britt’s Dad was hilarious walking around in his fishing gear pretending he knew what he was doing, whilst Britt sat in a tree with her pink fishing rod and aviators in hand. 

By lunchtime and with no success, we all gave up and Britt and I got back in the car for the three hour drive back to State College.  Pretty sufficed with my “real Pennsylvania” experience I headed back to State College with the knowledge that rednecks are real and that I suck at fishing. 

Exploring farm country in PA

Fishing !