Foreign Perspectives

As promised, I wanted to comment on a foreigners perspective of the U.S. Its insightful because as Americans, we are constantly fed how we live in the greatest country in the world and no other can compare. Yet Europeans, especially, tend to disagree.


One of the things I was asked is, what do Americans think of Europeans. After thinking about it a few minutes, I came to the conclusion that I think it boils down to education and class. Those with no college education and a lower class status tend to think Europeans live in run down shacks in a third-world environment. When the truth is, although they do live in smaller homes than the average American, the quality of life is much better. In terms of their living environment, it tends to be cleaner and more upgraded than a typical American home. I think lack of exposure (usually this means lack of money to travel, but sometimes it also means lack of desire) among Americans and the "land of the free" type perception makes us very ignorant about the rest of the world.

Of course, I did point out the stereotypes we give Europeans - bad teeth, every-other-day bathers and socialists. I think even though these are stereotypes, they're pretty accurate ones.

So some of the things she pointed out about the U.S. - some I recognize, others I didn't:

- The US healthcare system sucks. I informed her that Americans tend to think socialized medicine is just eerie and that this leads to the government making decisions over who lives or dies. The notion that in socialized medicine there is a master list, rating those who deserve healthcare and who doesn't, is quite prevalent among many Americans. She laughed it off and said that there are no lists and that everyone gets treated appropriately. AND, she said that if you so desire, there is always privatized healthcare. I have to agree with her. My grandpa is 85 and just had surgery twice in the past year, even though it was a relatively minor, non threatening procedure.

- Americans are a throw away society. Everyone uses single-use products. Silverware, tupperware, paper towels, etc..

- College here is in some ways much more time consuming. In most of Europe, your grade consists of a difficult comprehensive final exam. You either pass or fail. Here in the US you are flooded with all kinds of assignments throughout the semester and then given a fairly easy final exam. She thought the American technique was better. And as much as I despise all the papers I have to write, I have to admit students understand and retain information much better this way.

- People here are ultra mega religious. She pointed out that in Europe there are plenty of believers, but nobody really practices, except for the traditional ceremonial events. The whole organized religion thing is perceived as almost cult-like. Amen to that.

- People spend all day drinking coffee here. I explained that 1. our coffee is watered down in comparison to the yummy lattes in Europe. and 2. Americans need it to survive; we don't get the abundance of vacation and holidays Europeans get.

- Our food is horrible. Everyone eats out or eats junk food. Nobody cooks decent meals or uses fresh ingredients. I couldn't argue with her there.

- Fat chicks everywhere. Ok, so she didn't point this out. I had talked to my cousin on the phone while she was here and somehow the subject of "Americanas gordas" came up. Thank god that I am no longer in that category.

Visitors

This weekend was a nice change of pace. My cousins wifes' sister (from Spain) came to visit from San Francisco. She is working at Stanford and UC Hayward on her PhD in Environmenal Science, so she will be here through August. I have known her pretty much all my life. Both my cousins hung out with her and her sister as kids, so when I spent the summers there, I too spent a lot of time with them.

So this weekend, she ventured on over to the see all the beauty and culture the city of Reno has to offer. Be sure to recognize the sarcasm there (unless you consider the strippers beauty and gambling an art). She is outdoorsy, so she appreciated Tahoe and having never been in the U.S., she also liked the western theme of Virginia City. After a long day of sightseeing, we went out to dinner where I ordered some pretty tasty fish and a honey sweetened, but oh-so-weak mojito. After agreeing that it was cold and that the casinos didnt sound appealing, we decided we'd head home and finish off the night with a bowl of popcorn and a movie. Appropriately, we watched Spanglish. I say this because she wanted us to speak to her in English so that she could improve her domination of the language, yet, I simply cannot get use to talking to her in anything but Spanish. Last time I had seen her, she spoke very little broken English.

Moving on. Jake wimped out about midnight, so we stayed up talking and catching up. She told me about all her travels, what she thought of the U.S. thus far (I will elaborate on that on my next post), school, money, religion, kids, etc.. Next thing we know, its 4am. YAWN....

If we are freezing, then whats wrong with the volleyball players?

Digg.com

Digg.com is an awesome site for those of you who have yet to discover it. Everyday people are able to "digg" articles they find interesting, and the ones that are "dugg" the most get moved to the top of the list. These articles cover all sorts of subjects, so you get very diverse reading material. Some are from reputable news sites, such as Time or CNN, while others are from blogs or small, more independent sources.

