ehh I'm on a posting frenzy all of a sudden

Oh really? Foreign aid is only 1.5% of our GDP. A whole whopping 1.5%.  I am totally for rebuilding America and am a huge supporter of healthcare, but cutting foreign aid just isn't what will do it. What about that 15% on military? And really, again I am pretty privileged, but I don't really see how you can compare people not having AC to those starving in war-stricken countries, that just sounds a bit silly, doesn't it? Heck, where I live it gets to be 110 and I have no AC. I believe that we should not just focus on ourselves. I want to see America thrive, but I don't just want to be a citizen of America. I want to be a citizen of the world. I want to see others have enough to eat and be protected from violence more than I want my AC. And I support foreign aid. In fact, I think it's what I want to do with my life.

sfhkj

I've been trying to teach myself how to say I don't speak Chinese. No luck yet. Tell you if I  ever find success wtf. 

O_o

Emails. Phone calls. Applications. Interviews O_o. Chinese Embassy in LA. Chinese Visa. Not getting lost in Beijing Airport when I only know how to say hello, goodbye, noodles, I love you, and happy birthday. A child's voice in Latin America. Tennessee Williams and sexuality in American theatre. Refugee and asylum status.  <-my week and next few weeks to come 

A young girl's rambling on immigration

I've decided to add a "A Young Girl's Ramblings" category to my blog. Basically, I will explore current issues and controversies,taken  mostly from the perspective of my government class. Don't expect answers, but merely a multitude of questions. I don't know how I feel about many of these issues, I'm just testing the waters and exploring. I encourage you to do so with me :)

Immigration. I like to think that as someone striving to become a global citizen, that is, a proactive member of the world, not just my home country, or state, or city, I would be in favor of immigration. After all, I do work for a refugee resettlement agency. I believe in helping people in compromising positions reach greater opportunity, which just might lie in the US.

However, I realize this is not practical. There is no way the US can help so many people. I know many would argue that we have to help our own people before we help others. This is a perfectly valid, understandable claim. It was voiced to me last Saturday at a car wash I was participating in for victims of the horn of Africa. I was standing on the street corner with S (name not provided for privacy), a child of Kenya with a Somali mother, and now a refugee in my home town. We were holding signs and asking for donations, when one gentlemen rolled down his window and asked in a sad, strained voice, "What about your own people?" "Help your own people first". That was before he flipped us off. He is not alone. Another man asked me "Where is the drought?", "Is it here?" "Let's focus on our own problems".

Their comments really struck me for a moment. They are perfectly rational, perfectly reasonable. They were rude, but I understood. Yes, I believe the US should help its own citizens first. I love my people and I'm not trying to give a blind eye towards their problems in exchange for another country's issues. Yes, our country has many problems right now. We are in a recession, many are struggling, and unemployment is at an all time high. I speak from a very privileged position. I have enough food, a three bedroom house, and am on my way to a first-rate education. Perhaps I don't understand the depths of our nations problems.

Yet, I have this itching sensation in the pit of my gut. We may have problems, but look around. We're not alone. The poorest in our country still have a standard of living far higher than the rich in other countries. How can we ignore other's problems, more grave than our own, because we need to focus on our country. This is probably silly and naive, but I really just wish we could focus on the collective globe as a whole, rather than sticking to labels and isolated, uncooperative beings (Not to say all nations are uncooperative, which certainly is not true).

That was a long tangent, but how involved should we be with other countries and their sea of problems? Should we welcome others to our country if they are peaceable and hardworking? I'm still torn. When does someone become an "American"? For example, if they have been in the States illegally for 20 years and have five American citizen children, can you really argue they're not American?  I do NOT think that that person should be deported because they need to be with their children. You cannot just separate them like that! But at the same time, if you don't allow the parent to be deported, practicality strikes again. Now anyone can stay in the US simply for having a child born on US soil. That will obviously not be a very effective deterrent against immigration. Also, consider this: Illegal immigrant detainees are not guaranteed the right to an attorney in trial. They are not guaranteed the Due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. This really startled me when I found out. Personally, I find this a bit disgraceful. I believe the right to a lawyer is a human right, rather than a civil right embedded in the constitution. How can you take away the right for your case to be processed fairly simply because you lack a piece of paper declaring you a US citizen?

