The Social Porcupine

A Companion post to Calm Down, We All Live On The Same Planet . I'm the sort of person that believes solutions are always possible.  I'm also the sort of person who is a realist. Meaning, I know that while it takes two to fight, it only takes one to persecute. Sometimes a multitude can be silent accomplices. And sometimes they never know. But either way, the one persecuted doesn't always have the choice to activate a solution.  Sometimes, while a solution is always possible, it's far out of reach for the person needing it.  Germany has taught me this more than ever.  I want everyone to get along.  But some of our personal philosophies and ideas and values just aren't compatible.  Sometimes there is just no meeting in the middle, no matter how much one wants it.  And yet it's inevitable to meet somewhere.  And thus hearts are broken, culture shock ensues and battles rage.  And yet ... this doesn't mean solutions aren'

It's amazing how birds can sit on an electric line and live. If we humans tried our brains would fry ... but then birds don't really have a brain. So I suppose I'm content letting them sit on the dangerous lines and for me to be able to live a different sort of exciting life that allows for pondering things such as how amazing it is birds can sit where I can't.  The week before I knew I'd be leaving Stuttgart soon was full of many activities. I biked to a thrift store ... ended up being a twenty-six-mile ride in all. And yes my legs killed for awhile. And ... I bought absolutely nothing at the thrift store. Not that there weren't nice things there ... but I didn't want to spend money, nor carry anything back ;D I did take a few lovely pictures posted above and below. Also, you may be asking why I biked so far to a thrift store. I love thrift stores.  But most people I've talked down seem to look down upon second-hand stores, and in gener

I've always wanted to go to college.  And to be honest, I'm not really sure why I didn't. For a while, I was very determined. And then for a time, I thought maybe it was wrong for girls to attend college, though I only thought that for a few months.  I think, mostly, I just decided college wasn't for me, and that I could be successful without it and the burden of debt that comes along with it, and that I could learn on my own as I've always done and loved to do best, anyway.  All that being said, one of the craziest reasons I was excited about being an Au Pair is that they paid for classes.  Now, money was never a problem for me. And the course I would have here would be such a small thing, a couple days a week at the most, and only fifty euros a month paid. But, even so, I was excited. And my classes turned out to be very fun.  The first course was on Monday nights. Sometimes it was a bit of a cold, dark ride on the bike, and a few times it spr

My family lives far away from all of our extended family, which is sometimes quite sad as we have a lot of family—my mom has seven siblings and my dad has eight. So, to see an aunt or uncle, or even one of my many cousins is always a rare treat.   Of course, I wasn't expecting to see any family while I was overseas. But ... life has a way of always surprising me, for good and bad. And this time it pleasantly so when I heard one of my uncles was coming to Stuttgart, the very town where I was as an Au Pair.  At first, it was just very fun to see family, especially one of my favorite uncles. But it turned out my uncle ended up being very helpful, too, as I was fired from my first Au Pair family just a few days after he arrived, and he was able to bring me to my new family, eliminating a lot of potential  stress.  But for the fun: we had three weeks before I had to go so we were able to do a lot of fun things together.  We went to see a musical ... I didn't realiz