I’m NOT Hypocritical

I, as a part of the human race, am prone to hypocrisy. I criticize the meat industry, yet I am often guilty partaker in the joys of eating fast food when it is offered to me. I proclaim the benefits of aerobic exercise, but I despise running. I preach the benefits of starting papers early to allow time for revision, but I am writing this opinion piece the day before it is due. I complain about not having free time, and then proceed to spend six hours making danishes. Hypocrisy is an ever present thistle in our individual lives, and it is even more exemplified in the larger purview of humanity. Groups, religions, and cultures all contain features in which the values and the actions are inconsistent. We cannot view of culture through black-and-white lens, either all good or all evil, because such a lens allows us to defend and dismiss the negative aspects of our own culture.

Across a wide range of different regions in the world, many cultural practices defy the values held by that same culture. Homosexuality is traditionally viewed as sinful by practicers of the Muslim faith. In the conservative Islam world, punishments for openly practicing homosexuality are very severe. Saudi Arabia and Iran have even instituted the death penalty for anyone who is proven guilty of sodomy. Yet, “gay life flourishes” in Saudi Arabia, the only country in the Middle East to claim the Islamic law as its sole legal code. It is much more culturally acceptable for two men to meet alone, than a man and women who are unmarried to one another. Yassar, a twenty-six year old gay artist who lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, explains,  “It’s a lot easier to be gay than straight here. If you go out with a girl, people will start to ask her questions. But if I have a date upstairs and my family is downstairs, they won’t even come up.” In trying to prevent premarital relations, the culture effectively condones same-sex relations, a much more severe offense.

Many priests within the Roman Catholic Church similarly fail to practice their teaching of purity within the clergy. Only celibate, unmarried men can be appointed to priesthood within the Catholic Church. This policy leaves little room for the natural sex drive present in humans, which was created by God according to the religion. Hundreds of Catholic priests have been accused of committing sexual abuse on children, especially young altar boys, in the past few years. The problem is so widespread within the Church that the New York Times even has a page dedicated to sex scandals within the Church. The combination of the limited transparency and the priests’ unfettered access to the boys in one-on-one sernerios has proved rampant breeding ground for abuse, and the Church has done little to change its current policies. By attempting to allow priests to “more easily remain close to Christ with an undivided heart” through celibacy, the Catholic Church has excused the unaccepted behavior of priests towards children, and scarred many victims for life.

Even in non-religious cultures, there is deviation between what is preached and what is practised. The United States may have once been dominated by Christianity, but American society is becoming more and more secular. Where homosexuality was once a crime in almost every state, it is now widely accepted and celebrated. Many Americans no longer attend Church every Sunday, instead sleeping longer or going on trips. However, the topic of sex is still taboo in our culture. The word is whispered, rather than discussed maturely, as if it were a point of shame not a healthy, natural process. Yet, the numbers show that the subject is not far from the minds of the American public. Every second, there are more than 28,000 users watching pornography, generating more than $3 million from internet pornography views. As a result, there are more than 200,000 Americans addicted to porn, and 40 million regular porn viewers. The porn industry is extremely detrimental to families. Forty percent of people addicted to pornography lose their spouses. Even more shockingly, “Pornography use increases the marital infidelity rate by more than 300%.” The list goes on, but the consensus between these statistics is that porn is harmful to society, and even if we can’t talk about it, America has a sex problem.

We must recognize these hypocrisies in the world around us. Failing to do so lends the danger of simply dismissing an immoral action because it is “part of a culture” or just “who they are.” As we need to held personally responsible for our actions so that we can be constantly improving, we need to hold cultures responsible for their actions. It’s almost always easier to accept and ignore imperfections, but it almost never yields better results. No one is perfect, and because cultures are comprised of people, no culture is perfect. Once we are ready to acknowledge this fact, we can begin to judge even imperfections by a more fair and understanding lens.

Rich and Famous: What Could Possibly be Better?

  This is a piece I wrote for English, and I thought I'd share it with all of you, whoever you are.

On this particular Saturday, I decided to drag myself out of bed just a bit earlier than normal so that we can get going on time. I made breakfast and packed the ski stuff before showering and finally sitting down for my first relaxing cup of coffee in over a month.

We’re heading up to the slopes for the day, and I want to make sure we get there in time for a full day of skiing. There’s nothing worse than getting to four and wishing we could keep going. Unfortunately, we live about two hours away. Not exactly ideal right now, but we couldn’t beat the quick hop, skip and a jump away from the grocery store and my sister. Not to mention the literal walk to my work and the school.

