thefreespiritedforeigner.com

After years of questioning my own pride in my country, I had finally become proud to be from the U. S., proud to be a representative of my country and what my country can really be. I am appalled by the recent actions that have taken place and by the hateful people being considered as leaders. To those of you who are not here in the U. S. to witness the fear, the unrest, the anxiety that all of this is causing: Know that we don’t want this. Our government DOES NOT represent us, thanks to an outdated, unchanging voting system and widespread ignorance.

While Stockholm’s many islands and many extremes make it complicated, Södermalm feels simple. When I looked up the best music venues in this city, I found them all here in Södermalm (Debaser’s 3 locations & Sodra Teatern). This glorious wine bar closes for the summer (pity) but the real reason to show up here is the near 360 degree views of Stockholm that you get from the bar/restaurant on the top floor. Although you aren’t permitted to drink publicly everywhere in Stockholm, this seems to be an okay spot (if you’re over 20 and are in a place the local government is cool with)!

While I appreciate and understand why so much is under construction, and especially in the summer, I kind of want to tell this girl to exhale and learn to love herself a little bit more. However, that rate declined decade after decade as time went on.[2] In 2011, 1378 suicide deaths occurred, which equates to a rate of 17.5 per 100,000 people. In 2011, 962 male deaths occurred versus 416 female deaths.[4] According to a 2011 article in The New York Times, “Numerous studies have shown that places like Denmark and Sweden that consistently score high on measures of happiness and life satisfaction also have relatively high suicide rates. I can feel myself get a little more lethargic, anti-social, and lazy when the sun sets at 4 p.m. (16:00) in our New York winters, which are extremely mild by comparison!

It’s not a terrible assumption based on our track record: American flags everywhere, college boys drunkenly chanting U-S-A in bars or college towns, our interest in only our own news, movies, and language, and a fierce positivity when it comes to talking about our own country, or as some like to call it, ‘Merica. This film, Irish Pride, shows results of the open and the willing Irish people who I asked to share their perspective with me, unrehearsed, on the spot, and often in the street. The feeling I got was that they know others like their country, they know it’s beautiful, that the people are friendly. Even some of those who didn’t want to participate were quick to tell me that they were proud, they just “didn’t look good on camera” or “didn’t want to get involved.