Thinking About Revoking My American Citizenship

The weather is much better today, but it can change in the matter of about half an hour. I went in to eat lunch while the sun was out with no clouds in sight, and now, it is cloudy and looking to rain. Anyway, on to the fun proceedings that make me want to not be associated with other Americans:

Wednesday
So, I slept through my alarm a little yesterday. I am supposed to get up at 8:30 when my alarm goes off, but when it went off, I turned it off and rolled back over. Luckily, I woke up about 10 minutes later when I realized that I should not have turned over. I ran upstairs to the shower, got ready, and was just on time (you know, I should probably not get away with this once because all this teaches me is that I can get away with it). During the Cold War class, we learned about the Berlin Airlift and other confrontations that almost brought the US and USSR to a Warm War. It was a bit more interesting than past classes, and I had no problems staying awake. So, either I am completely adjusted now (well, I'm not really well-adjusted anyway) or the subject was more interesting. Who knows. During the plenary lecture, the professor talked about Chongching (Chong King back during WWII) and how it played a part in World War II. The thing is that he really talked more about the Chinese and Japanese War instead of WWII. However, they did happen concurrently, so they could be seen as helping. Anyway, he showed us pictures of the bombings of Chongching (the wartime capital of China), and they were the hardest-hit city during the entire war. He was pretty interesting, but he was trying to make a point that can be difficult to prove. During the CFB class, we talked about ethnic minorities in Great Britain and the problems they face (which aren't any different from what they face in the US). But she brought up some interesting points about education that I found interesting. Why are Afro-caribbeans the worst in school? Class, laziness, language? How do you counteract the problem? It seemed as though Dr. Palmer took the social class route with which I happen to agree. If they grow up in a poor neighborhood, chances are they don't have good schools, so then they have a hard time of going on to universities. That's not mentioning crime, peer pressure, and prejudice (intentional or unintentional) that can be associated with class instead of just races. Actually, poor white boys specifically are the worst students in Great Britain, but Afro-caribbeans are the worst group (by worst I mean judging on standardized test scores, which is a whole other debate because how can one test really indicate intelligence -- I'll stop there before I rant farther). However, studies have shown that everyone seems to be fairly equal in primary school, and secondary schools tend to be the difference-maker (we tried to come up with answers to this but no real satisfactory ones, so if you can think of one, put it in the comments). I still really like that class a lot. For dinner, we had another interesting but more traditional meal. First, we had Caesar salad, which was okay, but I mainly ate the croutons (one of the worst smelling foods has to be a deviled egg -- just horrible). For the main course, we had teriyaki pork belly, which was really like a spare rib in the US, that was good, rice which was good, and then this bread (someone said it might have been fried stomach lining, which wouldn't surprise me) that was extremely tough and fairly gross. For dessert, we had a chocolate tart which was, well, delicious. Simply put. What occurred later is what makes me want to revoke my own citizenship. We had another debate, this time on the War on Terror. The four panelists were all Americans. The first guy from Maryland was one of those "I'm going to say this as ridiculously as possible so people will laugh at me" guys, and I wanted to hit him (I refrained -- we're in polite society remember). He just ... urgh. Next, a "historian" gave his spiel, but it didn't make any sense whatsoever. He rambled on about Lincoln, Jackson, and FDR and how they took away civil liberties, which I guess was to say that it happened before in US history so it is okay now (as if bringing back things is always a good idea because we used it in the past; on second thought, can we bring back the guillotine for guys like the one from Maryland -- he has more good stuff, just wait). The next guy did exactly the same, and essentially came to the same conclusion (if they really came to a conclusion) even though they were on opposite sides. The moderator was pretty hilarious during the entire thing, making these "I can't believe I'm doing this" faces. Then, Matt at least was good. He talked about the "we've done more good than harm" argument, which makes sense on a certain level. We take away some civil liberties now in favor of freeing other people, and in the end, we all get them. At least, he had a point. Then came the debate. The Maryland guy went on to say things such as "3/4 of the world's population live in the Middle East", "40% of the world is the Middle East" (I think he meant that the Middle East makes up 40% of the entire Earth), and a few other things which I can't remember now. Then, a few Americans made some interesting comments about how all of this isn't our fault, the radical Muslims made us do it, etc. I honestly had a headache by the end. One guy said that he was on "the racial profiling thing before the ethnic minorities were on it" which I thought was priceless considering he is 40 years old, white, and an electrical engineer (not a political scientist, sociologist, historian, etc.). It was not a bright, shining moment for Americans. After that disaster, a few of us went and watched Richard III with Ian McKellen as Richard. He is pretty good in the movie, and the movie overall was pretty good (I thought better than Hamlet). Then, it was about 12, so we went to bed.

Observations:
- Ian McKellen looks no different in that movie than he did in X-Men. Just color his hair grey and shave the mustache, and he looks exactly the same.
- Americans can be complete morons.
- "Rubbish" is another good word that I should start using.
- The next few days look good for desserts (pecan pie with ice cream, brownie, and apple dumpling), but not so good for appetizers (the word onion appears a few times).
- They use onions (maybe leeks but most things I have seen say onion) on a lot of things and in sauces, most of which just taste funny.