Definitely a bug - one time, maybe (though she was really very unfazed by the whole thing - I'd bet many of her piercings hurt a lot more than the wrist!) but definitely not eight.
That's interesting about the differences you're seeing in the schools. I was just talking to C. about the bit I wrote up and then cut again to the above, about my ex-in-laws. They (second generation) were sort of somewhere between the two extremes you have mentioned: all spoke Spanish to their kids and among themselves part of the time, but English as well. (I know my ex's parents never made the kids reply in Spanish, so it was pretty much a question of learning themselves if they wanted to speak properly - pretty sure that was true of the cousins too). Felt (and said - around me sometimes) that 'their culture' was better than American but wouldn't dream of wanting to live in Mexico. And I guess that's where it starts to get a bit sticky, or at least it seemed to me to be so - what exactly, defined that culture which was supposed to be better than that around them - as if you could boil 'American culture' down to one thing anyway! I think back in the days we could talk about it, the ex said it was the importance of family and all, but -- Well. I could write many paragraphs on the importance of family and what that means, and some of them would be about that particular family (not good) and some of them would include names like Bush, and some parties like Republican and Tory/Conservative ones, and it would just waste a lot of keyboarding!
And then you had the Irish-Americans who were sending money to 'help the families of Republicans (the other kind now) imprisoned or killed' without having a clue how things had changed there or what that money was really doing...
Yeah, I'm just a confused mongrel. But at least I've had the opportunity to live in the two countries making up my background, which is nice. And seem to be getting a sort of time-share option in England, for the ones who went to the States from Britain!
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That's interesting about the differences you're seeing in the schools. I was just talking to C. about the bit I wrote up and then cut again to the above, about my ex-in-laws. They (second generation) were sort of somewhere between the two extremes you have mentioned: all spoke Spanish to their kids and among themselves part of the time, but English as well. (I know my ex's parents never made the kids reply in Spanish, so it was pretty much a question of learning themselves if they wanted to speak properly - pretty sure that was true of the cousins too). Felt (and said - around me sometimes) that 'their culture' was better than American but wouldn't dream of wanting to live in Mexico. And I guess that's where it starts to get a bit sticky, or at least it seemed to me to be so - what exactly, defined that culture which was supposed to be better than that around them - as if you could boil 'American culture' down to one thing anyway! I think back in the days we could talk about it, the ex said it was the importance of family and all, but -- Well. I could write many paragraphs on the importance of family and what that means, and some of them would be about that particular family (not good) and some of them would include names like Bush, and some parties like Republican and Tory/Conservative ones, and it would just waste a lot of keyboarding!
And then you had the Irish-Americans who were sending money to 'help the families of Republicans (the other kind now) imprisoned or killed' without having a clue how things had changed there or what that money was really doing...
Yeah, I'm just a confused mongrel. But at least I've had the opportunity to live in the two countries making up my background, which is nice. And seem to be getting a sort of time-share option in England, for the ones who went to the States from Britain!