I Never Thought It Was Such A Bad Little Tree. It’s Not Bad At All, Really. Maybe It Just Needs A Little

I’m still trying everything to keep you looking at me…

I love those autumn mornings when you can smell the air and it’s a little bit cold but not too cold and there are leaves everywhere

CICELY TYSON Hoodlum dir. Bill Duke, 1997

hey there LGBTQ kids who are also Christian/Jewish! If you feel like you’re disobeying God, questioning your faith, or feel wrong and dirty for loving who you love, there’s this fantastic site I found today called hoperemains that accurately and thoroughly combs through scripture and its (many) mistranslations, validates your orientation, and basically let’s you know that you’re not pissing off God. It’s insanely thorough and after reading through every page on the entire site it’s super helpful. Go check it out!

I only watch Riverdale for this beautiful, exotic hothouse flower

We are all put on this earth to be a service to others and I am grateful that for some, my Cheerios ponytail and sassy sashays may have given a little light to someone somewhere, who may have needed it. To everyone whose heartfelt stories I have heard, or read I thank you for truly enriching my life.

this post has been highly requested! it turned out more focused on loneliness and the emotional side of things, so i might do a part two to explore what culture shock is and go through its stages in more detail later on. as always, further questions and requests are always welcome in my askbox :)

“I started out as a writer and a director. I started acting because I wanted to know how to relate to the actors. When people ask me what I do, I don’t really say that I’m an actor, because actors often wait for someone to give them roles.”

Chadwick Boseman + Filmography

This video for the linguistic privilege of the Anglophones was very interesting to me. He doesn't say that if you go for a week to Greece you must learn the language (although some phrases would be nice). He doesn't say that having a common language between different nations is bad.

But he is talking about native English speakers who are able to stay in foreign countries for a long time and still don't learn the language because the locals around them can accommodate them by speaking English. These long-term visitors who are native English speakers (sometimes spouses and business partners) are not willing to learn the basics to survive in this country because they expect that someone around will know their language.

While this expectation might seem reasonable, it burdens the non English speakers to learn the language to the point we are considered unprofessional and unskilled if we don't speak English very well - in our own country!

Story time:

I was meeting with a large group of online friends for drinks and doing our collective hobby together and there was an Anglophone in the group. She had been staying in the country for 10 years, she was under 30 years old (you can definitely learn the language at that age) and couldn't communicate with us, making a dozen Greeks speak English to accommodate her.

Naturally, we didn't manage for long to center our conversations around her language when we could communicate better in ours. Still, the attitude of this woman and people like her still baffles me. If any of us were to go to her country for a month we would be automatically required to know English otherwise we would be ridiculed. We would certainly not survive a decade without learning the local language.