Elderly in the U.S.

The answer I got from the question "Are you afraid of growing old?" was "Exactly!". Not only Americans afraid of it, but also Thais. It's universal. :) But, no one can refuse the circle of life. They said they must accept the truth and try to be as healthy as possible. Moreover, they hope to be able to travel after they retire. They have been collecting money for the journey and the expense for their living, too. Some of them want to live in their own house and some want to live in an apartment. They actually prefer to live separately after they retire which I guess that such idea is underlied from American's individualism. If they're 65 or older, they want to have peaceful life in a good house/apartment. However, they said that if they are disabled, they might consider living with their children.

American Family

American students are independent. To compare with Thai students, they're very different. They have jobs to earn for their tutoring. They live apart from their parents. They believe in themselves. The decisions they make are on their own. They tend to be independent on their families any more but they actually don't, at least emotionally.

Talking with my American friends, I found out that they still consider their families (which include the pets as well) very important in their lives. Many of them say that if they have hard time to decide something very important, they'll ask for advices from either or both of their parents. Besides, even though each of the family member lives apart, they still feel they have close family since they visit and make calls to each other frequently. They also organize a family reunion at least once a year. The big day varies. It might be a parent's birthday, anniversary, thanks giving or they might make a day among family members.

One of my American friends is living with her grandma. She told me that it's not normal for Americans to have a grandparent living in the same house. The elderly are usually sent to some certain places where there're people taking care of them instead of staying with their own children. This culture is completely different from Thai culture. We feel like we're supposed to return all good treats our parents have been giving us back by taking care of them when they get old. In Americans' perspectives, they think if they can't do that well, it's better for them to provide their parents the more comfortable lives.

The different perspective about the elderly's lives is a good example of how we, having different culture, think. It's unique. That's really interesting! Gosh, I love knowing these differences!!

Multicultural Society

As a person who loves to adventure, I'm always curious in everything new. It's interesting for me to learn cultures and different ways of life. It'll be more fun if we try to figure out why someone in some culture do or don't do something. For example, there's a group of people in India (Hindu) who don't eat beef because they worship cows as the cows provide milk for them. Personally, I don't think multiculturalism can bring any disadvantages in the society if people are open-minded.

It's currently the 21st century. Today's technology, invention and transportation make our world smaller. We have more chance to experience the outside world. That allows us to meet many things different from our tendency we're familiar with in our country or culture which might sound "strange" for us to know and "weird" for us to accept that cultural existence. But, if we look broader and deeper, we are also weird for the other culture. So, let's open our mind and change that "weirdness" into our "interest". Then, we'll learn more, know more and love more.

Having a multicultural society supports us to adjust ourselves to the smaller world in the 21th century easier. Once again, just open your mind then bias, prejudice, stereotype and discrimination will disappear a the multicultural society. Moreover, our 22nd century will have no war, for sure.

Bang Bang!!

I've never ever had positive view toward the object called "Gun". Personally, gun represents violence. The fact that every thing has its both good and bad side can't be used with gun for me. So, it's obvious that I'll not have a gun in my house even though I'll be given one for free and legally. There're five girls in my family and many of my little cousins always come round. That's the main reason why I think I don't need a gun in my house. It's dangerous for those kids although we hide the gun in a very safe place. (Kids are smarter than we think they are. They are great explorer.)

Moreover, my community is pretty safe. We can hardly heard the news about crime or robbery in my community. But, if there's a robber sneaking into my house. A toy gun might work for threatening him/her otherwise my dad is skillful at using a slingshot. :D

Picture: A kid in classical Thai costume is using traditional slingshot.

Possession VS Action

It's true that when I see a sport car, I say "Wow". It's true that many times, I can't take my eyes off a blink diamond ring. Those stuffs might make me think the owners are cool at the first few minutes but then, I forget that they are cool because of those wealthy objects.

My parents are not rich but they are important to me. Even though my sisters always quarrel with me and use my stuffs without asking for my permission, I miss them a lot here. My teachers own second hand cars. Some of them ride bicycles to the campus but they all are still important to me. What you have doesn't matter to me to consider you more important than that cute girl with a brand name bag whom I don't know. What you're doing and have done is the core value.

So, what make a person long-running important for me are their precious mind, our experience and relationship and whatever they've done to me. That make me feel to be responsible for not hurting their feelings and trying my best not to lose them just because they're supreme.....to me.

Is all mankind the same or different?

I don't think people all over the world are very different but we're different somehow. (??!!)

Physically and traditionally, we all are different. Our finger prints never be the same. We have different beliefs. We react to a certain situation in the different way. Even though we're from the same country or sharing the same tradition, we still slightly have something different. Fon (my Thai friend) and I are both Thai. We speak Thai. We have great respect to the King of Thailand. She believes in Jesus. I believe in Allah. She drive to school. I ride a bicycle. She speaks politely. I shout. The differences reveals (may be) because we're raised in different place among different people. The environments we are in make you are "you" and I am "I".

Anyway, I believe that we're psychologically the same. No matter where we are from or what we believe in, we all need care, love, self-esteem, being accepted and so on. Of course, all mankind need peace.

In my opinion, the differences are the challenges for us to learn and understand. When we understand each other, we can automatically create love and sisterhood/brotherhood among us. With our open-minded to learn and accept the differences, there'll be no fight, no war. Here comes PEACE.

Walking Tour

I've walked on Water Street and to downtown - Eau Claire a few times. Every time, I'm astonished by the unique buildings. They look completely different from the buildings in Thailand. Here, many old buildings still remain. I'm a person who loves taking pictures. When I first walked around downtown, I took lot of pictures of buildings here.

Last week, I's assigned to take a walking tour in order to take pictures in front of 5 historical buildings. At first, we were about to walk downtown but when we took a careful look on the map we printed out from a website, we found out that we didn't have to walk that far. We can find a lot of historical buildings on Water Street (It's on the west side of the map.) and the area near by!

John Pinkum House is the first place we stopped by. Look! The house is pink and I was in pink. Haha.

I'm not a direction person, so such sign (on my left hand) helped me a lot to find an antique building. :)

Charles Ingram (the owner) was a son of a lumberman. No doubt, there are a pile of logs in the house.

Here's the First Congregational Church. Before we reached there, we heard the bell rang. It's was calling us for a visit.

I was in the Randall Park. The statue in the photo is "Adin Randall Statue". Who's Adin Randall. Below is the answer.

The picture answers the question! Adin Randall is the one who gave this park to the city of Eau Claire in 1857. It's a beautiful and peaceful park. Let's see how gorgeous it is.

Dun dun dun!!

I know, it's cool. Hah ha.