The World vs America

it is. part of the sterotype of Americans and guns is true. we have people that argue they need them in their daily life. i keep my weapons in my bedroom mostly for the comfort of it. ever since police went waltzing through the property with dogs, within view of the house, looking for an escaped convict, i've kept my Jaguar at arm's reach from bed. there are druggists and all sorts in that jail i'm about a mile away from. i'm a person of calculated risks. i'm also a not-too-strong, endurance-of-a-turtle 19-year-old woman. i'll keep a knife at bedside. any at all risk warrants it to me. and i figure that it might be taken weird, but i live within a mile of the state jail, also in the middle of the woods where an escapee can easily hide, especially in the summer. one gets edgy when police search your property with K9 units in the evening.

i do really think it's sad people want guns in such a loony way, and there's kids in school that would gladly bring one to school. you know just since 2015 started, the US has had 30-some school shootings? if you live in the woods, which is where i happen to, yes you have a little warrant for a gun because rabid and wild animals can and do show up. but if you live in a city, don't hunt often, and have kids in school... well, i don't think you NEED a gun, but if you HAVE to then keep it in a double-lock locker and your kid not know the combo or have the key.

 

I did some research, there have only been 4 in 2015 and one attack on a school. I found possibly the saddest wikipedia page ever http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States#2010s

 

huh. i need to find that report i said there's been a ton. maybe it's not only shootings but other incidents of kids having guns.

and yeah, a quite sad article indeed.

 

Alright, got a few responses so I'll try to get to everything.

The school I went to in Canada was an Ontario school, and the school in the states was in Westfield Massachusetts. I'm not kidding when I say that this place was a city by population only, a person driving through would just think it's a big town. my high school there was the only regular high school, and had 1,600 students. The only other option was a vocational high school.

Oh boy, the credits. I didn't even mention the weird ones. They had classes that were worth two thirds and three fifths of a credit. And don't even get me started on gun control conversations. I tried that precisely once when the topic was brought up. It ended up being a conversation about how MURICA was the best and saved everyone during WW2.

As for spoiling the year and a half or so that I was living there, trust me, the school played a major part in that, but it was by no means my only issue. A LOT of shit happened, which is what led to our moving back up to Canada. I personally never wanted to leave Canada in the first place, neither did my sister, but my mom was dead set on it.

I probably wasn't doing myself any favors to be honest, after I saw they had no intention of treating me like an equal I decided "you know what? Fuck it." I didn't need their classes to pass (gov't aside) so if they honestly expected me to respect them when they've not done so to me, too damn bad. I no longer maintained the politeness of standing for the pledge (better believe THAT caused an uproar). I didn't do any work that didn't interest me personally (and still passed the majority of my classes through tests alone). It was kind of funny honestly, most of the students actually showed some modicum of respect for me after I gained a 'fuck you' attitude to the teachers.

To end it on a lighter note though, I did meet a few friendly individuals. Pretty much all of them were LGBT, so they were probably going through similar crap. I was actually approached by one of them and offered a place in their "fencing" club (not a euphemism). They did have some actual fencing gear, but that was only used about half the time. The other half was spent on random games or conversations.

 

Gosh what a nightmare... the attitude is interesting, some teachers fostered that among my friends, some really didn't like it. I had a friend, a first nations boy, who was in a creative writing class with a first nations teacher. She was half white and just... obsessed with native culture. She promoted it constantly, organized a huge native arts festival at the school, brought in dancers and drummers and all kinds of stuff, talked about it all the time, named her kids mohawk names... my buddy hated it. He had no connection to native culture at all. It was as if she were some blithering Otaku and he was just the half japanese kid who couldn't care less. He wrote a story basically outlining how little respect he had for her obsession, and she was furious, but he was proud for doing something actually expressive for once rather than just going for the marks.

Other teachers encouraged us to go beyond the grade-based thinking and just try things and be interesting human beings.

We also had an "anime" club that was mostly used for playing Smash Bros, watching cheesy movies, and screwing around. We stacked all the desks in the empty classroom into a giant ball and called the sculpture "Limit of Intelligence." Then it tumbled and 15 desks went skittering around the room. We set them all back up and faked a conversation before a chemistry teacher came to ask what the hell was going on. XD

 

Ah yes, Smash bros. We'd do that maybe once a week. I usually ended up winning the majority of the matches.

