American Idiot(s)

Ciao amici!

This is a long post. If you want to skip to the rant, the paragraph begins with "This American Idiot". (:


It's the middle of Memorial Day weekend, and I'm really enjoying my time not being in school. Warm weather, acceptable to walk around outside in shorts, and being able to drink a frappucino or slushie without your fingers being so numb they fall off.

Memorial Day also falls right on or near my little brother's birthday, and this year we decided to take him down to Washington DC to see a Phillies-Nationals game. I, for one, really do enjoy going to baseball games. Even though I don't have one clue to what is going on or know who anyone is, I love them. So, last night we trucked it down the Beltway to our friends who live 20 minutes outside of DC in a suburban area to spend the night. We sat in their living room until about midnight, then slept in until 9 to go to the ballgame.

There was literally no points scored the first 6 innings, and things didn't get interesting until the bottom of the seventh. I mean interesting. If you are not mentally inclined in the sport of baseball, in between the top and the bottom of the seventh inning, there is the seventh inning stretch. Normally this is when the announcers tell you to stand up, sing a round of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and possibly another Patriotic song. Today, a man named DC Washington (awesome awesome awesome!) sang "God Bless America". This is where the italicized interesting comes in.

If you don't know me in person, I am extremely patriotic. I believe this is the best country on Earth. We can argue about it all you want. DC is one of my favorite places to visit ever, which is why I've spent ehhhh, I think 3 birthdays at? History, food, culture, beauty, the city has it all. So it's easy to imagine that when someone makes cracks on how this country quote-on-quote "sucks" or says how much better (fill in country that person has never been to here) is, I get frustrated. Back to the story now.

This American Idiot 4 rows back is pretty much making up lyrics to God Bless America. I didn't notice this, but my mom did. So she looked back to see who this person was, and it was a fully-grown, graying, jackwagon that had his hat on, sitting down, and sitting with his fricking kids. After the song was over, a very kind couple sitting directly in front of the disrespectful warthog turns around and tells him basically to shut up because he's being rude. The guy responds with a rude comment, when it turns out this couple's son is fighting for his (and our) freedom in Afghanistan. Dictator Douchebag doesn't think that's cool enough so he shoots back another rude comment. It's not until two older men (who served in the forces and made it known to swampbrain) left and told security about the man swearing and being disrespectful to primarily everything in existence that security comes down. He doesn't even get kicked out. Uh, I'm sorry. whaaaaat.

Let's point everything out that's wrong with this picture. It's friggin' Memorial Day weekend, in Washington DC, around kids, around his own kids, arguing with veterans and a couple who's son is in friggin' Afghanistan, and not even listening to the security guard claiming that what everyone within a 5 row radius is saying is "bullshit". There is no amount of words I can put into a blogpost that can get out this frustration. He is a citizen of these United States of America. He has so many wrongdoings in 9 innings than most of the people I normally rant about. I originally had the intention of making this a rant about types of people that need a reality check, but disrespectful, unpatriotic slobs definitely rank first in my book. If my father was sitting down during that, and mouthing off to the people who have fought for our lives, I'd disown him on the spot. What sort of mindset would you have to have to think you contain the audacity to do that kind of stuff? I'm praying to the dear lord above he was drunk. If not, that man is a spawn of the Devil himself.

What we can learn from Mr. my-ego-is-bigger-than-jupiter-itself is that wherever you are located in this world, you always have to respect what is being provided for you from it. Politics is a go-to subject in our society, as it has been since the beginning of its establishment. But if you don't have any respect whatsoever of the people who make your freedom what it is, why even bother living here? Sure, you have all the rights in the world to not like Barack Obama, or you don't have to wave a freedom flag from your truck window. Respect comes before your own personal beliefs. We are one nation. We are indivisible. We have our liberty, our justice, our freedom. We have our rights, our votes, or speech, and our assembly. Millions of men have died over the past 200+ years for the way we live in this moment, and it honestly doesn't get enough recognition. So the next time you find yourself looking at an American Flag, think of how it got to be that way. If you look at a map, think about who was lost, what was made, and where it took us to be one of the strongest nations of the world today. This country is remarkable, and there is no amount of complaining that will change it.

it's beginning to look a lot like suuuummer!

Ciao amici!