I am starting to hear my kids stir upstairs and my five-year-old twins come bounding down the stairs, effectively waking the whole house except my youngest, who is two and can sleep through literally anything. Alright, I think to myself. It’s time to get going. My husband is on travel this week with our non-profit so it’s up to me to make sure everything is in order. Thankfully, the kids are so excited and ready to go this morning! A veil of snow fell throughout the night, leaving a white wonderland behind at our house. The mountain’s going to have even more snow. This, I think. Is what life is all about.

This snapshot of my perfect future reveals more about my dreams and goals than any cliche American dream ever could. The “American Dream” that has informally existed for over a century is such an abstract and generalized idea that it cannot possibly apply to the diverse makeup of the current United States. According to Webster, living the “American Dream” entails working hard and becoming successful by having a good job, a nice house, two children, and, lots of money. But most importantly, the American Dream rests on the tenant that Americans will have the opportunities to lead a fulfilling life. We are not stovepiped from an early age into a fixed career, determined by our parents or our grades in school or even us.

Personally, my “American Dream” doesn’t center around a desire for great monetary wealth, or having an especially nice house. Rich people have their own set of problems with fulfillment and greed, and I definitely don’t possess a burning desire to put those burdens upon myself or the people I love. A nice house comes with challenges, as well. If the house is too big, then upkeep and cleaning is a significant amount of work. But if I hire someone to clean or maintain the house, then I’ll spoil myself and my children. While I don’t want my children to know hunger or pain, I also don’t want them to have everything handed to them on a golden platter. Creating a strong work ethic rather than a sense of entitlement will give them more of an idea of how to be successful and find fulfillment in their lives than any check, no matter how large, that I could ever write them.

Instead, my dream centers around building a life dedicated to aiding humanitarian causes that improve broken aspects of society and looking for personal success beyond the paycheck and fulfillment in experiences and relationships in my life. However, I do acknowledge that such a life is impossible without a certain degree of financial security. Sometimes it is necessary to hold a mundane job for the money. Above all else, I need to ensure that in chasing my dreams, I do not become reckless and irresponsible because the only thing irresponsibility would achieve is placing pressure on the relationships that I mentioned earlier are so important to me.

Placing important people in my life like my family, my future husband and kids, and my friends, at the center of my dream, allows me to divert my focus from myself and evaluate what I really want from life. Even though I would like to travel, my adventures would be meaningless if I had no one  to share them with. The same principle is true for my occupation. When looking towards a career in politics, it would be easy to simply focus on myself and my personal successes, but I am certain that my personal gains would be worthless if they did not contribute to the betterment of society as a whole. Politics is the perfect medium to both serve and abuse humankind, and while abuse would bring me fleeting gains, ultimately it would leave me empty and render my life meaningless. At the end of the day, I guess my dream is to lead a life that others can look at, and say, I want to be like her. And not just because I’m rich or famous, but because they genuinely enjoy being around me.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

I am going to do a picture post because I assume you want to see some! Some of these are doubles from instagram (sorry) because I secretly don't take enough pictures (another goal for this semester). I will also have a lot more opportunities to travel this semester so I know that I'll have more picture perfect moments!

During the first snow

 On my birthday! My friends are so sweet!

 The backside of my house. We have a pond and sheep and ducks and basically perfect!

 Another exchange student from Columbia

 Sulingen on a walk with Ally

 On the East Sea in Eutin

 On the North Sea on German Unity Day

Luneburg

die Schule

Okay so I know that this post must be amazing to make up for the fact that I haven't posted since my first week! I'll try my best! 

It's been a long adventure here in Germany and not at all what I expected. But that is definitely a good thing and I am very glad I came. 

I am going to make this post's topic about school because it is very different. I go to a German Gymnasium and I am in the tenth grade. The German system is so that there are three different types of schools and they are based on how good you are in school. The gymnasium is the highest and the Haupschule is the lowest. The tenth grade in the Gymnasium is special because it's the last year before students specialize and start taking classes for their end-of-school exam called the Abitur. I only have the equivalent of six classes (I actually have eleven subjects, but I only have most once a week), but in the eleventh and twelfth grade, students start taking between eight and nine classes a week and the classes are a lot harder. So tenth grade is the perfect grade for an exchange student. 

What I like the most about my school is the fact that I only have one set of people in my class, which makes it significantly easier to make friends (also because there are many amazing people in my class). That changed classroom dynamics in a way I was not expecting. My class itself has been together since the fifth grade and therefore, are they very close and everyone pretty much talks to everyone. It feels much more tightnit and cozy. 

