Yesterday was Kailena’s (my host sister) 17th birthday! We went to Olive Garden and had dinner. It was nice, we had fun 🙂

Today was such a fun day! I had a photography class in the morning and we took pictures of the school. I figured I could put them on here to show you what my school looks like. Unfortunately, I left my camera and my phone in my friend Peyton’s car, so that will have to wait until the weekend! 🙂

In my CWP class, we are currently talking about education and raising children.  The teacher asked how many people got spanked as a kid when they did something wrong. EVERYONE but me raised their hands… I was the only one in that room of 30 people that hadn’t been punished like that as a kid. I couldn’t believe what I saw. How awful is that?! How can it be okay (or even legal) to hurt your children? At first i was surprised… But then I got very angry! I caught myself tearing up because I was so mad and disappointed. We’re human beings!! We should know better! I am still upset. The teacher called on me and asked if he could ask me a hard question, and of course I said yes. He asked “are you planning on spanking your children?”. I couldn’t believe it. I just gave him a big NO! I almost started laughing at the question. I was thinking “did he seriously just ask me if I’m gonna hurt my kid’s? This must be a joke”. But then I realized that that’s a thing here. Parents do that! He asked me “But, how are you gonna teach them what’s right and wrong? How are you gonna punish them then?” I got really upset and said: “Well, I turned out fine, didn’t I?”. The class started laughing and said I was adorable. My teacher said “Whatever your parents did, they did a great job!”. So that was a good ending to a tragic subject though. He complimented how my parents raised me, and agreed that I DID turn out fine without spanking. I definitely DON’T think spanking, hurting, or even punishing your children is going to help. That will only make your children scared of you. And as a parent, do you want that? Do you want your kid’s to be afraid of you? Or do you want them to trust you, and feel loved? So whoever’s reading this: I can’t change how you want to  raise your children, but love will take you and your children further than pain ever will!

I respect cultural differences! I really do. I never think that Americans do things wrong just because they don’t do the same as Swedes. I accept it. But I will NEVER be okay with a human being hurting another human being. That will always be wrong to me.

Okaaay, that was long. Sorry, I just needed to write about it so I could get it out of my head… MORP (a school dance) was tonight, but once again, my camera is in Peyton’s car so I’ll upload a post on that tomorrow! It is now midnight and I have a track meet in the morning, so I should probably go to bed haha! I’m a varsity long-jumper and tomorrow is an important meet… GOOD NIGHT!