becoming American

The past ten days of my life were dedicated to different family activities. A big group of Swedish “tourists” just left our apartment after one gorgeous week of golf in Florida.

Of course everybody went to Sawgrass Mall, which the second biggest mall in the US, where you can find merchandise of all imaginable brand names for 1/3 of the price in Europe.

It was really fun to in the Sawgrass Mall this week because everywhere you could hear Swedish. Swedish everywhere. Swedish people love to spend the fall vacation in warm countries, especially when you can combine shopping with sun.

What are the odds of this situation?:
A Swedish couple came all the way from Malmoe, Sweden to Florida in order to renew their wardrobes in the Sawgrass Mall, and they ran into their neighbors from same street from Malmoe. Unbelievable!

Becoming American.

Today’s story of horror,namely visiting a hairdresser, is something that usually gives a lot of pleasure to all everyone.

I had never had my hair done in US.  When I asked my friends about the price, they told me that it is really expensive, around $165.

I couldn’t continue with my hair undone, so I decided to investigate the market and see whether I could find a cheaper option.

A friend of mine, recommended that I drive to the Alve Institution, which is a school for becoming a hairdresser. You can have your hair done in the presence of a supervisor (who is supposed to help when a problem occurs) and get an affordable price.

"You get what you pay for," Does it sound familiar?

It all started with a hairdresser student, a guy who was recommended by my friend, and I was supposed to go to him, but he did not show up. After waiting thirty minutes, a supervisor sent me to another one. When I looked at her, I immediately felt immediately felt that something would go wrong. My intuition was telling me: "Take your handbag and get out of here”. But you want to be so Swedish and "polite," thus I stayed.

Since I wanted to do highlights, the girl started with partially applying bleach on my hair.  After an hour with bleach on my hair, she had not  even finished 1/5 of my hair. (I have to assure you, that God didn’t bless me with abundance of hair.) I was so worried , that I almost felt panic, and I implored her to check what was going on with bleaching part. I don’t want to dwell on all the problems, but I have to say that my only wish was to get out of there and keep what remained of my hair.

After five hours my hair was done and I was so tired that I even forgot to give a tip to the girl, which is a must here in US. Poor girl and poor me!

And now I am mostly concerned about  my tendency to forget to tip, since in Europe you normally do not tip for such kinds of services, at least it is not mandatory. However, I am starting to feel bad when I simply forget to add a tip.  That said, the next worry was that I became saturated by the American way of living so soon.

Envy.

According to Christian teaching, all men have a tendency toward seven sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, anger, envy, and pride. As for me, and according to my life experience and many years of observation, I believe that the most insidious sin is envy. If we ponder this subject and critically look at our own lives, we discover that maybe somewhere and somehow we had been victims of people’s ill-natured actions, which were rendered by human envy.


Envy, a hideous, ugly, abominable and cruel trait, can be a reason for imperceptible bad changes in the hearts of our friends. People affected by this disease are completely unaware of it, go trough psychological changes, and alter their behavior towards their friends, colleagues, and family. Everything that you have built in your relationship with this person might disappear just in seconds.

Her Majesty Envy destroys everything: friendship, faith, loyalty, and most importantly, the human heart. Envy is as an insidious poison that ploughs through one’s veins and slowly destroys a human soul. There is an expression "white envy," when a person is ingenuously glad for the success of his acquaintances, friends, or just people around him. What makes me sad is that boundary between “white envy” and “black envy” is so nebulous and vague that people don’t notice when they accidentally slip over to the other side. Unfortunately the "gray" zone, in this case, does not exist.

It wouldn’t be fair from my side to be discussing this topic and not admitting that maybe, more than once, I have also been affected by this plague. You know, somebody has a better car, a bigger house or simply whiter teeth ... (there are always a million reasons to be found!). But in the end, I realized that there are always people in our immense world who somewhere, somehow are better situated. Wasting your time, your energy, and strength on a painful and useless desire to be better than others is just demeaning and destructive; moreover, envy destroys and tears down heart and soul. We are all just merely human with our greatnesses and weaknesses.

It’s human to make a mistake, but to forget it is divine. Our life would be much better off if we all would eradicate this wickedness, and find rejoicing and appeasement in our own lives! I am sure that every human has a rich and prosperous life in some perspectives. Enjoy and cherish every minute given to us by omnipotent God. Be not afraid of showing gladness for your friends or neighbors sake, and your generosity will be rewarded more than once!

Every arrival of "spring" inevitably will be followed by "autumn".

The perception of my own existence provokes an indisputable feeling of indescribable excitement and curiosity of my affiliation and communion to our world.

Who am I and what is my mission? All these questions are as old as our planet and answers on this mystery would be never found.

How frightening often I change my ideas and notions; how surprisingly easy, I find myself in contradictable utmost of interpretation of my life: from the prodigious sense of purpose to the commonness apathy.

I feel that sometimes my mind like a fading life tree, which is losing its dried leaves which are slowly spinning down in their valse of agony and the frightening sense of indifference, fogged my intellect.

My mind is longing for just a few drops of magic elixir that usually appears from nowhere but them it’s enough to revive my hunger for existence and to nourish my brain with intoxicated divine sweetness of the aspiring to life.

Oh, how much I love this feeling, I enjoy every moment of this state. Each little square of my body vibrates, aggravates and brings a new burst of energy. Sense of spring, with the intoxicating scent of happiness, emerges in front my eyes and envelops my kingdom of mind; bringing boundless joy mixed with little melancholy, by knowing that every arrival of "spring" inevitably will be followed by "autumn".

I am so grateful for the opportunity which offered me by my life to meet such a great teacher that never knew so far in my life. A man who is really dedicated, he is accountable and pushing you to your utmost, trying to achieve a result. He managed to lead quiet a big group of students with such envy determination, that I start to question myself whether I preformed adequately in my life.
I wish I could meet such giving person before and not wasted my time with the people who just suck from me whatever they could.

The sweet tiredness.

I have started all my courses and you have probably noticed it, because my notes have become fewest. I like everything what I learn, though many of my courses were canceled and I was forced to take the new once. I am attending my classes every day and really enjoying the environment in my college. The pronunciation class is more challenging than anything else. Our teacher is so determined and accountable that sometimes I feel like I almost broke my tongue after all his twist-tongue exercises. I am tired every day, but it is a different kind of tiredness, filled with satisfaction and sweetness.