Thank Jesus it's almost the end of school. Only 10 days left, including the last one where we don't even have class. To go or not to go, that is the question. Ir o no ir, eso es la pregunta. (;

Ah, so many wonderful distractions in life that you just have to take advantage of. Speaking of distractions, guess who is just scraping by this last marking period. By "just scraping by", most people think I'd have a 61% in every class. Ha. Nope. I actually only have 3 B's as of now that I'm trying to boost up or just maintain. On the bright side, I have an A in math which has never happened before. So let's just be happy with that. *loud applause*

For the end of May, the past week has been almost 90 degrees in the afternoon. One of the few things that I don't like about summer; the undying heat. Hot weather also means shorter shorts on girls who can not pull them off, and every single newsfeed on every social media site I own will soon me "bathing suit tanning lol #yolo" crap. YAY FOR SUMMER!

I plan on spending summer inside on my computer, learning (you guessed it), ITALIAN. My mom has to work on weekdays and I can't drive. I am within walking distance to my work, which I don't get paid for. So it's basically learn Italian or go do physical labor for free. Not that I'm complaining. I'd rather be there than pretending to like people I went to school with. Just sayin'.

APPROX. 98 DAYS AND COUNTING TIL TAKEOFF!

Arrivederci!

A New Red, White, and Blue (an original poem)

Below is a poem (a ballad, if you want to become technical) that I wrote for my English class. Enjoy!


Lady Liberty lost her crown,
a torch is all she bears.
An economy without money,
a church without prayers.

Streets are full of hatred.
Schools are full of slack.
What happened to America?
When are we coming back?

We are the land of the free,
but that is in our heads.
It's in our hearts that matters,
but we'd rather end up dead.

We fought against our king,
for our negro brothers we slew,
we have a habit of kicking out
when we were immigrants too.

"The Middle East is awful!"
but we're not prejudiced, we swear.
Our heads are parted from the foreigners
to tell our kids "beware!"

We have everything we wanted now,
Our rights, our votes, our pay.
We would give our anything
to know that they will stay.

We are America:
Land of the Free (broken and torn)
What happened to America?
A new reality has been born.

that's not food, brah.

Ciao amici!

Bonjour, a-salaam, hola, ni-hao, whatever. Today was my first official orientation for Italy, with 30 other kids and our parents. It was 6 hours long but was supposed to be 7, but thank Jesus it wasn't. It was disorganized, I hate to say. But it was pretty fun, because I had finally got to meet all of the other Italy kids. There are 5 of us, all girls, all with the same motives and relatively close personalities. It was a day full of repetition and answering questions that we already knew most of the answers too. Not saying it was pointless, but it could have been a little more informational. We all are leaving for 10 months in just over 100 days, friends.

Lunch was definitely the highlight of my day. Scratch that, all of ours. We didn't eat til past 1, which lunch was scheduled to be at 11:45. Nothing worse than pushing lunch back. We were about to go all Lord of the Flies and then we finally were able to eat. Two of the boys that were being hosted in the US had the opportunity to screw with all of our lunches. By this, I mean they emptied out all of our lunchboxes and made us pick out someone else's lunch. Most cheated the system and just rounded up their own stuff, but I brought a salad so I snatched someone's footlong sub (Gotsta has me my carbs). The two boys, one from Pakistan and the other from Bangladesh, placed a tampon with the food on the table. A tampon. Turns out that it was my friends that she always kept  in her lunchbox. Good eats, my brothas.

JK that's weird.

Well, that's all I have for now. I'm hoping that I can continue this blog throughout my stay, but I don't want to become homesick (as I learned is a great possibility today). If you actually read this far, I love you. Grazie!

Arrivederci!

Sorry I'm so boring.

Ciao amici!

I've had a boring past few days, just waiting along and procrastinating like a champion. This week and next week are huge state tests, and teachers are letting us go easier than usual. Just a whole lot of review. But you probably don't care about that.

Recently I've been spending my time reading other AFS blogs, just for kicks. There are some amazing kids studying abroad, which makes me even more excited to go this September. Every blog I have read at some point or another has said to go abroad if you can. I highly recommend checking out some AFSers blogs, or any student traveling abroad. You'd be surprised with the amount of stuff you can learn from them.

I've tried typing things up for the rest of this entry but I'm really boring today. So I leave you with this:

I got this memorized. And I have half of the worlds capitals memorized. Geography is my jam, bros.

Arrivederci!

Dear Michael S. Jeffries, I hate you. (a rant about Abercrombie's CEO)

Friends, it has come to my attention that in the past few days, CEO of the ever-so-famous Abercrombie and Fitch, Michael S. Jeffries, made some comments about who they target to attract in their stores.