My summer in a nutshell

Lately I've only been posting food entries, not what I've been up to lately.

Back in May, I barely survived finals with my best friend, Bethany. Our combatant: Physics. Over Easter, we spent over two days living at each others' houses legitly doing nothing but physics. We trashed both  of our rooms, both cried multiple times, and went so completely insane. We drew an image that made us both feel better though, it looked something like this:

Yep, that's right. It's Bethany and I kicking Physics' ass, a fat ass with a mole with a hair and a mom tattoo. This was VERY beneficial to my mental sanity.

Anyways, then I took my AP's which weren't stellar but I worked my butt off on so I really can't do more than feel happy about.  Okay my scores were still mostly good: a five, three fours, and a two. I know the two sucks monkey balls, but I don't want to beat myself up.

After everything was over, it was the most fabulous feeling. Like I'd been floundering around in warm jello, probably the cherry kind my Grandma always used to force down the throats of me and my cousins. After my stresses were through, temporarily at least, I was no longer getting my legs lodged in semi-solidified jello, I wasn't confined by jello-ey walls, I was no longer being silenced, stifled, and confined. I was finally just swimming in cool water. I really love the feeling of floating underwater, with my eyes closed in the deep end until I don't know which direction is up any longer and everything vanishes from my mind but the glorious feeling of the water on my skin.

Anyways, that was a very pretentious and ill thought out metaphor for how I felt, but anyways I liked it. Then, I had several days to do whatever I wished: nobody attended school- instead we went to the zoo and had a slip and slide extravaganza in the park.

Then I went to Oregon and was a counselor at a 6th grade camp. My cabin was atop a freaking mountain which my girls ( and myself, no doubt) climbed about 6 times every day. It was stressful being a counselor but well worth it and a great experience. *sentimental* My greatest influence was the staff because they were so goofy and lovable that you could tell they would really do anything to put a smile on the kids’ faces (such as tutu Tuesday, when all the staff, men and women, wore tutus). My strongest memory was when in the evenings at campfire right before bed, they would sing this very sentimental and touching song that just reminded me why I was there to be a counselor. It erased any stress or frustrations I had had throughout the day and reminded me that I was there to give these kids the time of their life and memories that would last forever.

Outdoor School Staff

Then, all of a sudden my ex boyfriend started talking to me after 5 months of silence. Geez, that was interesting. In a good way. He's a lazy butt who sits around watching anime all day (It's 1:26am and I'm sitting right next to him watching anime). But he's also a teddy bear who I've finally learned how to become friends with again, best friends actually, and seems like an older brother (even though I'm older than him haha)

Then, I took the SAT and ACT and did unusually bad in both of them*sigh * Try again, that's all I can do. Then I went to Boston and NY for two and a half weeks to visit colleges and family. I will post a separate post about my trip.

Then, I  started an internship at a refugee resettlement agency *Ugh sorry I'm getting really tired, I will talk about this in depth at another time.

After that, I've just been hanging out with friends and my ex boyfriend is staying at my house for 5 days because his parents are out of town and won't let him stay alone. That has actually been really fun, strangely enough. Then yesterday I threw a surprise b-day party for Bethany and now school starts in 2 days.

okay too tired, I have to go now

Bhutan's Other Side: is the highest per capita refugee population really the happiest place on earth?

Earlier this summer when I told my Grandmother that I would volunteer at a refugee resettlement agency, she asked where the most people were coming from these days. I said that I heard the majority were from Bhutan but I didn't know anything about Bhutan yet since I hadn't yet started. Today I got a letter from her in the mail and she included the following article she encountered (I don't know the source):

"High Spirits"
"Bhutan has come up with a warm and fuzzy way to access the state of the nation. Believing that bliss is more important than business, the tiny Himalayan country measures Gross National Happiness instead of Gross National Product. In a recent poll, 4% of people described themselves as unhappy, and 96% said that they were happy or, even better, very happy. :-)"


This was surrounded by pictures of smiling Bhutanese children.

