Is life a child's play? A girl's talk

Two 15 year old girls sitting at one table. Binah is from Africa and Lucy from America. They meet each other the very first time and have a conversation.

Binah: You have such a good life. You can go to school and learn. And after school you can work, you can earn your own money.
Lucy: Yes, but we have to get up early in the morning. And believe me, school isn’t a walk in the park. You have to learn a lot, people expect too much knowledge these days.
Binah: But it’s great to know so many things.
Lucy: When you need it in your life, sure it’s a good thing. But most things we learn at school is not useful. I mean why do I have to know what happened hundreds of years ago?
Binah: You know something about your ancestors, what they did is part of why your country is what it is, acts like it does in some situations, and have its laws to protect its people. I’d be happy if I would have the chance to know something about my past, that of my family or country. Why haven’t we developed like you Americans? Why are we still so poor?
Lucy: We aren’t rich either. I mean, when I switch on the TV I see these glamorous high school girls, wearing Gucci or Prada or whatever. I can’t afford these things. And I guess I won’t get a car for my 16th birthday.
Binah: Why do you need a car, or these Gucci or Prada, whatever this is? You have food. You can go and buy something to eat and drink, as much and whenever you like. And you have a safe home, you have your own bed.
Lucy: Yes, but that’s normal. Rich are people who live in villas, having a pool, a big park, lots of cars. What you see when you watch TV. Everyone wants to go to Hollywood and have that beautiful life.
Binah: I’ve never heard of Hollywood. And I don’t even have a TV.
Lucy: So you sit on your computer? Or chat with your friends using your smartphone?
Binah: My what? I have none of these things. I wish I’d have a computer to chat with people all over the world, but I can’t.
Lucy: Seriously? But what do you do the whole day?
Binah: I take care of my younger brothers and sisters, I help my mom to clean the house, to cook. I help farming fruits and vegetables. I am working the whole day. I can only eat what we harvest. We try to sell some of them, but it’s not very much.

I’ll stop here and let you think about how the conversation could go on. What do you think, when is a person rich? What makes a person rich? I think we mostly don’t recognize what we have because we think it’s normal. I don’t think that we have to go to Africa to meet someone who have less than we have. When I first watched the sitcom ‘2 Broke Girls’ it lets me realize how fast we can be broke. In one city, like New York, do not only live people like Carrie Bradshaw. There are also people like Max Black. When she was the first time in Caroline’s former room, even the bath tub was something special, not to mention the turning shoe cabinet. But for Caroline it wasn’t special at all, as she grew up with things like that.

So when is a person actually rich? Does it only depend on money, or can a person with lots of good friends also be rich? I guess sometimes we should more appreciate the things we have instead of complaining about others who have more. No matter if they have more money or more friends. Things could be worse.

Where home is

I have spent some time abroad, on Grand Canary, and I really enjoyed it. That's also the reason why I didn't blog that much within the last few weeks. For me it was the first time I spent on the island. The view from my room was amazing and I wished I could have taken it with me, but unfortunately it didn't fit into my suitcase :(
On the first day someone from the travel agency told us a bit about the Spanish island. I was mostly astonished about the fact that it hasn't rained since May last year. Where I live it's normal that it rains almost every week (not now, because I have at least taken the heat with me).

the view from my hotel room - could be worse, right? -kidding ;)

Every day was warm, and even it was sometimes a bit cloudy, it never rained and though it was windy at the beach, it had never been cold. The temperature was constantly about 85 degrees - so I was totally happy because I love it when it's warm and sunny like that. My family and I rented a car and explored the isle. We saw some harbors, cities, and lots of mountains. It was really impressive, and we also met lots of friendly people. I am not that person who finds it easily to just go to someone I've never met before and have a chat, but the few I spoke with, were very kind. Of course we spent a day at the beach, too. Not that many because I am very pale, and when there was one thing I didn't want to bring home was a sunburn. Luckily I didn't ;).

no it's not Egypt - it's Grand Canary - just a big sand box ;)

But for some reason, as much as I always look forward spending some time abroad, to sit on a plane (though I don't understand why so many people applaud after landing - I mean no one claps his/her hands after I've done my work well), and fly far away from home, I am also always happy when I am back home again. Mostly I'm already happy when we drive through the city I was born. But this time, it was the first that I felt nothing. When we sat on the bus back to the airport, it just felt for me like we're making another trip. And now, that I am home again, I felt like I haven't been abroad - though I have all the memories about what we did, what we saw.

like taken from a movie - the mountains of Grand Canary

Do you know what I mean? Maybe it was because it was only a week, maybe because it was the first time after 4 years that I saw a beach and palm trees again. Maybe I felt that it wasn't time to go back home. Can this be possible? Or that I feel that the place I was born is no longer my home? Can this change? I still live with my parents, and I wanna have my own place, but as I don't earn any money right now - but start to look for some writing jobs to get at least a bit money - I simply can't move. When I have finished my basic studies I hope I can do my internship semester somewhere within the US. I hope that I can convince my friend to go next year with me to Los Angeles, visting my relatives and finding out if I really can imagine living there.

Do you still feel at home where you was born or has this changed? Can the definition of home change? Is home always where you come from, or where you feel currently happy?
I guess it's the place where you love to be, spending most of your time, where you have your friends. I think as we all change, our safe place can change, too. I will never forget where I come from, and it could be that I will miss it once when I spent too much time far away. Of course I have my family here, and that will be hard when I can't see them daily anymore, but I guess I have reached a point in my life when I wanna start and live my own life.

The theory about the Big Bang Theory

So many guys all over the world had thought about our origin. Where do we come from? Did this ‘big bang’ actually happen? And what was there before that? Questions over questions. We get more possibilities to figure this out, we already know a lot about this, but still there are so many questions unanswered. It is interesting for many people who want to know more. And so do I.

I mean, if you would be adopted, you once would reach a point in your life, in which you want to know about your real parents, about your origin. You would want to know where you are from, what your parents are like and what happened that they gave you away. So is this for me. I know my parents and my family and I am totally happy with that. But it could be different. We all wanna figure out about where we come from. We wanna know more about the world’s greatest mystery: The big bang.

Maybe there was another universe before our was created. We know that everything is still expanding, back from this big bang force. But it is like an elastic band. You can stretch it but not endlessly. When you stop, it will shrink again, or if you go on stretching, it will reach a point and then rip apart. I think it could be the same with the universe. Maybe when the other force (as we know from physics lessons at school, there are always action and reaction, so always two contrary forces) isn’t strong enough any more, any of these two options could happen - depending on the stronger force.

Maybe before our universe was formed, there was another, which shrank and exploded because of the speed and big force, like again the elastic band. This could cause this big bang, and afterwards it was expanding again and still is. But I am not a physicist, it could be that if someone who is one, is laughing now, but I don’t care. It's just what I think about it, my imagination, what I think based on what I learned so far about it, could be possible.

What do you think about the Big Bang? Have you ever thought about it? Please let me know.

This is a good short explanation of the big bang for those of you who only know a sitcom with a similar name ;) -> http://ask.yahoo.com/20001027.html

BTW: Since this show we probably all know, we do at least know what was there before the (second) Big Bang happened (in 2007): Dharma and Greg. Maybe for solving the next big mystery, we should first ask the two wise guys called Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady ;)