A Little Political Rant (from a Conservatives POV)

Even as a Conservative, I stress belief in our Country and most importantly our Leader. I am a firm believer that if we operate as a country split in half over politics, we will present ourselves to the world as a broken land. We can have all the security in the world, but our we protecting our name as the United States?

Our Leader says he wants to speak to our children words of encouragement, focusing on staying in school. He wants to present himself as a Leader to everyone, not just adults. I feel this is important because the choices he and the lawmakers under him make will affect our childrens lives for many years to come.

So it comes down to this: If you think he might say something resembling propoganda, do you want your child listening to him?

In my personal opinion, I don't think he would dare say anything that would come across as what I like to call "Drinkin the Kool-aid talk." I'll go a step further and say that being this is a sensitive audience to speak to, that speech has gone through the editors and speech analysts more than the usual speech.

The important thing I see here is people need to learn how to speak to their children about what is going on in the world. I believe for children to be well-rounded, they need to be able to listen to a political figure speak, understand what their saying, and then make a decision for themselves. There needs to be dialog between parents and children, not just parents telling the children what they believe. I love to see parents and children having different viewpoints, it means that at one point, the parents let the children share what they thought and they didn't make the child feel bad for their opinion.

I am a child of this example family relationship, and I will forever thank my parents for their support.

If I don't post before Monday, have a great Labor Day weekend Bloggers!

French cousins and a trip to Europe

Have you ever tried to learn a new language? In high school, as a requirement, I was required to take a foreign language and I chose French. I never really knew anyone that spoke French, or if I would ever get to use it. The fact remained that it was a romance language, and it appealed to young Allyson. I didn't do too well in this endeavor, but I retained very very miniscule parts from this class.

Well you know how you should really pay attention in class when you think it won't make the difference? Well to make a long story short, my beautiful and intelligent cousin Brooke moved to Switzerland earlier this year to practice her science as a Doctor of Audiology in Geneva. I can hear what you're thinking, seriously, people actually do that? I know, I thought that myself. Brooke is a force to be reckoned with and aint nothing standing in that girls' way.

So I find myself intrigued, and upon a very expressive invitation to visit, I am tentatively planning a journey to Geneva, Switzerland sometime next summer (tentatively based upon my May graduation). I'm pretty excited about this trip and I hope to add a detour into Austria to do the Sound of Music tour. Talk about a dream that can really come true.

Back to my spat about paying attention (especially in French class) I find myself wanting to polish up on my French skills. Here I go using Google translator to converse with my cousin, which I encourage by the way, it will only help me brush up on my old French courses. It's definitely a change from learning to earn a grade to learning to communicate with someone you love.

Have you tried to learn a new language for a purpose other than just the challenge? I would love to hear your techniques.

Until next time, keep me in your thoughts. So far 18 hours ain't so bad on this girl, but crazier things have happened.

Bonne nuit,
Allyson