Tuesday, July 29, 2003
Well now that I've been blogging all summer, I can't go back to just journalling anymore. I guess it's that need to be published, seeing as I haven't been able to write for the paper yet. It still seems more natural for me to express things typing and I don't put it off as much as with my journal, even though it's a lot more portable.
Day-to-day life is less exciting than in Japan. Once again, asked to find another place to live which was pretty discouraging--I seem to have pretty bad luck with roommates. Last week I set the toaster oven on high setting since the low setting has no effect and the toast actually ignited, after less than 5 minutes. As it turns out, it was a pretty new toaster oven which she paid $80 for (for that money I would expect it to have automatic sensors and butter my bread too!). I couldn't find a fire extinguisher and didn't want to risk the oven exploding or setting something else on fire so dialed 911. Two fire engines came, me waiting outside to flag them down, holding the two cats in one arm--luckily the 911 person reminded me to get them. So needless to say my adrenaline was pretty high. Julie was nicer about it after the initial shock, even finding the toaster oven for cheaper on the web so I could pay her back that amount. She still asked me to find another place since she didn't feel safe with me in the house. Oh well.
Had emailed Scott when I got back since I hadn't heard from him in Japan. I knew about the new laws passed in Canada so half teasingly asked if he and Jason were going there soon. So the next day he writes me back saying YES, they were going to get married the next Friday (now 2 weeks ago) to Niagra Falls, just taking their brothers along to be witnesses. That just blew me away--I was bouncing off the walls and shocked that it was so soon. As usual, I guess I was one of the last people to know.
The timing is somewhat bizarre too--here in Tennessee some Congresspeople are supporting a Constitutional amendment against gay marriage. So much for separation of church and state--that is just mind-boggling. Watching TV you wouldn't know such conservatives existed. The latest popular TV show is "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" which has 5 gay men trying to make over a clueless and unrefined straight guy. In this case, the guy was going to propose to his girlfriend and the gay men were totally cheering him on. It seems sad somehow that the straight guy needs to be transformed to be presentable for a woman but even though it's reinforcing stereotypes, but at least it shows both sides coming together and helping one another.
Which is why I was a little weirded out to read yesterday that they were starting a special high school just for gay/lesbian/transgender students in New York. Officials said it was to provide a safe environment for them--does that mean they've given up trying to make regular high schools safe? Ironically it was the conservatives protesting that they didn't need to be separated--I would have thought that they would be glad that there wouldn't be a "corrupting" influence on other kids. If it had worked the other way around, there would certainly have been a protest. So while the African-American community protests re-segregation in Nashville, other places are thinking up new forms of separation. Maybe they'll use the same argument as all-girls schools--I'm sure there will be a lot of studies on this one.
Still a lot of war coverage on Iraq. The media acts so shocked that there is still resistance and that the Nigeria documents talking about the weapons were forged, but I thought it had been common knowledge, based from reading truthout and seeing the Bill Maher show. It's getting scarier to live here in the U.S. Now warnings about more possible attacks. Maybe it's safer to go back to Korea after all.
Day-to-day life is less exciting than in Japan. Once again, asked to find another place to live which was pretty discouraging--I seem to have pretty bad luck with roommates. Last week I set the toaster oven on high setting since the low setting has no effect and the toast actually ignited, after less than 5 minutes. As it turns out, it was a pretty new toaster oven which she paid $80 for (for that money I would expect it to have automatic sensors and butter my bread too!). I couldn't find a fire extinguisher and didn't want to risk the oven exploding or setting something else on fire so dialed 911. Two fire engines came, me waiting outside to flag them down, holding the two cats in one arm--luckily the 911 person reminded me to get them. So needless to say my adrenaline was pretty high. Julie was nicer about it after the initial shock, even finding the toaster oven for cheaper on the web so I could pay her back that amount. She still asked me to find another place since she didn't feel safe with me in the house. Oh well.
Had emailed Scott when I got back since I hadn't heard from him in Japan. I knew about the new laws passed in Canada so half teasingly asked if he and Jason were going there soon. So the next day he writes me back saying YES, they were going to get married the next Friday (now 2 weeks ago) to Niagra Falls, just taking their brothers along to be witnesses. That just blew me away--I was bouncing off the walls and shocked that it was so soon. As usual, I guess I was one of the last people to know.
The timing is somewhat bizarre too--here in Tennessee some Congresspeople are supporting a Constitutional amendment against gay marriage. So much for separation of church and state--that is just mind-boggling. Watching TV you wouldn't know such conservatives existed. The latest popular TV show is "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" which has 5 gay men trying to make over a clueless and unrefined straight guy. In this case, the guy was going to propose to his girlfriend and the gay men were totally cheering him on. It seems sad somehow that the straight guy needs to be transformed to be presentable for a woman but even though it's reinforcing stereotypes, but at least it shows both sides coming together and helping one another.
Which is why I was a little weirded out to read yesterday that they were starting a special high school just for gay/lesbian/transgender students in New York. Officials said it was to provide a safe environment for them--does that mean they've given up trying to make regular high schools safe? Ironically it was the conservatives protesting that they didn't need to be separated--I would have thought that they would be glad that there wouldn't be a "corrupting" influence on other kids. If it had worked the other way around, there would certainly have been a protest. So while the African-American community protests re-segregation in Nashville, other places are thinking up new forms of separation. Maybe they'll use the same argument as all-girls schools--I'm sure there will be a lot of studies on this one.
Still a lot of war coverage on Iraq. The media acts so shocked that there is still resistance and that the Nigeria documents talking about the weapons were forged, but I thought it had been common knowledge, based from reading truthout and seeing the Bill Maher show. It's getting scarier to live here in the U.S. Now warnings about more possible attacks. Maybe it's safer to go back to Korea after all.
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