A couple of months ago I stumbled upon a book with a very attractive cover. I know the saying goes, you should never judge a book by its cover, but really honestly, who doesn’t look at the cover for some insight about the book?
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Very recently, this Saturday in fact, I went to a meeting for my internship in Spain that was more of a culture information, if you will. I thought for sure I was absolutely the most opened minded to other cultures anyone could get seen as my degree studies international culture, and was raised in a tricultural environment. However, I soon discovered that I was still very influenced by my American raising.
The skit that opened my eyes was very simple. A man led a woman into the room, they were both dressed very simply the man wearing shoes, the woman without. The woman followed the man and kept her head down, not making eye contact with the man. As they preceeded to the dinner table, the man sat in a chair, and occupied the only other chair, forcing the woman sit on the floor. The woman rose from the floor and served the man. Only after the man had eaten the food and gave a gesture of permission would the woman partake in the meal.
The presenter asked the crowd what exactly was going on, and of course ms. know it all (me) raised her hand and gave a precise analyzation of what was happening in this culture. It was obvious that the women in this society are opressed by the dominant male who are selfish pigs that keep their feet up on a chair when their poor servant wife had to sit on the floor.
The presenter kindly thanked me and then told me that I was absolutely terribly wrong. In this culture, women are the end all be all. They are praised for their beauty and their ability to bring the gift of life to Earth. The Earth is seen as sacred and men are seen as disposable…close to nothing. The men in this society are placed on Earth for the sole purpose of defending women and protecting their existence. When the couple walked in, the man was wearing shoes and the woman wasn’t, which illustrates that only women were allowed to be one, connected, with mother nature. Men had to walk directly in front of women in any instance that she should be attacked or befall harm. Women sit on the floor and cast their eyes to the sacred Earth, where as, men are not allowed to glance down or contact mother Earth. Lastly, the woman served the man first so that if there was any poison that was in the drink or food, he would be killed in place of her.
So, the point of the story…no matter how cultured you are, you will always look at things with a biased eye. So keep those minds open and always continually ask questiosns because people are always willing to share their culture with you……Also if you would like to know more about the do’s and taboos of culture, I highly recommend getting a short quick book over cultural practices….the book is called Do’s and Taboos around the world Edited by Roger E. Axtell. Also, if you are traveling to any foreign country, the collection of Culture Shock! books are very helpful and there is a book for every country possible almost.
It seems the further along in the semester I get, the more anticipation builds for the future upcoming year in my life. I remain restless at night with visions of sugar plums dancing in my head, or rather international adventures.
I am leaving on May 15th to work in a bank in Spain, which afterwards I will be traveling to Paris to do a study abroad program for six months. My head keeps spinning with endless questions and things I need to accomplish before I go. My main concern, is of course, everything financial. The program itself will cost 11,900 dollars…this is not including the price of my internship, extra trips around Europe, extra food or sightseeing. It also worries me that our American dollar is so weak in comparison to the Euro. For those of you who don’t know, for one dollar, I would have the spending power of approximately 61 cents in Europe. Everything is basically more expensive in Europe by far in comparison to the United States, with the exception of fresh food goods. I am working on getting corporate sponsors so if anyone reads this and has any ideas for me, please let me know! Other than that, I am so excited to be pursuing my dreams of living abroad and learning another language…Nothing could make me happier than increasing my worldy knowledge.
If you are interested in helping me obtain corporate sponsors or even just contributing in general, sponsors will get a tax deduction, and there are forms to fill out for that….please contact me and I will be elated to do all of the foot work!
Day after day, hour after hour, minute after minute, there really is only one thing that I am consistently thankful for. That would be my zany, crazy, quirky family. We’re all so different in so many different ways and yet at the end of the day we all fit together like the pieces of a tan gram puzzle…that one is for you Malia.
First off I’d like to distribute a life long supply of Grand Prize ribbons of parents of the year to mine. You can argue and defend your parents with everything you have, they don’t hold a candle to mine, so there. I mean, you have to be good to raise three kids, two rowdy boys, one crazy hormonal teenage daughter and still come out sane after wards. Patience is a virtue; my parents actually are in the guiness world book for their level of virtuousness.
I’ll always have much respect for my oldest brother Theo. He is ever so wise, philosophical, gentle, and when he is just severely hyper, he is also the greatest fui jitsu Jedi knight in the history of ninjaness. Someone should break it to him that it doesn’t really count if the only people he can take down is his sister and his dog. He somehow always finds enough irony in life to make me laugh right along with him…out of everyone I know so far, he has been the only one successful in turning my mood from operation lady death strike to sunshine, flowers, and little pink bunnies (very unwillingly I’ll add). I also like him because he got me an older sister for Christmas last year, it’s been so great having someone to relate to, to talk about everything girl, and roll my eyes with at Theo’s corny math jokes. She actually gets why I like shoes, fashion, boys, facials, and organic products….because we’re GIRLS. Somehow that never sank in with my brothers.
Arthur is just a story in and of himself. He gets so wrapped up in himself and his thoughts that he forgets he is operating a moving vehicle. He appreciates the art of discussion or actually arguing with anyone for any reason. Which is why I stick to small talk when it comes to our brother/sister conversations. Sometimes he is so argumentative and stubborn I literally want to head butt him, but he always makes it better by rubbing my head and laughing it off, " I know, I make my own head hurt too. I love you Suz."
There are a number of things that make me happy, and comfort me, but none do them quite as well as the Van Rooys. They’ve proven to be entertaining and lovable so I think I’ll keep them. Untill the next lifetime that is.