Here is the link to an article I read this morning. And you can bet, I totally dugg it.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/03/25/turtles-all-the-way-down/

Similarly, I read an article about a pilot in Italy who just got sentenced to prison because he chose to pray during a plane crash rather than follow emergency procedures. His actions led to the deaths of many passengers. Apparently god was too busy making the plane crash to listen to his prayers. Oh but wait....he had a plan.

I remember going to church when I was younger and being assigned a certain number of Hail Marys or Our Father prayers for each sin I confessed to. I wonder how the priest will address this situation. His sin was praying. Will he be required to pray some more in order to make up for the initial sinful praying?

Gotta love it.

Insert Foot in Mouth, Take Two

Have we become so overly sensitive that one must second guess everything that comes out of our mouths? Obama may have taken some heat over what he said on Jay Leno the other night, but I think Jake may have inadvertently trumped him in the unpolitically correct department:

Me: Am I the only person who thinks what he said wasn't that bad?

Jake: I know! Lets be realistic, its not like the special olympic bowlers are bowling 300's or anything. He was just pointing out that his bowling skills were comparable to those of the special olympic bowlers. Whats wrong with that?

Me: Yeah, maybe slightly insensitive but its not as big of a deal as people are making it sound.

Jake: Yeah, thats pretty retarded.

My To Do List

Things I could be doing instead of posting on my blog:

1. Read one of the two 400 page books on cognitive theory I have to read by Friday.
2. Write a paper on the book (also due by Friday).
3. Study for a midterm I have tomorrow.
4. Put away 4 loads of laundry.
5. Paint Jacobs room
6. Vaccum my house (its been 2 weeks!)
7. mop my kitchen floors
8. Take Brandi out to that lunch I owe her before she leaves for Europe.
9. Use that massage certificate that I got for Christmas.
10. Clean my bathrooms from top to bottom.
11. Working on one of my final projects that I'm sure are due sooner than I'm expecting.
12. WORKING (who would've thought work would be more fun than school?)
13. Shop for Jake and Jacobs birthday presents.
14. clean my backyard after the winter storms demolished it.
15. I'm sure there are other assignments due by Sunday that I have yet to even look at.

Moody Thoughts

I must be in a bad mood today. Maybe next week I will follow what Abby was saying on her blog and attempt to reduce my negativity. But I've been thinking about this subject lately, and since I'm in the venting mood, I figured its an appropriate time to blog about it.

There are certain celebrity personalities out there that just need to go away. They are evil and do nothing for the greater good. These are just a few I can think of off the top of my head.

1. Ann Coulter - I can't imagine why this woman is still single. She has such a wonderful personality and can be so warm, humble and caring (sarcasm alert)

2. Rush Limbaugh - Rush is not right.

3. Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton - Both appear to be "activists" however they are really just parasites.

4. Dr. Laura - I'm ashamed that I share a name with this woman. Her and Rush should have babies together. Except she'd probably eat them.

5. Sean Hannity - Colmes was probably trying to spare the public by leaving Hannity and Colmes, assuming they'd scrap the show altogether and thus alleviating us viewers from having to bare Hannity's idiocracies. But no, Fox News kept him on as a one man show.

A "Blast" From the Past

Ok, so let me start out by saying that I am the least jealous wife I've ever met. I know my husband worships the ground I walk on, so if he gets some attention from the opposite sex every now and then, good for him. Everyone deserves a little ego boost every once in a while, right?

So I had no problem when his first girlfriend requested him as a friend on facebook the other day. They began emailing back and forth and the conversation quickly turned to 'do you still go to church?', followed by her emailing him her 'testimony'. Jake encouraged me to read the emails, so I did. I got the distinct impression that since she recently decided to go back to the mormon church and her husband won't, nor will he allow their children to attend with her, she was scoping out what else was on the market. Her comments and questions made it clear that she was unhappy with her circumstances and almost as if she was evaluating what else was out there. Jake the gentlemen must've come to mind, so she searched for him in hopes that he was the same Jake she knew many years ago. Funny how she was totally into him and asking all kinds of questions until he mentioned that he was no longer mormon and was not contemplating going back. Shortly after that, the correspondence ceased. Crickets. Maybe she crossed him off her list and is moving on to ex-boyfriend #2 now.

Men get a bad rap for being conniving and unfaithful, but from my experience women are just as bad or worse.