Mr. Jeffries is 68 years old, born in 1944. Abercrombie and Fitch was born in 1892, and bought out by Limited Brands in 1988 due to a bankruptcy. After a few years, Jeffries was put in control of Abercrombie and Fitch without the management of Limited Brands. Ever since, he is named number 8 on the Forbes list, and the creator of the new Abercrombie and Fitch lifestyle.

A nice little mugshot.

Now this is not a report on the history of Abercrombie and Fitch with Michael Jeffries. This is a rant. 

"In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," he says. "Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody, either." 

Spoken straight from the mouth of a true, all-American imbred? Correct. 

Michael Jeffries is a prejudiced jackwagon, to keep this entry PG. I am a proud, modest, 180 pound teenage girl with no self esteem issues, no wishes to be a size 2, and no tearful trips down the corridors of the shopping mall. But this...this makes me want to cut someone's fingers off and feed them to a dog. Preferably Michael Jeffries. I am not upset at the fact that I can not fit into Abercrombie, and I'm rather happy about it. It's overpriced, made by children in Southern Asia, definitely NOT "all-American", and made for Build A Bear dolls. 

This is what is wrong with the world. There are girls all over the country that are going into shopping malls and into Abercrombie and Fitch with fifty dollars they saved up for a birthday gift, and they walk out of Abercrombie with a single T-shirt, proud of what they had. Lo and behold, the cheaply made, too-tight, fifty dollar shirt fades and falls apart within 5 wears and washes. There are girls trying on button downs and jeans in dressing rooms, just praying it will fit, it will fit, just so they can be like a cooler kid, and it just won't work. You, sir, are the reason for girl's turmoil. 

I remember being at the mall in the sixth grade with one of my best friends. We walked into Abercrombie, and I felt like I was obligated to get something because that's what all the cool kids did. I found a nice plaid shirt on the clearance rack, and coaxed myself into trying it on. It didn't fit, and I was upset. That's what he wants though, apparently. For girls to be upset with the way they look, and be upset that they can't fit in with all the assholes that wear this stuff. 

Come on.

I, of course, grew out of this. I, from time to time, slip on a gas mask and step into Abercrombie and Fitch with a friend. The workers there ARE attractive, young, and hot. I have no disagreement with Jeffries here. But what they are is rude. They're the type of people that if I was their barista, I'd spit in their Frappucino. Being under the paycheck and the ruling of Jeffries, I can see why. 

If you do your research, this man will speak like a 13 year old wannabe. Using "dude", "perv", etc. in his everyday vocabulary. Basically, just play COD on xbox live and you get the same effect. He has dyed his hair blonde, and by pictures, it's almost obvious he's had work done to his facial structure. Don't mind my opinion. He himself is trying to fit in with the teen/young adult crowd at 68 years old. So kids, the moral of the story is, don't be prejudiced and never, ever, ever try to fit in. 

Jeffries has bluntly stated that America's undesireable, ugly, overweight, and weird kids can shop elsewhere. And you know what? I gladly will. I would rather vomit all over the store of Abercrombie and Fitch just to watch them clean it up than spend a single penny inside that store. No matter how old you are, or how old you will be, you face the challenge of "to fit in, or not to fit in". Jeffries is obviously still stuck in the bubble he's been in since the 50's. I'm proud to say that I am an overweight cheapskate that would rather buy a David Bowie shirt from Hot Topic, even Target, than buy some thongs and a 120 dolla pair of jeans from a CE-Douchebag. Even though he's laughing his way to the bank, I'm laughing my way to self confidence as he buys 5 more pounds of hair dye.  I'm sorry that not all American girls are fighting tooth and bone to fit in some cheaply made shirts with mooses on them, Jeffries. I'm also sorry that you are going to rot in Hell. I'm not sorry that I will laugh. Fornicate with a cactus, grandpa. 

Love and kissies,

Kara. <3

How NOT to Roll Your R's

Ciao amici!

Way back in August when the school year started, I was enrolled in Spanish I. I still am, and I am rather good at it. At least I am passionate for it, scratch the whole being good at it. I can stammer in Spanish, so I guess you could call it a decent grasp.

If you read my last entry, which I'm guessing you haven't and just stumbled upon this entry, you know that have recently started Rosetta Stone for learning Italian. At first, I thought it was the biggest piece of crap I ever had come in contact with. Turns out, when you try to use your internal mic on your laptop f, or more important things than Skype, it sucks major tushie. After trying my brother's xbox headphones, holding my laptop up to my lips, and screaming "horse" angrily in Italian numerous times, I got my friend from school to lend me a pair of his. Which now I can say that I can get more than a 40% on each level.

