July 29, 2020

The Christianville Spirit: The Truth about Expatriation Rerun


The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Brings Hope
July 29th, 2020-TCS # 698

Hej, Hallo, and Oi, My Readers!  Wow! Another Triple Greeting! Your really on a Roll with This! You would Tell Me! I will explain in a bit but, Let’s do a Background Story of The Reason.
So, Expatriation. It is a Very Interesting Topic to Me. Expatriation is also known to a lot of People as Expatting. Basically, It means that You are a Citizen of a Home Country, be it an American, Englishman, Australian, or Whatever Your Home Country is and then, Moving to Another Country for Whatever Reason (There are Many) that I am going to explain in a Minute. People expat to Another Country for Anywhere from a Year, A Couple Years, and Yes, Some even Expat for a Lifetime. Life is an Adventure to Them. In Fact, Some People don’t just Expat to One Country, Sometimes, It’s Two or Even Three Countries before They Repatriate (or “Repat”) Repatriate, basically means that You come back to Your Home Country. I am told that it is Much Harder to Repat than to Expat. So, Why do People Expat? Many Reasons, Some of Them I list in The Newsletter that I am going to Rerun. I List them as “Needing Some Adventure or Something Different in Life, Learning about Another Culture and Soaking in that Culture, Because You may not be happy with The Way your Home Country is going, Retirement, or Most Commonly, Because Your Spouse (Husband or Wife) getting a New Job Opportunity in a New Country” Additionally, Some People expat to Retire or There are Tired to “The Box Life” of America. So, Question Time! How do I know so much about Expatting?and Why is This Newsletter so Special? Well, for One, I have had Two Friends of Mine, Monica and Heidi expat from The United States. Monica, a Former-Student and Gal-pal of My Mom, expatted to Stockholm, Sweden for 4 Years. She has since Repatriated back to The United States. Heidi, a Friend, I met through Monica (Because They are Walking Buddies in Stockholm), She actually Expatted Twice, Once to France and Second to Stockholm. She actually did both Expatriation and Repatriation twice. The Other Reason I know so much about Expatting is that Every Once and a While, I research People Expatting to Various Countries by Reading some of Their Blogs. Yes, Believe it or not, There are People who have “Expat Blogs” that really give you a sense of Expatting (and, sometimes Repatting) to Other Countries. Typically, I find them via a Site called Expatsblog.com. That Site is basically a Huge Directory of Expat Blogs literally All over The World. Basically, You go to The Site and Click “Expat Blogs” and Select from The List of Countries that have People expatting, Pick a Country, What type of Expat (American or Otherwise), and Happy Reading of Countries! Ones that I found Interesting was The Following, 
  1. A Blog of An Adventurous Couple from Washington DC in Search of Wild Adventure and Something Different than as The Writer refers to as “The Box Life”. They expatted to Thailand. (https://www.tielandtothailand.com/thoughts-before-i-quit-m…/) Their Blog is called “From Tieland to Thailand”
  2. A Blog about Two Formerly-Hard Working People who Expatted from Florida to Yucatan, Mexico. The Writer refers to Himself as “Q-Roo Paul”. (www.qroo.us)
  3. For Something Really Different. A Blog of a Couple from Dallas, Expatting Temporarily to Haiti. If You want a Taste of That, Check It Out.

So, What about The Greeting about? So, I asked a Family Friend as a Challenge (if You will) because She posted something that Her Son did, saying “Make Me Choose because Two Things”. Challenge Accepted! I thought. I asked her if She could Expat to Another Country, What Country would She expat to Europe (like Italy or Sweden) or Stay Closer to Home (Like Mexico or Canada). After She answered The Next Day, I thought about it to Myself. If I were to Expat to Another Country, What Country in Europe or Closer to Home would I go to? Not that I am going to, but in Europe, I would Expat to either Sweden (like Stockholm), Switzerland, or Portugal. All for Different Reasons. 
I Love Sweden! It is a Beautiful Country, Happy and Peaceful Country, and Very Much on Time. Except for The Cold, It would be an Interesting Country to Live in. The Language looks somewhat Easy to understand. 
Switzerland, of Course has Stunning Mountains! Also, You can take a Drive and within an Hour or so, You can be in Another Country or Countries, like Austria or Italia. If You live in Southern Switzerland, of course! 
Portugal, a Beautiful and Romantic Country with a little harder Romance Language (at least compared to Spanish or Italian). 
Portugal would be My Warm go-to Country. I am told Portugal’s Scenery is much like California. With that, I like to refer to it as “European California”. I am told It is Sunny a lot more Days than North in Sweden. Again, I compare The Weather to Los Angeles, Where It is Sunny more often than not. Storms do happen, but not that frequently. They do have more Earthquakes though. 
When Things like Family (Smith Family and PTLS Family Members) come to Mind, I would stay closer to Home. In that Case, I would probably go for Ontario, Canada. I thought of Toronto because It is a Major City with a Major Airport. But, I would not live IN Toronto, Maybe outside of Toronto. Nova Scotia seems like a Pretty Area. Not near a Major International Airport. I picture it to be like Coastal Maine but, A lot more Rain and Cloudiness than Maine Proper. In A My Warm go-to Closer to Home, I would choose Mexico. Go to The Beach a lot more Often but, What about Hurricanes?!
It is all about Perspective, I guess!
Anyway, I am going to Rerun a Newsletter than Explains More than Expatting! It is Very Fascinating! 
So, This Rerun Newsletter is for You and For People interested about Expatting!

