Being Politically Correct

So it's been a while, but I've been thinking of revamping this blog and seeing where it goes. IT could work or crash and burn miserably. There's only one way to find out! Let's move on to today's rant: Being politically correct.

Being a TCK (Third culture kid) from Central America, I have never quite understood certain aspects of the U.S. One of these aspects is the concept of being politically correct. As a latina in heart and soul, I have grown accustomed to a certain ability to speak freely without feeling like I have to very carefully pick my words so that I won't offend people with words like "fat," "black," or "gay." But in the last roughly three months that I have been in the U.S. for college I have had to learn what's okay to say in what crowd. Among my other international peers it is perfectly acceptable to make "racist" jokes and speak freely, but among the rest of the student body I have observed that people use words that I have to keep from laughing or rolling my eyes at. 

I often stop to wonder if people realize just how ridiculous they sound. We all know what they're avoiding saying, so why not just come right out with it? Now, I'm not saying that people should be rude or insensitive about it, but really what's the point of dancing around it? You're just feeding the beast by blowing it out of proportion with special words to avoid offending everyone. 

A prime example of this happened when I was hanging out with one of my other international friends and a girl I faintly knew because of another friend. This girl is from Kansas but is of latin decent. Now, my friend likes to joke around about me being a Mexican and just makes jokes about latin culture and such. I never take offense to it because why should I? They're just jokes, and neither of us really mean what we're saying or they're things that are actually true. But this girl turned to my friend after he made a joke about latins and told him she was sick of his racism. He tried to defend himself by saying that he's not being racist because it was just statements. This got her mad. She told him that it was his tone that made it racist. Now, I was getting a bit uncomfortable about it all because I didn't really know this girl, and to be honest I thought she was being a little obnoxious about it, but I did not know what to say. She got in his face and told him not to mess with her. I made a halfhearted statement about not messing with latinas, despite not really knowing how latina she actually is. This was met with silence. But when he tried to defend himself again, just stating that he realized she could handle herself she smacked him in the face and told him there was more if he kept it up. 

Now, if you, dear reader, do not know a lot about latinas then here's a little piece of information to keep in mind. You do not want to make a latina mad. And you especially do not want to mess with family, which in this case my international friends have become a form of family for me. Now most latina girls are small but feisty. And I am no exception in the feisty department or the fierce loyalty to friends and family. I have a true latina anger mode, and I just about whipped it out on this girl. It took a lot of self-control not to show her what a real latina can do all the while yelling at her in Spanish. I just sat there staring at her in silence. And it dawned on me just how stupid it is to get upset over something so dumb. I've never grasped the concept of being politically correct, and in that moment where a girl playing latina got upset over "racist" jokes, I realized that political correctness is cultivating offense over things that other cultures brush off. 

I am not about to bash U.S. cultures. They are different from my own, but I am not saying that there's one "right" or "wrong" culture. But I am saying that political correctness is handing people the right to pull the "racist" card on anything, and teaching them to use it in ignorant ways. But that's just my opinion.

How to keep jewelry from turning your skin green

Sorry about no post yesterday! I honestly meant to try to get one up, but unfortunately yesterday our volunteer Andrea left after three months of being with us, so I went to the airport with her to see her off and then I had school all afternoon once we finally got back. And since I am finishing school sometime next week (hopefully) things are going to be a little hectic around here, and therefor probably won't go too according to schedule. But I will try get up as many posts as I can. I already have a few planned out ahead of time, so hopefully that all works out.

Anyways, the one that I'm about to show you today is probably the easiest and for a lot of you probably the most useful if you are a budget fashion-chic kind of girl like me. Now my jewelry selection is kind of a crazy mix of a lot of different styles and materials. I don't really care if it is designer or expensive (in fact I usually shy away from dropping a lot of money on a piece of jewelry seeing as how little I really wear it) so most of my stuff is that cheap stuff that the top layer wears off after a while and starts leaving a lovely green mark on your skin that takes forever to get off or ruins a pair of really cute earrings. This has been driving me crazy for a while, because a lot of my favorite stuff is cheap that is now ugly looking because it all wore off. Well no more!