Then she asked, If the people there are so happy why are they coming to this country?
Now that's a really good question that has a strange answer but I'm going to do my best to tell what I know of Bhutan because it's extremely fascinating.

Bhutan is situated in the Himalayas south of China, North of India, and to the right of Nepal.



Bhutan is nicknamed the "happiest place on earth" for its peaceful lifestyle and many celebrities have gone there for vacation. It's crazy expensive to visit and much of the country's income comes from tourism. It's one of the most undeveloped countries and had no proper roads, schooling, or currency until the 70's . It even had no law or government till 100 years ago.






As you can see, it's mindbogglingly gorgeous. Even I want to go there.
If you're interested here is a short 5 minute video showing you Bhutan.
I would also recommend "The Price of Knowledge" about a young Northern boy going to school in Bhutan

Since Bhutan was so underdeveloped until recently (and still is fairly underdeveloped by our standards), they hired Nepali laborers to help modernize the country by building roads and such. However, they stayed in Southern Bhutan until they eventually made up about 49% of the population, which freaked out the monarchy because they were scared of being overrun by the Southern Bhutanese (ethnically Nepali). Because of this, the government decided to institute a policy of Bhutanization, creating one nation with one culture. The Southern Bhutanese mostly speak Nepali, have slightly darker skin than Northern Bhutanese, and are Hindu as opposed to the Buddhist Northerners. I'm not sure how accurate this is but I've also heard that the expulsion was partially because they were afraid that the Southern Bhutanese were detrimental to Bhutan's tourism.

As you can see, this didn't fly with the one nation one culture policy so approximately 1/6 (100,000 ppl) of Bhutan's entire population was expelled. They were issued "voluntary" migration forms, but were forced to sign and flee if they didn't want to be arrested and tortured like many were. Despite all this, most of the Bhutanese I've spoken to say that they love their king still and seem convinced that this is not his doing (and that I do not know).
They've fled to Nepal, where they've been set up in refugee camps but that was 20 years ago! Not much has changed yet. Nepal won't accept the Southern Bhutanese to integrate them into their country and they are unable to leave the camps or hold jobs. They are also not allowed to return to Bhutan, although many love their home country and greatly with to return. Do you sense a problem here? This is a dead end! where are these people supposed to go? They can't even become self sufficient if not allowed to hold jobs  so there is no way they can make progress.

This is why the U.S. is stepping in and plans to slowly over many years take in about 60,000 of the 100,000 displaced refugees. And this is where I got to meet several Bhutanese! :D

What makes the Bhutanese situation so mysterious and elusive is that most Bhutanese will not speak of the refugee issue. If asked they will simply tell you that they do not speak of that. I was lucky to speak to a man who was open about it but most are not. I think this is part of why most people are completely unaware of the refugee situation in Bhutan.

here is another resource about Bhutanese refugees which is really interesting and short, if you're interested.
It's 1:41 in the morning so I'm going to go to sleep now.

bruschetta twist, cousin of the infamous tomato cheesie

When did this turn into a food blog? I even said nuggets cooking didn't happen often. I think it's just because it's summer and I have some spare time on my hands but here it goes:

1. Toast a slice of good quality bread (not the squishy white stuff they have these days; I used Trader Joe's Artisan bread)

2. Spread some Boursin cheese on your slice of bread. It comes in several different flavors. I used the garlic one and bought it for about $3.50 at Trader Joes.


3. Slice some cherry tomatoes (or any kind, really), yellow squash, red bell pepper, and a clove of garlic.

4. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a saucepan and add veggies, except for tomatoes and garlic. Add salt and pepper, then the garlic (it burns easily so we didn't want to put it in at the beginning). Let cook for a minute or so then add tomatoes and reduce heat to lowest setting (tomatoes added last because we don't want them to get mushy and fall apart). Add a dash of freshly grated parmesan cheese and stir to allow the cheese to melt and tie together the veggies' flavors.

5. Then spoon veggie mixture on to your bread  and boursin cheese. Top with a tad more parmesan and put in toaster oven for a minute to melt cheese. I was going to also add chives or green onions, but forgot. They would go well with this recipe but it is also delicious without.