But here we go with the title. How NOT to roll your R's in a foreign language. I only have familiarity with Spanish and Italian as of 5 days ago, and I have never been able to roll my R's. I watched some videos on youtube and kind of half-assed it the whole way through and gave up months ago, when it wasn't important. But in Italian, every R you pronounce is either rolled or flipped. A flipped R is commonly used in words like "verde" or "cara". If you are familiar with the Spanish language, you know that words like "perro" have the full out "rrrrrrrr" noise. But in Italian, there are so many "rrrrrrr"s it's not even funny. So, I have recently been trying like crazy to get my tongue to work like a proper Italian. Here's a guide to be as unsuccessful as possible.

• Try it for about 30 seconds, get distracted, and end up watching 2 hours of Jenna Marbles on youtube.
• Roll it in the back of your throat, think you've done it correctly, until your friend fluent in Russian tells you "THAT SOUNDS TOO GERMAN!".
• Forget that you really should/have to do this before your trip and procrastinate it.
• Slur your R's over because you think it sounds fancy, but you really just sound like an imbecile.

There you have it folks. 4 steps to becoming a language moron. Well, I am physically incapable of doing this. So I think. But, to leave here on a happy note, here's my favorite video to watch when I'm feeling down. It'll make you and I smile on our worst days. 

Arrivederci!

The Temporary "YOLO" (and other perks of life)

Ciao amici!
It's been a week, and a long one, for sure. I got Rosetta Stone, for starters. AFS Italy has a mandatory rule that one must finish at least one unit of Rosetta Stone in Italian, so you're not a babbling American idiot that can only say pasta dish names. Upon firing it up for the first time, it was like a life-changing experience. Previously, I was using an internet site called Duolingo. I thought it was amazing and I was learning so much, but Rosetta Stone made it feel like using a public restroom. Rosetta Stone uses tactics with absolutely no English at all. Pretty sweet, until your mic doesn't pic you up and you end up yelling into it. Which actually picked up the right answer, for the most part.

Yesterday, as I was at my job at the thrift shop (not as cool as everyone thinks it is), my mom went to her cousin to buy a car. My mom's cousin is a big wig at a Honda dealer, so we get discounts on cars we buy. Which helps a lot since cars are expensive and we are driving an Acura MDX with 168,000 miles on it. My mom ended up leasing a brand new Honda Accord, which rocks your socks off and doesn't make weird rattling noises every time you hit a bump. God bless this car.

Another thing, and the thing that has been on my mind: how I'm spending my life. Scratch that...more specifically, what I'm shoving in my mouth in order to live my life. My life is a never ending cycle of eating a lot, thinking about dieting, eating a salad, realizing salads suck, and starting the cycle over again. As a 15 year old girl that's always been pretty fat all her life, not knowing what a size 4 has ever felt like, I'm not that self conscious. PLOT TWIST. I honestly could care less about what I look like, which might as well be why I'm successful. But really, this is what's up. My dinner last night was this pasta dish with most likely 54321345675432567543 calories in it, and I ate half of it. I ate the other half this morning for breakfast, the salad and hunk of bread it came with for lunch, then made baked macaroni and cheese for dinner, which contains 2 bags of cheese and a stick of butter. Whoomp. There it is. Now the honest question is, is it still exercise if I take a 2 mile walk for ice cream?

The Temporary YOLO, I call it. Living life in a care free, yet responsible way. Just for a little bit. As a kid, you do whatever you want with the guidance of parents and teachers. You're restricted, but you still have fun. When you're an adult, you know what's right and wrong and you don't really test those boundaries. But here's the thing, the Temporary YOLO, that is the key to successful happiness as a teenager. YOLO is imposed to be having sex, drinking, smoking pot, sneaking out, getting tattoos, etc. What it really means is life your life while you have it. Go ahead and eat that pint of Ben and Jerry's while watching The Notebook. Go ahead and wear a Jack Sparrow costume to school, cause who will care in 10 years? Everyone will remember the kid brave enough to do it. If you're going through some tough times, just fight through them. Parents divorcing? Death? Bullying? Read any textbooks lately? The broken ones always end up on top. So what Kara Richards is trying to say is live your life without destroying it. The future is bright for all those who choose to light it. Make good decisions and forget what anyone else will think. You know what is best for yourself. YOLO isn't about doing stupid things that are bad for you, or giving into peer pressure (which is normally what this scrapes down to anyways). You only do live once, but you just gotta do it right.

Arrivederci.