The structure of the classes themselves is also very different and in some ways relaxed, but also in a lot of ways not. Eating is strictly not allowed in all classes, a habit I have sadly had to get over. But teachers don't collect homework, so most people don't do homework. Classes are graded half on a subjective oral grade that the teacher gives based on what you say in class and half on your grade on your tests, typically taken every six weeks. Every subject is graded like this--even PE and art. I only receive grades in some classes and on some tests, but if I didn't, I think I would be really stressed about the fact that I have a c in art because I can't draw faces. That was a sad day. 

My favorite classes are surprise, the classes with a lot of words and at least some politics. They are also my least favorite classes at the same time because almost no one cares about politics and therefore are debates very vanilla. They were also the hardest classes in the beginning because of all the words, but day after day sitting in classes translating words with Sally (my dictionary) have really helped! I also really like my German as a second language class (yes, I am also in a German as a first language class and it is torture) because my teacher is utterly amazing. She has this ability to describe words perfectly so that I can always find the English word and know what she means. 

Overall, I was most shocked about the general attitude towards school. Because students don't turn in homework and half of the grade is subjective, it is maybe harder to receive the equivalent of an A. It's hard to say, but I think it's harder because the tests are not generally harder, but most of the time, there are more trick question. That means that students are happy with receiving 2's and 3's and sometimes even 4's (I can't imagine that, but that's okay) and it was hard for me to get accustomed to that mindset. I am working on it though and it's going better. 

To answer the big question, I have not received all 1's and I have also not failed all my classes. Although I didn't receive a transcript, I normally received a 2 (in better subjects like music and physics) or a 3 on my tests. I have only received one 5 and that was on my first German test. And I am okay with the fact that I no longer have a 4.0.  

That is one of my goals for this semester: to start accepting things that I have had a hard time accepting in the past such as not having a 4.0. Wish me luck!

First Week

My first week in Germany is almost over! The first four weeks of my stay are being spent at a language camp in Hedersleben. While my German has rapidly improved, I still do not know enough to comprehend someone speaking German at normal speed. I also do not have the ability to read so far, but I'm holding on to the hope that by next week, I'll know enough to at least understand the general topic of conversation. It is both a blessing and a curse that I am at the language camp with fifty other English-speaking students. In language camp, Monday through Friday, we spend six hours a day practicing German in a classroom setting and then an additional hour of quiet study time. We are also supposed to speak German from breakfast until dinner, but no one yet knows enough German to carry a meaningful conversation, making it difficult to follow that rule.

I went to my first church service in another language this morning. Hedersleben is so small that there are only two churches: a Catholic and a Protestant, but the Protestant church only holds service every other week and this week was the off week. So…I went to a Catholic church for the second time in my life. I don’t know how much of a difference it actually made because I didn’t understand any of the service. Because I could not process the words of the priest, I had more freedom to pray on my own, which I greatly appreciated. I had the time to be still and listen.

First Day Orientations

My flight to Germany leaves at 6pm tonight! I have already flown to Newark and have been waiting in a hotel to leave for Germany. My program did some orientations yesterday, but today we are mostly just hanging out and getting to know everyone. 

This is the closest I have ever been to New York, but the only reason I have to leave the hotel is to go to the airport. I guess I'll have to take another trip to see New York. But my hotel has a view of the skyline from the top floor! 

When we arrive in Germany, we'll get on charter buses and travel to Hadersleben, where we will be for the next three weeks for a language camp. The camp is at a restored monastery. There will be pictures to come. On Tuesday morning they will assign us groups based on our language skills and we will be doing six hours of German a day for the next three weeks. There are also a few excursions planned, which should be exciting! 

I'll try and post again in the next week, but I can't make any promises because of the unknown wifi availability.  

My Exchange Year

I was excepted to go to Germany next year, so I'm going to start using this blog to record my experiences. I will post at least once a week while I'm there, but probably not as frequently before I leave. 

I will be there for a year--from August to Junish. Right now, I'm just completing forms about myself for host family placement and trying to learn as much German as possible. If anyone has any ideas on how to learn a language while not in the country, please leave comments. 

I am going with FLAG International with a full scholarship from the CBYX program, which is funded by the state department. 

I will be staying with a host family and going to a German school. I don't yet know where in Germany I'll be staying, but there's a good chance I will be near Hamburg in the north. 

I'm so excited to see what this next year will bring!