A lot of you might already know this really nifty trick, but for anyone who doesn't, here's the secret to keeping your cheap jewelry looking nice: clear nail polish. Seriously, that's it. You just put that dollar store clear nail polish on your jewelry and bam! No more worrying about those ugly green marks or your jewelry ruining! I paint it on both the inside and outside of my hoops and bracelets because a lot of the time my bracelets tend to turn copper all over. But seriously, for a fashion-savvy girl on a budget this is a huge saver.

Removing Labels from Jars

So this was supposed to go up yesterday (since my schedule is going to hopefully be Mondays and Fridays plus any day I just feel like throwing something up), but I had a paper to do on Al Capone and as such I didn't get to post. So here it is:

I enjoy making body scrubs and using jars for other random things, but I'm too cheap to go buy ones just for that plus I don't really have access to any stores in the convenient area that sell that kind of thing. So I looked around for good ways to peel off the label of an old jar without too much trouble. And after a bit of experimenting I have found a pretty easy way to do it!

Supplies: hot water and a jar

Step 1: I microwaved my water for about one minute, thirty seconds to get it nice and hot then filled my jar up a little past the top of the label. Screw the top back on and leave for about 7 minutes.

Step 2: Begin peeling from the corner carefully at first, but once it looks like it's all coming off you can go a bit faster. If it begins to seperate from the top layer, just press it back down and slowly continue peeling.

Successful!

To get the sticky stuff off I scrub it with soap and a scrub brush but I've heard that soaking it in hot water for a bit helps too! If anyone else has any ways of doing it or suggestions I'd love to hear them :)

Fake Tattoo

So being the wonderfully wild child that I enjoy being I got to thinking about tattoos. A friend of mine who is a volunteer for three months here to El Salvador decided she wanted to surprise her boyfriend for April Fool's Day. To me it was totally a no brainer! I suggested doing a fake tattoo to mess with him because he's not really a tattoo person. She thought it was a great idea and so tonight we set to work. Well, being the Pinterest addict that I am, I had seen a fake tattoo tutorial a while back that I had been meaning to try out and thought this would be a great time to try it. Unfortunately it called for a gel pen, which we gleefully ignored as we did not have one. So we set about drawing out the butterfly she had picked out for the special occasion but no dice. The ink just was not taking to her skin for some odd reason. Well, it turns out we were using the wrong pens and so we had to find a new way of doing it. After searching for a bit she happened upon a tutorial for it, but again we were missing a somewhat major component. So we thought about it and decided we would substitute a pen in instead. And so here is how we went about it:

What you need: a rag to clean up, talcum powder, rubbing alcohol, cotton balls/pads, warm water, tracing paper, a pencil, ballpoint pen and scissors

A bottle is also good to have if you're doing one on the wrist to rest on
I accidentally forgot the pencil and ballpoint pen in the picture. Forgive me

 Step one: Draw your design first with pencil. It does not need to be too heavy or thick. You might have to play with the design a bit to get what looks best to you.

 Step 2: Use the cotton swabs/pads and alcohol to clean the area you are going to "tattoo." This prevents oils and things like that from messing up the ink. Wait for it to dry a bit before moving on to step 3.

Step 3: Cut out the design with enough space around it to keep your design in tact then place it where you plan to have your tattoo.

Step 4: Dip the rag in warm water then place it onto your paper for approximately 30 seconds.

At this point you should have a faint outline of the pencil design on your skin

 Step 5: Wipe off the excess water from the surrounding area and wait for the prepped area to dry.  Now using a black ballpoint pen go over the design again carefully. We accidentally used one with a blue tint the first time and that looked bad.

Your "tattoo" should look something like this right now

 Step 6: Pour talcum powder onto the area carefully, trying not to spill everywhere like I managed to do every time.

Now wait for about another 30 seconds to a minute for the talcum powder to set in before wiping it off with your hand or if you have it a makeup brush.

This should be your finished product! 

 Hopefully if all went correctly you should have an at least somewhat legit looking tattoo for a few days. (we're not positive on how long it will last seeing as it will probably vary.)

Our lovely test tattoo