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.

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 :)

About Me

I guess since I'm doing this whole "blogging" thing I might as well put up something about myself for those who care to know who the crazy lunatic is that's writing this blog. My name is Kaitlin. I'm an MK (Missionary Kid) from El Salvador and I've spent my entire life being an MK. I've got two older brothers (one married, one about to be this summer and I'm a soon to be aunt this summer.

The worst question possible is asking "Where are you from?" because that depends on if you want the short answer or the long answer.

Short: I'm from El Salvador.

Long: Well... I was born in Texas, and moved to Honduras when I was two years old. We lived there until I was about ten years old and then we move here to El Salvador. I've been living here since then (so a total of seven so far), but sadly I will be moving to Honduras again in a few months. I say sadly not because I don't like Honduras (I love it there and consider it my country as well as El Salvador), but because I will be moving to the capital city and cities really are not my thing.

But fortunately for me I have already had the blessing of meeting one of the missionary volunteer's wife and her beautiful three year old girl and their wonderful 11-month twin boys. So a lot of my posts will be the wonderful madness that is babysitting/being her free nanny.

I plan to go to IWU hopefully next fall (scary thought) and plan to major in graphic design and photography. I'm a huge art geek (along with being a regular geek, video game geek, and of course my obsession, a Doctor Who geek) and love drawing so some of those might find their way on here. My obsessions tend to leak into the other parts of my life so you'll probably see some DW, classic Disney movies, Zelda, zebras, and other random things that I tend to enjoy. Well that's about all I've got to say. If anyone stumbles upon this and has questions I'm free to answer!

Welcome

Welcome! If you just happened upon this blog and don't have time to waste, I suggest moving your mouse to the top right corner of your screen and hit that lovely red x. Why? Well, I'm a bit of a rambler and this blog honestly does not have a set point to it. It's here because I need a place to store the crazy things I try from Pinterest or just come up with from life. It's for the crafts, jewelry, drawings, doodles, and babysitting madness that I try out when I come upon it. i want a place I can post the things I've tried that work and are not ridiculously priced so that normal people (never thought I'd ever fall under that category under "normal" circumstances) with normal people budgets (or less) can afford to do all kinds of fun/cool stuff that you would normally think you couldn't do for whatever reason it be, i.e. too expensive, difficult, time consuming, etc. So if this gets read then it's for the mothers, crafters, and babysitters that need a fun idea without dropping a lot of money on it. If not then it's a place I can ramble and place my ideas and crafts that I need a more organized space for.