First off, I would like to share this quote that my Cine teacher shared with me about studying/traveling abroad:

You can’t go home again.

                                    -Thomas Wolf

It’s implicating that once you leave your reality of what is home and the culture that is familiar, you can never really go home and experience it the same way you had before. This quote seems to be a central point in today’s post; I’ve never felt so patriotic.

On Friday I went out with one of my Mexican friends and her roommates and her roommate’s friends. One of the friends of the roommate was named Clara. She seemed congenial at first, but then she asked me where I was from. When I told her the USA, her face immediately changed. The rest of the night whenever I was conversing with the others, she would say to them, “She doesn’t know what you’re saying” and then shoot me a look of mockery like I didn’t know what she just said either. I felt stupid and embarrassed at first, but then stopped caring because let’s be real: who cares. I’ve encountered a few of them, these “Clara types” who stereotype all Americans to be idiots, but the best way to deal with them is ignore them. I’m still learning to language. This I think is sometimes the mentality/impatience we might have with people who aren’t fluent in English. Take it from someone who’s experienced the other side: give ‘em a break! And never feel embarrassed about where you come from.

This Saturday I went out with some Spainards, a Chilean, and Andrea (& with the exception of Andrea, none of whom speak or barely understand English). I love experiencing these differences in cultures, differences in people, and even difference in language. We were all speaking Spanish but there were distinct differences and slang and dialect. It’s so cool listening to them all speak and hear their accents and have them all mix together into one language. I suppose that might be the same as someone from Chicago, Texas, California, New York, and Minnesota having a conversation all in one room. Just never thought about it that way before…

I know that I’m trying to use Spanish all of the time, but there are a lot of students in my classes who have been asking me for help with English. I actually visited a second year English class a couple weeks ago. It was so interesting. The teacher had a British accent, and they were talking about advice and suggestions. She emphasized a lot on the difference between the two which to me, never really seemed that important. There were so many little things about English that never really occurred to me in terms of grammar. At the end of class she asked me to give suggestions to those who were interested in studying in the United States. It was cool to be able to share a little bit about different parts of the US and give suggestions. I felt really proud to be able to talk about my country.

In one of my classes, we deal with globalization and cultural events and such, and one of the topics that’s hit on a lot is 9/11 (which I just realized is tomorrow). The last class they directly asked me about it, and I remember exactly where I was. I didn’t understand a lot because I was pretty young at that time, but I shared a little about what I remember with the class and then it started to become difficult to say anything at all. I started to become a little emotional and speechless. I never had felt so strongly towards my country than at that moment.

It’s easy to get carried away with all the other cultures and find faults with your own, which admittedly I was doing. However, now I’m learning that the more I get to know other cultures, the more I can appreciate and expand thoughts about my own. I can honestly say that I am certainly very blessed and very proud to be an American. I finally truly understood this allegiance we learned since we were young:

I felt this to be relevant especially with voting coming up and tomorrow being the remembrance of one of the most impacting, disastrous moments of our time: September 11th, 2001. My thoughts and prayers go out to all those who were effected by this traumatic event in our history, and also to everyone who will be voting this year (which everyone who is able should).

Sending some American love from the other hemisphere.