» American Pop Culture

What being an expat has taught me about the US

Deborah — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:00:07 +0000

You can find today’s post at Go Overseas. In it, I answer the question “What has being an expat taught you about America.” Let me know what you think.

I’ve created a Nintendo monster!

Deborah — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:14:30 +0000

After 3 years of begging, we finally gave in and bought our daughter a Nintendo DS. I don’t have anything against video games in general; I just think a 4 year-old has better ways to occupy his/her time. Now that she’s 7 and going into the 3rd grade, I figured we could introduce her to the pastime. Of course she was ecstatic about her new toy and was on her best behavior to earn play time.

The first few times that she was playing Super Mario Bros., my two year-old stood by looking at this strange little contraption that Sissy kept thumbing. Pretty soon he realized that all those thumb movements made the little guy walk, run and jump. In no time, he began saying “Kawol toon” – translation “Kharl’s turn”. I eventually gave into him and let him take a jab. Of course, he didn’t quite grasp how to maneuver like Sissy and basically jumped up and down until his time ran out. I thought it was a small price to pay so that he didn’t feel left out and I told my daughter to let him have a turn periodically.

Fast-forward two months and little bugger has figured out how to play the game – not well – but if you let him at it for a while he can actually make it through some levels. The worst is, the minute he wakes up or I walk in the door I get “Mommy, peez geme” – translation “Mommy, please game”. My mother has declared him an addict, but I’m still in denial. How could a two year-old like this inanimate object so much? I get that it’s pretty neat to have control over this little man on the screen, especially at an age where running in a straight line is impossible, but doesn’t it get old?

Now that I’ve paved my road to hell, I don’t know what to do rectify the problem. If I don’t bring out the game at all (I’ve done that for a week), my daughter is inadvertently punished. I’ve tried to have her play in her room with the door shut, but it doesn’t take long for Sherlock, Jr. to track her down. I’m not giving up though. We may have lost this battle, but…

Sex and the City 2 – What the hell was that?

Deborah — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:20:17 +0000

I know this is a departure from my usual topics, but yes, I am one of the many pitiful SATC followers who actually spent money to see the second film – not even Spanish subtitles were enough to deter me. Before I tell you why this was waste of 146 minutes of my life, I want to note that I have always had issues with the series; however, the writing and the fashion always kept me interested.

Let’s start by getting what has always been wrong with the series out of the way:

Lack of diversity among the characters
Unhealthy portrayal of romantic relationships (Carrie and Big, Carrie and Aidan, Samantha and Tom, Dick and Harry…)
Sometimes unrealistic portrayal of friendships

But let’s face it, all the above makes good TV.

With the exception of a couple episodes, I really liked the witty banter amongst the characters and the excitement they brought out about living in NY. Like many, I felt as though it ended prematurely and was salivating by the time the first movie was released. I have since seen it several times and thought it was nice to get a little more depth from each of the ladies.

Enter the announcement of the sequel. I was apprehensive because I thought that they might be beating a dead horse at this point. But then again, there are so many aspects to relationships I was hoping that they would be able to create some interesting storylines. WRONG!

The story line was basically Carrie getting tired of being married to Big after two years and Charlotte stressed out by her children and they take the show on the road to Abu Dhabi. Other than that, nothing happens. Not only is the plot lacking, the writing is terrible. I laughed maybe 3 times during the two hours (I was get 4 times that during a 30 minute episode). I just don’t know what happened. Aside from the actors, they must have changed all the writers, directors, and producers or downsized because of the economy. No way they same group of people could have created something so awful different.

The upside (because there always is one) to this experience was I found out that the movie theatre offers a 50% ticket discount on Mondays. So, I only paid 12.50 BsF instead of 25 BsF. Nothing to do with the movie, but at this point I’ll take what I can get.

Photo courtesy of Aceshowbiz

I confess!

Deborah — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 04:25:34 +0000

I have been watching American TV (and bad TV) on my computer.

I told myself before coming here that I was going to go cold turkey on all my secret obsessions with reality TV. This was so I could focus on immersing myself in Venezuelan culture and I can spend my free time doing more productive things. Well, I think being productive can sometimes be overrated – especially when Jersey Shore and Real Housewives of Orange County are on the line!

The worst part about this indulgence is the trouble that I had to go through in order to view these shows. I found out during my visit in October (that’s how bad the addiction is) that you cannot access most US channels or services streaming American TV (i.e. hulu.com) from abroad. That’s part of the reason I had made that whole “being productive” statement.

When I got here in December, I stumbled upon a site that listed various free VPN services that would allow me to use these websites. I should have ran when I read it was free. This one program I installed which shall remain nameless (Hotspot Shield), hijacked my computer and eventually caused the blue screen of death. I uninstalled the devil and then went a couple days sans TV.

Unfortunately, I fell off the wagon a couple days ago and found this great, easy to use, and reasonably priced VPN service online (no software required). Now, all systems are a go and I got to see Vicki renew her vows with Don and learn about the Situation’s daily ritual of gym-tanning-laundry.