Healthcare

Are you surprised to learn that according to the World Health Organization, the US has the 37th best health care system in the world?

Yeah, that's right, behind Colombia. Behind Costa Rica.

Facebook

me: oh its not letting me (add him as a friend on facebook, on my creep account)

it says

this person has reached the maximum amount of new friends in one month

please try again in february

Eric: really?!!?

me: yeah

Eric: wow i didnt realize i added that much this month

me: not really you creep its just not loading

Jonzac Part 2

This is the post where I say

1) I'm back from Spain, it was an amazing trip

2) I should have majored in Spanish and not French

3) Everyone is nicer than the French

4) I hate teaching

and then continue on to my rant about New Zealanders and Frenchies, respectively.

To be fair, I've only met 4 people from NZ. Two of those people were absolutely lovely.

The other two stayed in my apartment back in September while their HS students were on exchange. And basically, they were huge assholes. And I'm still not over all the garbage and dirty dishes they left in my kitchen when they flew back to NZ. Or how they thought they were so French and so posh because they drank sparkling water with dinner. Who the fuck drinks sparkling water. And finally because the man thought he could understand French simply because he "picks up languages quickly" and so a week in Paris meant understanding dinner table conversation. No way, dude. If that were true, after 4 months here I'd be fucking Emilie Simone.

And now, French people. Seriously guys. Shut up about your health care becoming "expensive." 6 euros to get an x-ray isn't going to break the bank. And if you really think that "some French people" can't afford that, tell them to lay off the red wine for a week or two.

GRAD SCHOOL

ACCEPTED

TO

GRAD SCHOOL

Amazing!!! Why can't the US system be as easy and fast as the UK system! I sent in my application, and one week later, find out, hey, if I want to go and study in Belfast, I'm invited.

Now I need to wait and hear from the other three schools and make my decision....

It's not fun not having internet, but on the other hand, it forces me to do other things, and seek new places to use the internet at. That was a terrible sentence.

I'm leaving for Madrid tomorrow around 4:30pm. A short train ride to Bordeaux, then I'm meeting Leslie at the train station. We'll have like a 3 hour wait before our overnight bus to Madrid leaves. Fun. The wait and the bus.

Then it's 5 days in Madrid, 4 in Granada, 2 in Valencia, and 5 days in Barcelona. I'll be there alone the last day, which makes me sort of nervous. But I'm looking forward to having a full day to do things on my own, particularly see a couple of museums I suspect my friends won't be very interested in seeing. Namely the Maritime Museum, and the Pre-Colombus Museum. The former because it allegedly has masts of old sea-faring ships, the latter basically because I want to see Aztec gold.

Anyway. I had a crap class yesterday, who literally smelled like bowling alley. Not sure how this is possible, but it was definitely the smell of old shoes, old cigarette smoke and fast food. In other words, bowling alley. Today's 3 classes were much better though.

My internet doesn't work anymore. I don't know why or how or why but it stopped working and I'm very not happy.

I'm also not happy with my students. Yesterday I was having a discussion with some students about music or some crap, and there's this little blond girl who doesn't understand a WORD of what I'm saying and just keeps fidgeting around and saying chais pas chais pas. So I'm thinking, ugh, what a little dummy, this girl's English is so awful what's the point.

Then the goddam teacher comes over and is like "Katy why aren't you talking, you're ENGLISH."

Little brat!!! And her and the teacher thought it was so funny that they tricked me into thinking she was this dumb little French girl.

Seriously what the fuck.

Then I had a group of students today and the teacher told me to talk about CIVIL RIGHTS with them. Because, apparently, that's what they're studying . Well, ok, no problem, I printed out some pictures of MLK Jr, etc. etc. and ask them, "What do YOU guys know about Civil Rights in America?" Silence. "What do you think about racism?" More silence. I wrote CIVIL RIGHTS in the USA on the board and they still had no idea what the hell I was talking about. Because the teacher had never started teaching it, and somehow, in 20 minutes, I was supposed to explain to a bunch of French 14 year olds WHO DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH slavery, the civil war, discrimination, lynching, separatism, MLK, racism....

It basically went like this:

Me: Are there still slaves in the USA?
Them: Silence
Me: Do you understand the question?
Them: Yes
Me: So, are there still slaves in the USA?
Them: SILENCE

Dense. Fucking. Kids.

It's SO cold here today,

but

I got CHRISTMAS presents in the mail!!!

on America and war and money

I love the US and I couldn't imagine spending my life anywhere else, but really that country makes me so mad SO OFTEN.

Every single goddamn politician is a corrupt motherfucker.

NOTHING will ever change because people are too fucking ignorant to see that what's best for them and for the country is DIFFERENT from what their political parties and churches tell them. Is it SO hard to see that politicians and religious groups have agendas, and that sometimes, even though it's fucking scary, you need to think for yourself?

Really guys? You think being able to get a cavity fixed means the government is taking over your life REALLY?

You thinking going to war with a half dozen countries in the shithole that is the Middle East is gonna keep you SAFE? It doesn't matter what we do, you can't win a war on IDEOLOGY.

If republicans want lower taxes, they shouldn't have started this goddamn war business.

And if democrats want a health care bill to pass, they need to make some goddamn concessions.

Partisan bullshit.

PS http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_spe_per_per-health-spending-per-person

Here's a true story: I don't give a crap if government health care puts insurance companies out of business. All they do is inflate prices and rip us off, thus the reason the US spends more $ per person on healthcare. The prices are bogus.

And if universal health care is such "crap," explain to me why people living in countries with universal health care live longer and are healthier. And are generally content with the medical services they receive?