This is what happens when you throw Christmas at cars

House parties

Last Friday I attended a house party. It was a typical house party with tons of interesting features that I will describe to you now because, well, frankly, it was very fascinating.

Upon entering the three story house filled with students the indistinguishable smell of weed and cigarettes wafted towards me. Thinking I could possibly get high off the smell alone I was concerned what would await me on the next floor as we know smoke travels up. It was indeed very smokey and very very illicit drugy.

I had a drink and went to the balcony with a friend where we met a lot of people that were either high off their minds, drunk, or very emotional. It could have been all three at once, I wasn't sure. We ended up talking to a guy who talked to us about family and moving away from home recently. With the history I ave of moving around it proved to be a very interesting and helpful conversation for him as both my friend and I had some experience in moving about and away from home. It was hilarious to find this conversation at a house party.

Later we went back inside to find another interesting experience taking place, people huffing laughing gas. That is the gas used to create whipped cream and someone bought a huge box full, filled it into balloons that they would later huff in and out. Fascinating and somewhat weird. Actually really weird. Very weird.. why would someone huff that stuff? Who came up with that? Hey! I bet I can make my brain whipped cream.... OK.

Eventually, after more talking to people and finding some nice people at this place we decided to go to a club. The house party was nice, relaxing, and other than the obnoxious amount of drugs not too crazy. At the club we danced a little and eventually ended the night by buying delicious french fries that never seemed to end and watching Robot Chicken, an awesome show.

And thus concludes the episode of me attending a British house party.

Unbelievable

Every once in a while there is an issue I learn about in such detail that I am horrified to be a part of the human race. I look around thinking: How could any person ever even think about doing something like this to another? How greedy does someone have to be to put their own well being and wealth over that of the life of a child? How horrible does a person have to be to exploit a child or a woman or a man to such an extent that it leaves them physically and psychologically scarred beyond recognition? How horrible are the people that do this? And how could there possibly be so many? Oh, there can be.

Human Trafficking in particular is a crime I just can't wrap my head around. With an annual profit of $32 Billion, this money is made by exploiting innocent men women and children so completely it baffles me. 29.9 million people are trafficked that can mean a variety of things:
-4.5 million people are being sexually exploited, sold to the highest perverted bidder that will do with them what they like, such as beat them, rape them, or whatever else pleases their sick selves.
-14.2 million people are in forced labour which means they are forced to work extreme hours, in extreme conditions, trapped from leaving or voicing out, and with very little or sometimes no pay.
-40% of forced labourers are men while many are children and women as well.
- About 10% of sexually exploited trafficking victims are men, which means the most highly exploited in the sex industry are women and children.
-Shockingly, 5.7 million children are being trafficked for all sorts of reasons, including forced labour, domestic servitude, forced marriage, and sexual exploitation. Others may be trafficked for benefit fraud, theft and crime exploitation, and organ harvesting.

Trafficking in persons is a fundamental violation of any person's human rights and is a major issue in every country, whether it is considered a source country (where victims are recruited), a transit country (a country they travel through), or a destination country (where they stay and work).

According to the Palermo protocol from 2000 anything that involves the following is trafficking and is a horrible thing to do to any human being:
the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of a child or person for the purpose of exploitation of work and money.
This means trafficking includes elements of force, deception, abduction, coersion, violence, abuse of power, vulnerability, and threats.

Victims are often forced into a country where they do not understand the language, they may not even know where they are. They may be locked into a home or a room and become completely isolated from teh outside world, making them very vulnerable. Victims may be exploited by as many as ten people a day for sexual favours which may pay badly but is even worse knowing that the money will go directly to the traffickers who are collecting a supposed debt owed to them. Many victims are debt bonded to the traffickers, meaning they will always have to pay them back for something (privilege of having been smuggled to a new country etc.). Victims may work 12 hours a day only to be forced to work somewhere else for several more hours with as little as one meal a day and perhaps two hours of sleep. If victims attempt to run away they may be beaten, killed, or forced to watch as another is killed because of them. Can you imagine living in such conditions?

How on earth could anyone do such a thing?!?! I just don't understand and I never ever will.

Lessons so far

There are so many things I have already learned so far even though all I have had is three lectures in research and three days of human trafficking lectures. Yet the substance of human trafficking is immense and fascinating. I'll cover that another time because after 9 hours of that today I feel a little too down to have to continue thinking about it. So, another thing I learned: People are really self centred!

