9/11

Good Morning Loves,

I noticed that I have a couple of new readers that are following me now. Thank you and welcome to my blog !

Today is the 8th anniversary of September 11th. I still remember that day and what I was doing when the towers were hit . I was in college at the time living in the dorms. My roommate's boyfriend called and told us to turn on the TV.

At first I didn't know what was going on. I thought they were reporting on the incident that happened at the World Trade Center in 1993.

Class was cancelled that day on campus, and we just spent the entire day glued to the TV.

I had never felt such sadness over anything that was reported in the news before. I continued to be glued to the tv for the next couple of days as the airports were shut down.

For a while after that day, I felt like our country came together for a brief period of time as Americans. People were proud to be American again and hung the American flag. People would proudly stand with their hands over their hearts with their heads bowed and cry during the national anthem when there was a game. I miss that sense of unity.

Now we're back to fighting and slinging mud at each other. Especially in politics. While we all have to vote for one party over the other, I am not a fan of different parties, especially since my views fall in between, and I don't feel like any candidate fully represents what I believe in. Also when there is a bad president in office, it shames that party for a long time.

I may have European roots and tendencies, and I may want to travel and live in different countries, but I am American as apple pie ! I lived in Barcelona from 2004-2005, and came to that realization abroad.

While I was in Barcelona, I did not wear the Canadian flag, which is such bullshit and a cop out anyway. I would introduce myself and say that I was American, and from California. People in Barcelona love California by the way, especially when I told them I lived an hour away from San Francisco. Not once did anyone ridicule me for being American, and that was because I spoke in Spanish and made an effort to get to know them and their culture. Of course the elections were going on at the time, and everyone and their mother wanted to know who I was going to vote for. Bush or Kerry was the magical question of the day every day. I told them I didn't like either and left it at that. Besides, I was too late to register to vote with the US embassy so I ended up not having to decide after all. Once in a while I would get a speech on Dubya and his policies, but they were just venting and not pointing a finger at me. By the way, I think it's hilarious that the Spaniards of all people think that they are in a position to label us as conquerers and blame us for trying to take over the world and put our noses in others' business. I'm not saying we don't do that. However, look who's pointing the finger. There is a reason many countries speak Spanish as a native language. Oh, and we weren't alone when the Natives were mistreated.

While I lived abroad, I got to meet a lot of people, especially immigrants trying to get papers in Spain. The South Americans I worked with laughed at me for trying to live in Spain. "We want to go to The United States, what the fuck are you here in Spain for, the arm pit of Europe ? We would do anything to live in the states, you are so lucky. " Many South Americans are getting EU passports to make it easier to live in the US. Many people from Argentina can easily get EU papers because their grandparents are from Europe. Some of the nicest people I met there were from South America.

The Dominican family I taught English to told me that they had to come to Spain because the United States wouldn't accept them. They told us our laws are too strict. I also saw Cubans. Now you know if we are 90 miles away and they are coming to Spain, instead of the US, that immigration laws have gotten tougher.

Anyway, for those of you that are American, be proud of it. And if you aren't, kiss an American today, lol.