After spending the day in Brussels with some other girls from Rotary, I went to a small concert with my friend Katie and her parents. The music was in English and it was sort of bizarre indie. I enjoyedmymself, of course, taking in the different instruments and sounds. The after party wasn't really much fun, considering it was adults standing around talking while the DJ played boring music. I requested Thriller by Michael Jackson and starting dancing by myself. Within seconds, people started watching me and even trying to learn the dance. After a few minutes, the whole bar was dancing with me, whooping and hollering. After that, everyone was in the mood to have fun. We limboed, learned new dances, and partied together for the next four hours into the night. Everyone kept coming up to me, thanking me for getting everyone in the mood to dance. They said Americans were a lot of fun, which is true, but really I just don't see the point of standing around when you could be dancing!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Just Another Day
After spending the day in Brussels with some other girls from Rotary, I went to a small concert with my friend Katie and her parents. The music was in English and it was sort of bizarre indie. I enjoyedmymself, of course, taking in the different instruments and sounds. The after party wasn't really much fun, considering it was adults standing around talking while the DJ played boring music. I requested Thriller by Michael Jackson and starting dancing by myself. Within seconds, people started watching me and even trying to learn the dance. After a few minutes, the whole bar was dancing with me, whooping and hollering. After that, everyone was in the mood to have fun. We limboed, learned new dances, and partied together for the next four hours into the night. Everyone kept coming up to me, thanking me for getting everyone in the mood to dance. They said Americans were a lot of fun, which is true, but really I just don't see the point of standing around when you could be dancing!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
9/11
Today in class, some of my closests buddies had brought up the Twin Towers. I felt my back stiffen, my face flush. Even though it was 10 years ago and even though I was only 9 years old, I remember the tragedy and what it did to my country. They then used their hands to act out a tower and a plane crashing into it. I was speechless. How could anyone make a joke of this? Before I could respond, the final bell rang, and I was thanking God it did. I knew I was going to say something harsh about the so-called "joke" I'd just seen.
There's another American girl at my school. It was the 9/11 "anniversary" and when I mentioned that to her, she had laughed, saying she'd completely forgotten. Maybe it was because she wasn't in the USA at the moment. Maybe she just didn't remember. Whatever the reason, I was left a little upset, but I said nothing.
The unfortunate events that occur in our world aren't necessarily forgotten, but maybe pushed aside. Of course we have to go on living our lives, but the events that affect us never leave the back of our minds. When I think about it, terror begins at the playground: pushing and shoving, name-calling. It continues through school, into the adult world, turning into a national and even global issue. Why fight when we could be loving? Call it cliche, but it's the truth.
There's another American girl at my school. It was the 9/11 "anniversary" and when I mentioned that to her, she had laughed, saying she'd completely forgotten. Maybe it was because she wasn't in the USA at the moment. Maybe she just didn't remember. Whatever the reason, I was left a little upset, but I said nothing.
The unfortunate events that occur in our world aren't necessarily forgotten, but maybe pushed aside. Of course we have to go on living our lives, but the events that affect us never leave the back of our minds. When I think about it, terror begins at the playground: pushing and shoving, name-calling. It continues through school, into the adult world, turning into a national and even global issue. Why fight when we could be loving? Call it cliche, but it's the truth.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
The Quilt
It's been a month and a half since I left my home, my place of comfort. It's a process, you see. First you prepare yourself before you leave, saying goodbye a week in advance so you don't forget anyone. Then you leave, pushing all the seconds thoughts out of your head as the plane leaves the ground. Once you arrive to your new home with your new family, you being the process of settling in, unpacking, sight-seeing. You get acqainted with your new surroundings, taking in how different everything really is. After a week or two, the homesickness kicks in, leaving you a little scared. If I'm homesick already, how am I going to last a year? That's when you tell yourself that it's only been 2 weeks and to stop being such a baby. You skype with your mother, your best friend. You realize all the moments you took for granted really do matter once you're gone. You piece together all the little things you wish you would've done before you left, making one big quilt, only this quilt doesn't keep you warm at night. This quilt only makes you miss home that much more.
But there's hope.
Inside each of us is a strength that we find at some point in our lives. Usually we find this hope after a drastic change, loss of a loved one, life-altering experience. This hope guides us, it gets us through the day. It's a hope we grow into because it is very powerful. It's a hope that allows us to believe that we can do something we never thought we'd be able to do. It's a hope, like a quilt, only this quilt is comforting an warm. It's the quilt that covers us during the coldest of nights, allowing us to sleep soundly so we can tackle the hard days to come.
For me, there are more good days than bad days, of course. It's just every once in a while that I tuck myself in with my comforting quilt, burrowing my face deep into the colored fabrics, knowing that there's hope for me. There's hope for all of us.
But there's hope.
Inside each of us is a strength that we find at some point in our lives. Usually we find this hope after a drastic change, loss of a loved one, life-altering experience. This hope guides us, it gets us through the day. It's a hope we grow into because it is very powerful. It's a hope that allows us to believe that we can do something we never thought we'd be able to do. It's a hope, like a quilt, only this quilt is comforting an warm. It's the quilt that covers us during the coldest of nights, allowing us to sleep soundly so we can tackle the hard days to come.
For me, there are more good days than bad days, of course. It's just every once in a while that I tuck myself in with my comforting quilt, burrowing my face deep into the colored fabrics, knowing that there's hope for me. There's hope for all of us.
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