I spent quite a lot of time chaining together rubber bands for no other reason than "I felt like it". It was pretty neat to mess around with. You could stretch it all the way around the entire school building at the end of the year. If someone held it at one end of the hallway, and it was sufficiently stretch when they let it go, it wouldn't just fall to the floor and drag...It would fly and collect into a ball that would punch you in the chest if it got to you.

 

I always liked being able to kick a few butts. I didn't take it as seriously as other people, I wasn't as technically refined, but I am fast and come up with some weird combos and approaches, making me at least a little bit of a contender ^^

That's crazy, I don't suppose you have any pictures of that? I was in New York on a school trip, that first nations buddy I mentioned was with me, we were waiting at a corner for our teacher to come round. This gentleman standing in front of a building started chatting us up, apparently he was some kind of fire inspector. He asked if we wanted to see the largest rubber band ball in New York. He ran up the stairs and came back with this thing XD

 

the anime club i was in in Lenape was very fun~ last year we did get to go to Tekkoshocon on school time! too bad the club got disbanded. we'd sit and draw stuff, bring in our nerdy gear and watch bad AMV's and other random stuff XD

 

I don't take it too seriously either, I'm not a competitive level player. I have played against a couple competitive people though, and I can at least draw the match out longer than they anticipated.

No pictures unfortunately. When I rolled it all up spool-style it was probably a little bigger than a pop can. That reminds me actually, I later went on to make a second one back home. I found out that it's actually very easy to crush otherwise pretty solid things with it. A rigid plastic bottle that I could barely compress with my bare hands was reduced to a tiny plastic heap once I was done with it. It's amusing to say the least.

If you're curious on how to make one, you pretty much just take two rubber bands and try to pull them through each other at the same time, continue until fingers are dry and sore from rubber contact.

 

When I first went to high school it was 7 classes per day. Then they had block scheduling. Then they changed it to having 7 class on Monday's and Friday's and block scheduling the rest of the week. THEN they decided to have block scheduling every day but every week would be different! No one would known where the hell they were supposed to be if they kept changing it up like that.
Fortunately they came to their senses and issues a poll to the teachers and students (not like our opinion really mattered anyway) on what would be the best schedule was. Practically nobody voted for having every week different, but I think it was partial block.
I like it and hate it. I mean, some classes I like to be in, others... I don't want listen to world history for over an hour.
I really did not like some teachers who seemed to have their private contests with who could have the longest midterm and final tests. There were some that would make them too long that nobody could finish them in the time allotted. 200 question scantron tests, then essay questions, then something I can't even remember... for one teacher. I hated that bitch anyhow... and I had for two years (separate English class).
Of course there were some teachers that saw no reason to ask every single line of your textbook. 10 questions out of the whole year. That's awesome.
I didn't learn a lick of Spanish II. They year before we had 2 Spanish teachers and neither of them taught the same subjects. The one teacher I had left after that and we got a new teacher. You want to know which lesson plan he followed after... that's right, the other teacher. So half the class (including me) was pretty lost. It didn't matter though, he was a pushover and got him to let us watch movies in class. Not Spanish movies... stuff like Independence Day or something. We did this ALL the time. So, yeah, the only people who passed were the Mexicans who already spoke Spanish. Like 1/3 of the school was Hispanic. Today, it's nearly 100%.

 

lol me and the american education system had quite the waltz.

 

Generally, as an American, I have a very negative view of American culture, politics, and media. At the same time, when I first meet someone, anyone, I have a very neutral view of them, based not on where they come from, but entirely on how they act towards me and others around me. Not intending to cause any offence with this next statement, but I wouldn't give a damn if you fought as a soldier for Germany in World War II and somehow entered a sleep that preserved your body letting you wake up a few days ago. As long as you treat me and those around me right, there is the grounds for us to be the best of friends from my point of view.

 

Very well how I feel. Be nice to others, and I will be nice to you. That's first thing. And there is the test of 'are you nice to waiters/waitresses?'

 

Well, I'd certainly hope they're nice to waiters and waitresses, my sona works as a waitress, and I generally find myself happy to be of service to others so long as they aren't users or abusers! x3