Fear of Foreigners

I have a fear of foreigners. Not in the way you might think, I have never been afraid that some foreign exchange student will knife me behind the quad. More like, I'm afraid that when a foreigner looks at me, they see every stereotype of an American personified.

Lets clarify this, I am an almost six foot tall, slightly overweight (I like to call it healthy, it helps me sleep at night), loud, sometimes rude, but mostly proud, christian girl. I am not ashamed of any part of my personality (although maybe I could refrain from glaring at people so much, thanks RBF!) but I also know that a lot of the qualities I listed are ones that cause other countries to look down on America. Which begs the question, why am I so worried about what someone thinks about me based simply on my country?

The reason for this tirade comes in the form of a friend visiting from Germany. The instant I saw her petite, and quiet self sitting at the counter looking dainty and sweet, I knew it would be a long day. Now don't get me wrong she was a lovely girl and never did anything to imply that I was anything other than a nice girl, but I couldn't help but feel the entire weight of my country bearing down on me.

Live music in the stockyards, which is obviously a hopping place at 3 pm on a Wednesday.

Note: This is the low quality picture one should expect when one is too afraid to carry one's professional camera around. Sorry guys, I'll do better next time.

We went to the zoo and not long into the trip one of my Texan friend's and I realized we hadn't eaten for a while and thus made it our mission to track down food. Not long after sitting down at Burger king eating my food, I kept feeling the need to explain that I don't normally eat Burger King (which is absolutely true, I eat McDonalds) or apologize for my friend's loud behavior.  Every time someone would cause a ruckus, I would look immediately to my German friend with large "don't tell all of your friend's back home that we are fat and idiotic" eyes. I hope they worked.

After the zoo, at the water gardens (home of the "interactive sculpture"). Me, the relative jolly green giant near the back next to the tiny German girl in white.

 Note: we look like we're shooting laser beams with our eyes because red-eye reducer is harder to work than I originally thought.

But this just makes me question why I feel the need to apologize for myself and my friends for simply acting like ourselves? I'm sure she doesn't sit quietly on the couch at home in Germany, never raising her voice or eating a cookie. I think that age old saying "It's what's on the inside that counts" could be applied well here. While yes, a friend of mine did mess with a statue that probably shouldn't have been messed with, I know that he truly believed that it was an interactive sculpture (no one has quiet decided, I mean the sculpture did spin...) and I also know that if he thought he had actually ruined art work, he would be very upset. I also know that my German friend isn't as quiet as she seemed from our time spent together today and was simply reacting to a strange environment.

The point of this entire tirade is to explain why I, as an average American girl, should not feel guilty for simply being born in the country I was. As long as I don't expect anyone else to apologize for being from their country of birth, I don't intend to worry myself over the thought of someone in Germany laughing at our odd American antics, Which just leaves me to eat my McDonalds in peace.

The Necessity of Immediate Action

In some things you do, immediate action is necessary. Things like, rushing a gunshot victim to the hospital, finding a tampon when you feel that first indication of your period (which despite being two days late, shows up to the party anyway), or eating the last cookie before someone else gets to it. Then there are things that do not require immediate action such as, doing the dishes when asked, shaving your legs, or doing the dishes when asked a second time. Before tonight I would have including creating a blog in the latter list among the other mundane chores I would presumably put off until someone else with a kinder soul and “can do” attitude took care of the problem for me. And yet, here I sit, slouched on my comically small bed typing away like there is no tomorrow.

What could persuade a girl with so much to get done to sit down and write a well written and obviously entertaining blog, one might ask? I am soon to embark on the age-old college tradition (no, not Spring Break in Padre), Study Abroad. Now one might also wonder, what does that have to do with this cleverly worded and witty blog post? Well the program I intend to travel through is nice enough to give grants to those who are willing to blog their travel experiences but requires a sample of previous blog posts. I, being the poor college kid that everyone should be at some point in their lives, jumped at the chance for a little extra money and because I often find that some of the oddest things happen to me and if I don't write them down as a youngster then I may not remember them in my later years and that would be a real tragedy.

Around six hours ago I sat down at my computer with the single minded task of creating a blog. Fueled by my first Dr. Pepper in what felt like weeks but was merely a few days, I began my task. Five and a half hours later I was well on my way to breaking the record for most cookie dough eaten by a single girl on a Thursday night but unfortunately still no closer to a blog, so I did what any college girl would do: call her friend. Thankfully I have a wonderful friend who only laughs a little whenever I call her with questions about computers and she quickly set me up with this snappy blog and turned me loose. I mean, really guys, I’m a smart girl. I do homework and write essays and participate in things and yet I can't figure out how to make a blog. Let's just say I'm endearingly inept with technology and leave it at that.

So if you made it through what I assume sounds like the ramblings of a 20 year old with an excess of Dr. Pepper in her system, then I give you a round of applause and thank you for reading!