Baltimore....
Every place, either a city or a country or a building or so, without even visiting it in person, can get a meaning and images for every person through a movie that they have seen or a story they have heard or a music they have memory with and etc. Many of us know Egypt through the Pyramids (no matter that the country is huge! we just know it by ancient pyramids) or for many Americans Illinois is Chicago! no matter that the IL has a lot more to offer than that lovely city... For many of my Iranian friends, let's say, US became US not through the news they used to hear every day from medias, but through the movies or series they have seen. For instance the series of Friends not only made so many mutual memories for Iranians, but also shaped the imagination of Iranians for what US might look like!
For me though, the first place that got a picture without even visiting it, was Baltimore. I was reading The Silence of the Lambs in my teen years and then was the time that US for me became real and actually became Baltimore! A dark grey mysterious city in my mind in which its towers were faded in fog and streets were empty and dirty, yet a young single talented women like Clarice Starling could rise in it and confront someone like Hannibal Lecter! By herself! The city that you can be independent and gain what you want by a hard work.
When I came to US on 2009, after leaving the Dulles International Airport... I was looking for "a city". Though, there were no city for me! DC that I was looking at, has no single common thing with what I was expecting from America! from capital of America... it took me years and I visited many more American towns and cities which helped me to reshape my imagination. Not like I forgot the first picture I had...
For me though, the first place that got a picture without even visiting it, was Baltimore. I was reading The Silence of the Lambs in my teen years and then was the time that US for me became real and actually became Baltimore! A dark grey mysterious city in my mind in which its towers were faded in fog and streets were empty and dirty, yet a young single talented women like Clarice Starling could rise in it and confront someone like Hannibal Lecter! By herself! The city that you can be independent and gain what you want by a hard work.
When I came to US on 2009, after leaving the Dulles International Airport... I was looking for "a city". Though, there were no city for me! DC that I was looking at, has no single common thing with what I was expecting from America! from capital of America... it took me years and I visited many more American towns and cities which helped me to reshape my imagination. Not like I forgot the first picture I had...
And now, here I am! The new phase of my life is going to be started and it would be in Baltimore! I can welcome myself to America now! after 5 years of living in the US, I am actually moving to America that I was picturing for myself: the city that a single woman rises in it...
Yes, it is official! Baltimore it is 
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