Expats
I didn't get enough sleep and it shows. I'm mixing up people and pages and feel blah all around. I tried for some sun and a swim to wake me up during lunch but the pool was too warm so it was like floating in a bathtub - ugh. I hate warm pools, not refreshing at all in this heat. Must tell pool guy to make it cooler. He's creepy, by the way. Old dude with Hawaii shirt and weird huge straw hat who sings to himself but eerily so and shuffles about taking his sweet time as he checks out the young girls in the process. And I mean YOUNG. If I had to take a wild guess... well, never mind. I think my Menschenkenntnis is well-developed but sometimes I'm overly critical and judge too harshly. Mom and I have that in common. Dad on the other hand always just sees the good in people, or tries to. To the point of seeming almost naive and not "firm" enough. This can drive me crazy and Mom, too. It's just not realistic, not practical. He can appear like a pushover because of it when in the end, he's really stubborn too like a good German, *snicker*. I'm sure this really confused people he worked with. Other than that he's perfect, of course, and I love him to bits. When I was in elementary school, I wanted to marry him. I've been really lucky with my parents all around.
They were always so much cooler than most kid's parents. When I tell people I was never 'grounded' and never had to do chores they go WHAT?! There's a downside to the latter, of course - I WILL ALWAYS HATE HOUSEWORK, except laundry and cooking which is fun. They had their own method of raising me, putting freedom, exploration and independence on top of the list. I did test the limits and most certainly learned to be selbstaendig and independent. Maybe too independent, as Dad once remarked in connection with my leaving for different places and then the USA, but yes, I learned independence and how to fend for myself. Some of the other expat parents basically tried to lock their children in the house, never to explore the country they were in, or even just the neighborhood outside their "good neighborhood". How ridiculous. They lived in a bubble of artificialness, fake living spaces and concepts of "home", created in the image of what Western expats were used to and the kids were expected to live in this vacuum. It strikes me as square, surprisingly square for people who are willing to leave their country for "the world" - but then, it's like it was those very people who always just seemed to be there for the money anyway... Many of them boorish, nouveaux riche-wannabes who, I assume, were mostly attracted by the lifestyle, the kind of lifestyle they would never have had at home... A certain amount of luxury is nice and I'm the last to dispute that. But there's an in between here and I think I was lucky my parents saw it that way too and we actually *lived* in these places. It's like a generic beach resort vacation where just the name of the country changes ... Versus couchsurfing, spending time with real people and being part of things.
They were always so much cooler than most kid's parents. When I tell people I was never 'grounded' and never had to do chores they go WHAT?! There's a downside to the latter, of course - I WILL ALWAYS HATE HOUSEWORK, except laundry and cooking which is fun. They had their own method of raising me, putting freedom, exploration and independence on top of the list. I did test the limits and most certainly learned to be selbstaendig and independent. Maybe too independent, as Dad once remarked in connection with my leaving for different places and then the USA, but yes, I learned independence and how to fend for myself. Some of the other expat parents basically tried to lock their children in the house, never to explore the country they were in, or even just the neighborhood outside their "good neighborhood". How ridiculous. They lived in a bubble of artificialness, fake living spaces and concepts of "home", created in the image of what Western expats were used to and the kids were expected to live in this vacuum. It strikes me as square, surprisingly square for people who are willing to leave their country for "the world" - but then, it's like it was those very people who always just seemed to be there for the money anyway... Many of them boorish, nouveaux riche-wannabes who, I assume, were mostly attracted by the lifestyle, the kind of lifestyle they would never have had at home... A certain amount of luxury is nice and I'm the last to dispute that. But there's an in between here and I think I was lucky my parents saw it that way too and we actually *lived* in these places. It's like a generic beach resort vacation where just the name of the country changes ... Versus couchsurfing, spending time with real people and being part of things.