Songs about the Southland

I've always taken my home for granted. It's always seemed boring to me to be from Alabama, I'm always complaining about how there's nothing to do, and everything is so old-fashioned. But being in Europe has made me really appreciate where I grew up. So when I heard yesterday that my hometown was being ravaged by tornadoes, I was distraught. It is really the worst feeling in the world to not know where your family and friends are, and have no way of finding out. The only way that I can communicate with anyone right now is through the internet, and of course, the internet and phone lines were down.

Being from Alabama, I'm used to tornadoes.. it's a part of life. You get used to the emergency drills in school, to going down to the basement, etc. But when I started seeing pictures of the destruction, I was terrified. I have never in my life experienced anything like what happened yesterday, and I hope I never have to. After a couple of hours, I found out that my family was safe, which of course was what I was mostly worried about. Miraculously, my house was also fine, even though it's surrounded by trees. I thought then that I would be ok.. but then this morning I saw even more footage of what happened and I really never thought I would react the way I have. I mean, of course I feel absolutely horrible for everyone who was affected by the storms, as many lost their homes, and even people. But what I was surprised by was how sad I was for the loss of my town.

I've never necessarily had a problem with Cullman, but it always seemed boring, not like a place I would live forever. I'm not saying that I think I will now, but I realize now how much it has meant to me. I spent the better part of my life there, and all of the buildings that are now destroyed hold memories for me. It's so weird to get on cnn.com and see my little town as the headline. And I wish so badly that I could help with the clean-up. Not just in Cullman, but in Tuscaloosa, where it was even worse. I don't know how it'll ever be the same again. All of the charming little downtown shops are gone, churches I went to Bible school at when I was little are gone, everything's changed.

But I say all of this to say how much I love the South. As much as I love Europe, and somewhat wish I could live here forever, I know that I would always go back home. The south will always be home for me. It's where there's wraparound porches, sweet tea is the beverage of choice, SEC football is king, "ya'll" is a real word, and you know that you can say whatever you want about someone as long as you add "bless her heart". But most importantly, it's where in a time of need, everyone comes together to help those who need it. For example, when my mom had her brain tumor, it was unbelievable the amount of help we got from people. Not just hot meals every night, but people from our church literally packed our house and moved our stuff, because we were also in the middle of that.

So even though everything is mass chaos there right now, I would imagine, I know that everyone is going to come together and help each other. And that is why I'm proud to be a Southerner.

Désolé, mais je déteste les Français..

I realize that I haven't written in a really long time, and I do apologize. But I'm spending the night in an airport tonight so I have some spare time on my hands. I'm going to split this one into at least two posts, maybe more depending on if I get tired. The first post is solely a rant about the French. I know that this is a recurring topic in my blog, but GOOD LORD are they ridiculous. I keep trying to be open-minded and open to new cultures and behaviors, but you know, if the way you do things is completely stupid, then why should I have to pretend like America doesn't do it better? Not that America is perfect by any means, and don't even get me started on politics and things like that, but France isn't exactly a great world power, and could stand to take some cues from America.

And in case you were wondering, every stereotype you've ever heard about them is absolutely true! They are rude, inconsiderate, and definitely don't speak anything but French. I was thinking earlier that we don't necessarily learn other languages in America as a norm, but come on! We speak English, the most useful language on the planet. The one language that unites all the foreigners that I now know is English. I do think that America should put more emphasis on learning foreign languages, especially Spanish as it's the most useful, but with tourism the way it is here, you would think they would at least try. Not only do they not know English, but if you tell them you don't understand what they're saying, they talk louder and faster. NEWS FLASH: that doesn't help. In fact, it makes me mad. I always at least attempt to speak French, but this isn't good enough for them. I don't know if they can't understand me or what, but I feel like I should at least get brownie points for trying.

Speaking of speaking, who can even understand them here??? They speak their own version of French, a mix of street language and Italian, because we're so close to Italy. I've learned proper French, so this is no help to me. For example, the phrase "Je ne sais pas" (I don't know) is shortened to "Je pas". WHAT? that's just dumb. Don't get mad at me for not knowing your language, you don't even know your language.

Last night, one of my oh so sweet neighbors came to inform me that I was being too loud. Granted, it is supposed to be somewhat quiet in my building after 10:00 pm, and it was like 11:30, but it was just music! He went off on me in French, to which I said I didn't understand, and he definitely knows I speak english, because we've met before. I told him I couldn't understand, although I caught his drift. I said sorry, and he kept going and going on and on about his "bambino" (umm that's freaking Italian??). Sorry dude, but your bambino sometimes wakes me up in the morning, when I want to be asleep. Your bambino should know that it's Friday night, and a little music from my weak computer speakers, no less, is not a big deal. It's not like I was having a party, or anything of that nature.. I was asleep by 12:30, it was by no means a crazy night.

However, all of that being said, what brought on this rant was my experience tonight. This week is our second holiday, so I'm going with a bunch of girls to Paris, Barcelona, and Geneva. I left tonight for Paris, and ended up flying by myself, because everyone else decided to book their flights for tomorrow, and it was too late to change mine. So anyways, that's why I'm sleeping in the airport tonight,because I'm not about to take on Paris by myself. My flight was at 8:35 pm, and I did online check-in, so I was going to try to get to the airport at 7:30, because that's plenty of time for domestic flights here. So I go out to catch the bus to the airport at 6:40 (13 minutes early), and what luck. It never even showed up. I had to wait for the next one at 7:13, by which time I was sweating bullets. In this waiting time, some French guy started talking to me, and I could understand him, but asked "quoi?" (what?) one time. Apparently, it's not appropriate to ask what, because he let me know it. I mean, come on!! If some foreigner approached me in America, I would never have the nerve or the desire to correct them! That's so ridiculous! Ughhhhh. Anway, the bus finally came. I finally got to the airport at 7:50, and made it through security just in time. I was almost through the boarding gate, when some employee from ANOTHER gate came over to inform me that my suitcase was too big to be a carry-on. Now this is where things suck here, because with the budget airlines, it's pretty cheap to get around, BUT you can only carry a small carry-on, and checking baggage costs big time. I have flown on this particular airline before, actually only three weeks ago. Then, there was no problem with it, although I knew I was pushing it. But this time, that guy just HAD to come over and thus I had to pay 35 euros to check a freaking suitcase. That doesn't sound so horrible, but if I have to do that on all four flights, it jumps to 140 euros, or roughly 200 dollars. Not so great. More than all my flights cost combined. SO STUPID.

Anyway, that concludes my rant for now, although I'm sure it won't take long to find more reason to dislike them. What I hate is that I keep thinking that maybe they aren't so horrible, because once in a blue moon, I find a decent one. BUT it's much more common that they're absolutely horrible, so I'm over defending them.