I know people have a lot to tell. Especially when meeting new friends, it seems the stories never run out. But a trend I have been observing actively is that many people, here where I am in particular, are very full of information that only concerns themselves. For instance, when one person talks about hair and how they have trouble with getting their graduation hat on, suddenly everyone has a story.
While that is good and all, it seems there are always some people that must re-mention their stories and tell the point three four times in order to make sure that everyone knows they have the hardest time with hair. Same is with family. i don't think I talked to any of the people here except maybe two about my family other than vague details. Nor do they know about different segments of my life. However, i know all of theirs, their pet names, best friend's name, siblings location, parents occupation, past sexual history, hobbies and side hobbies and second hobbies and things they once tried. In fact, I know them so well at this point I think I could easily steal their identity.
Yes, that is friendship. You know the other person so well. But somehow nothing is reciprocal here but rather one sided. A topic comes up and BAM all the info is spewed forward so that I am left only asking questions because, frankly, at this point in time I am waiting for them to realize how little they know about me. Like a ninja, I'll hide AND STRIKE WHEN LEAST EXPECTED!

emails.......

In my haste to cut down internet usage I never thought I would have another email thrown at me. Through the university I, of course, cannot receive emails to my private account but must do everything through the account they set up for me. In addition, this account works through the same provider as my private email which means I can never check them both at once but must log out one to check the other.
 Then come my obligations to Facebook and Blogs. After that I still have to make sure that our online course guides have not been updated or information has been put in the forums. All of this together means I spend more time online than I want to.
I have tried cutting down, but seriously, who knew it would be so difficult? I hate coming home and having to respond to like ten emails all professionally and officially. It's going to be horrible when I have a job..... SO MUCH RESPONSIBILITY!!! ARGH!

Oh Saturday....

It would seem to be an interesting Saturday. But, in fact, the last three days looked pretty similar. Get up laaaaaate, eat brunch, go to gym for class, work on assignment for hours, watch The Office for hours. Then go to sleep, late. It's been like this for three days... so exciting...

Things I wish I knew at all times

1. Don't watch movies and think of things as they are in reality, it will ruin it. Especially when those movies are Transformers, Harry Potter, or any other sort of sci-fi stuff. 
2. When walking around short furniture don't cut corners. You may only have one little table and chair in the entire room but still somehow the magnet in your little toe is more powerful than your ability to walk around a piece of Ikea furniture.
3. Don't put your coffee next to the computer when playing intense computer games. You don't play them very well and you end up scaring and then pushing the cup over, spilling hot coffee onto the table that slants down towards your lap. The coffee may also somehow leek into your top drawer and spread wonderfully there hiding there until later that day when you need something and it is somehow glued to the wood and slightly soggy. And of course you don't own a towel with which to clean this whole mess up and just end up sweeping it back into the cup with your hand and using the not-very-absorbent dishtowel. Luckily the electronics and papers managed to escape... selfish bastards.
4. Don't even try to set goals for the gym. While you say "I'll sign up for free classes!" what you really mean is "I'll look at a list of free classes and then decide which one I would go to but decide not to because I'm too lazy and would rather watch a movie!"
5. Don't wash spoons in the sink with the water on full power, it will go everywhere but the sink. Magic.
6. Never live in a house with inexperienced cookers and very sensitive smoke detectors. So far there have been 4 fire alarms and a couple of close calls in two weeks because people somehow still don't understand that leaving food in an oven or on the stove for way too long will lead to fire. Also, they will happen when you are in the shower or still asleep. Because f-you, that's why. 
7. Clearly not all English is English you can understand. "Hi, where are you from?" Smile and nod during every conversation from there-on out. 
8. "I'll just browse" is never true in a secondhand bookstore. Also, I'll only buy two is a huge bloody lie.
9. Trying to give up sugary stuff on a diet will only lead to anger and frustration. It's been one day and I'm about to rip someone's head off.
10. New creations in the kitchen seem a good idea at the time but they almost always disappoint. Yum! Potatoes and cereal and salt and apples because I don't have anything else in the fridge!
11. "I'm going to read more!" uh-huh... computer games it is. "I don't have class all week, perfect to go somewhere new and read!" vs. "holy crap, it's three in the morning and I'm still in the ruined temple!"
12. There is no such thing as a good time for high heels. Especially when that time is during rain on cobblestone streets with only uphill and downhill and a lot of drinking is involved. The only thing missing is lots of drains to get stuck in with your heel- ohh... never mind  she managed to find that too. (This clearly didn't happen to me because if I wore heels in this place I would detect the rain about an hour before everyone else.)