I had a feeling this would happen. I specifically didn’t sleep last night so that tonight I would sleep like a baby, and yet here it is, 3:20 on the dot and guess who has class at 9 in the morning. I haven’t slept more than 3 hours in the past 24, but I’m fine thank you. Really I’m fine, I promise I can formulate an entire sentence within an hour. That is approximately the time frame I am looking at for one sentence right now in this moment, one whole hour full of sixty minutes. And I’d like to take a moment to ask…. who gave me the advice to listen to the great composers Mozart and Beethoven when I had trouble sleeping? I’ve been listening to a compilation of classical artists for the past hour and now all I want to do is go frolick in green pastures full of blossoming flowers, put on a corset, and have some tea and crumpets, all while having really great posture I might add…and saying things like "I might add." I have to admit, I’ve probably gained at least 20 classy points in the past hour. But seriously for the past fifteen minutes I’ve been mesmorized with Beethoven’s piece Ave Maria. It has grabbed my attention like one of those claw things that grabs the candy in game machines, only this song has my complete and utter attention and the claw thingy you really have to work at to grab much of anything. You get so frustrated and determined you keep putting in quarter after quarter because this next time, you know luck is on your side and you are totally going to win that huge purple barney knock off if it kills you. So back to the song, I’m pretty sure when I was in france last I remember hearing this song with my grandfather and it was so weird because as he was listening, he started to cry… he was so open with his emotion he didn’t even try wipe away the tears running down his face, he simply let them flow. It was such a moving sight for me that this one piece of music could be the catalyst to such a rush of emotion that my grandfather cried. I really wanted to cry right along with him, sympathy tears, but at the time I seemed to had misplaced my tear ducts, and I was 17 so I didn’t actually want to admit I had any feelings of the sort. No worries, I have since then discovered that I not only have tear ducts, but feelings and a heart as well. So I’ve come to the realization that listening to classical music is so different than listening to any other kind of music; it provokes so much more of in internal movement more than anything. Also, I feel as is I am not only classier, but way more intelligent. I get the sudden urge to study something, anything, and it’s absolutely necessary that I wear reading glasses so that I am able to stare at things with them on the tip of my nose. Or dramatically rip them off in case such a situation should require me to do so. All of the sudden my inner proper British comes out and I’m calling eveyone Jeeves and biting my thumb at people. That kind of just results in awkwarness on my part. Most people in the 21st century don’t really understand the whole biting of the thumb process…
So that’s my spill for the night. Here’s to you classical music. I raise my hypothetical glass of champagne to you and give a polite golf clap in your honor. You’ve been keeping pinkies raised at tea time for centuries, here’s to many more!
I originally wrote this blog on my myspace back in August
A curse defined by wikepedia is the effective action of some power, distinguished solely by the quality of adversity that it brings. A curse may also be said to result from a spell or prayer, imprecation or execration brought on by magic or witchcraft, asking that a god, natural force, or spirit to bring misfortune to someone.
After much deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that I have been cursed by the Gods of Automobilious. For all of my people who intimatley follow the drama in the wonderful life of Suz, know that since high school, (before I even had my permit) my luck with cars has been to say the least…worse than Lindsey Lohan’s substance addiction. I don’t know what it is, but the bad car luck follows me around and haunts me. So in the latest episode of Death to the Camry, I ran over a sign on the freeway today. In my defense against all you people *cough men cough* that say it’s because I’m a woman and I’m simply incapable of opperating machinery, there was absolutely no way around hitting this bad boy. I was suffocatingly surrounded by cars and huge trucks and it just so happened that the sign fell out of a truck directly in front of me. It wasn’t really a normal sign, it was more like a rigamortous piece of death metal that you just knew if you hit it, your life was pretty much over, which in retrospect I’m completely grateful it did pop my tire and didn’t go through my windshield. It popped not only my back rear tire, but 3 other car’s tires as well as cut the brakes of an 18 wheeler. Vern (my biological father that yes, I call Vern) thought maybe I could use a little lesson in character, and went ahead and let me change my tire myself. In his defense, he was enjoying his day on his sailboat on Lake Conroe. Normally I wouldn’t be opposed to such a challenge, but I happen to be pretty scantily dressed, as I was just coming back from being at the pool, wearing a pair of four inch high wedge heels and a hot pink tube top with a zebra strip bathing suit underneath. I had all intentions of going and changing into decent clothes for my best friends Anease’s birthday dinner at her house with her family. For all you ladies out there who love respect and don’t liked being honked at by creepy men on freeways, you should invest in this outfit, totally repels men. So not only am I changing a tire in this attire, it’s August….in Texas. Just for a visual, imagine taking a car into a sauna that’s 5000% humidity and 110 degrees and changing it’s tire. That’s kind of what it’s like living in Texas in August. Well more like May through October. Long story short, I changed my tire, bought a new one, and by this time I had a good amount of tire/car grease, tire dirt/road dirt, to mix in with my sweat and BO to have an ending result of looking and smelling like a dirty hooker. I made it to Anease’s birthday dinner on time, but to much of their dismay, hadn’t had time to take a shower in between all of the tire chaos. But hey, who doesn’t like a dirty, smelly hooker at their family birthday dinners? I think I added a little spice to things myself.
I don’t know what I have to do to get rid of this curse, but I’m open to suggestions. So far, all I have is put holy water in the radiator.
So as some of you know, I’m Theo’s sister…I’ve never had a legit blog to write down all of my random daily thoughts or encounters in life, so I’m pretty pumped about this. I have been told that I have a different and amusing outlook on life so you will mainly be seeing my day to day life. I’m a junior in college at Texas A&M and I have to say, my life here has been one heck of a ride, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It’s been adventurous, racey at times, complicated, frustrating, stressful, full of love, abundant in friendship, overflowing with school spirit and tradition, growing in myself and becoming stronger in who I am, letting go of all my inhabitions and just living life. I hope all of you enjoy what I write, and if you don’t…I apologize ahead of time.