This Newsletter was written on February 1st of 2017 (Refer to Newsletter 531)

Guten tag, My Readers! Okay, that is an Actual German Greeting that means Hello. There actually is a Difference between Swiss German and Real German. Swiss German is a dialect of German, German in Switzerland is either Swiss German or “High German”, which is The German from Germany. Anyway, on to This Week’s Newsletter! So, There is something that Fascinates My Geography/Politics/History Mixed Mind. Something that More People than You think Do. A Unique Life to not only Spiced up Your life, but also Open Your Mind about The World. Something known as Ex-patting (Expatriation). Okay, so There are actually Two of that Same Concept, Expatriation and Repatriation, Moving to a Another Country and Coming Back respectively. “That’s Absurd”! “There’s NO Place like America”! “America #1”!, You would hear Americans say if You said You wanted to Expat. Okay, so, Maybe I am exaggerating The American Stereotype, but I will tell you, some Americans think that way. No Offense to Anyone in The Process! Now, I will be Honest, I kind of thought that when My Mom’s Former Student and Gal Pal, Monica was Nuts (Not in an Extreme Patriot Way though!) for Ex-patting to Stockholm, Sweden back then. After Reading The Book that I told you about Last Week Swiss Life: The 30 Things that I wish I’d Known, I kind of Understand a little more about Ex-patting. So, First, about Ex-patting, There could be Several Reasons for Ex-patting to Another Country like Needing Some Adventure or Something Different in Life, Learning about Another Culture and Soaking in that Culture, Because You may not be happy with The Way your Home Country is going, Retirement, or Most Commonly, Because Your Spouse (Husband or Wife) getting a New Job Opportunity in a New Country eventually leading to “Okay, What the Heck, Let’s Do It and See What Happens!”. Respectively, Monica and The Woman in The Book Ex-patted because of Their Husband’s Job. Now, When Monica went to Sweden, They speak much Better English and Their Nation’s Official Language, Swedish as well. Switzerland, on the other hand, has Four Official Languages, German, French, Italian, and Romansh. So that means that Anything and Everything, even Work (Hiring and Firing) works in either of Those Languages and English in there too! The Writer of The Book, Chantal Panozzo explains that The Book that in fact, You could be Hired in English and Fired in German, among Many other Things about Life in a Different Country. One Thing that I picked up that was The Most Important or Notable in Switzerland (Other than The Mountains and Neutrality) is Two Things, One is that The Swiss are Very Clean and Organized, and Two that The Swiss are Very Punctual, like to The Second, kind of Punctual. Sounds like My Kind of Place, right? Very Clean, Organized, and On Time. But, Oh! When I say Clean, I mean like In The Book, Chantal mentions that If You share a Laundry Room with Your Neighbors, They expect You to keep those things Very Clean, like No Lint in The Machine at All! The Organized Segment of The Swiss is Easy though, You walk in to a Store, Say Hallo (Swiss German is Hello), Take a Number, and Make Yourself be Known. The Segment of Being Punctual, No Worries There! Chantal mentions that The Clock Tower gongs every 15 Minutes or so. That and The Swiss Watch REALLY comes in Handy. Everything is always on Time, The Planes, The Trains, The Buses, and The People. I think The Punctuality Thing is common among Northern Europeans, because Swedes are like that too! The Thing that Shocked me The Most was Something I did not think of When It comes to Expats from The US moving to Another Country. Now, For The Record, Expats come from More than just The United States, but This is about an American Ex-patting. So, Whenever Expats live in a Another Country, Their Americans friends usually ask, What They can bring them anytime that they would like to Visit. Most usually say Peanut Butter; Anything that It is only sold in The United States; A Texan would probably say Good Mexican Food (unless You are Ex-patting to Mexico proper, in which case, You are Good!); and, Maybe a Box of Macaroni and Cheese, You never know. Chantal says that She wished for Someone who spoke American English (because They speak mainly German in Switzerland), The Wal-Mart Greeter (Because in Europe, There is No Small Talk; If You ask “What’s Up” to Europeans, They will tell you What’s Up in Detail where as Americans would say “Not Much” or “I’m Fine”), and Just Talk about Nothing (The Weather, Sports, or General Things). It made me wonder, What was going on in Monica’s Head when She ex-patted. Now, would I expat in My Life if I could, Sure Why not, for Maybe 1 or 2 Years, It would be Fun! I told Myself that If I ex-patted anywhere, I would go to Europe because it fascinates Me in Many Ways. I would expat to Stockholm, Sweden, just like Monica. When I went there, I loved it, It was clean too and like I said, They speak Brilliant English, and There is Plenty of Nature Abound! Now, Friends, as I laugh at Myself writing the Following, Don’t listen to Me! I actually did convince a Friend of My Mom and Aunt’s to move from Plano to Austin because as I told This Person, “Austin is a Cool Place!” and Apparently, She listened! So, One thought that again I never thought of, It is Nerve Racking to Expat to Another Country. But, You know what is Scarier than Expatriation? Repatriation! “It’s Home”, “Good ol’ America”! You might think. But, After You have seen The Way the Country You ex-patted to Works, You might have a Hard Time coming back to The United States. Truth be told, I have read Expat Blogs, where People Ex-patted from The United States, Only were going to Expat for maybe Two Years and After being there for Two Years, Don’t want to come back here. In Fact, Some just Expat to a Second Country (and, Yes, even Third Country) once They get tired of The First Country that They ex-patted to. Now, The Biggest Struggle that Chantal mentions is with The Distance between You and Your Family (or Friends) back here in The US. Yes, Facebook Works, Skype Works, and FaceTime Works, but as Chantal says, You can’t use All Five Senses when You talk to A Loved One on Skype. It, in a way, Lacks Connection and Love that You need. Because You should be able to Hug, Touch, and Talk to Your Loved Ones. Unfortunately, That is The Thing about Ex-patting that No One really tells you about, probably because It is Hard to admit or even Say. All in all, If You are Interested in Different Places, Read some Expat Blogs to see if It looks Interesting to You.



Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. The World is smaller than You think. Open Your Mind to Traveling The World. 

July 22, 2020

The Christianville Spirit: PTLS and My Intuition Magnified


The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Brings Hope
July 22nd, 2020-TCS # 697

Listen to Your Intuition, My Readers! Whoa! Quite a Deep Greeting! Well, This Week’s Newsletter is going to be a Deep One! I know that Everyone has an Intuition, but Some People listen to Their Intuition more than Others do.
Us PTLSers are Extremely Intuitive and It is like Someone talking Loudly to You, to get you to pay attention, where Other People It might be more like a Whisper.
 We Listen to Our Intuition because It is so Strong and It is on All the Time! 
So, What is Your Intuition by the way? I think of it as a Gift that comes with PTLS. It is a Gift that comes with PTLS, only It is Magnified! Anyway, For Those of You who might not know about it, Your Intuition is just a feeling in Your Body and Spirit that You feel that Something is not right with The Person or Situation that You are around. You might have sudden Anxiety; You might feel Your Stomach grumbling more than Usual; Heightened Shoulders; Just a Feeling that You can not Explain but, You feel it for some Reason. New Agers and Spiritualists will tell you that It is basically Your Spirit and/or Body (or Both) rejecting The Energy that You are feeling from that Person or Situation. Something is telling you not to go that Particular Way that You are Driving and so on. They (The People I mentioned above) say that That is God’s Angels or More on the Lines of Your Angel Cabinet protecting You from Something that They see or know that You don’t know. Frustrating, Right? Yes, I know not to go down that Dark Ally or Hop in a Car with a Mean Looking Person. But, Those Times when Someone seems (Keyword here Seems) Loving or Caring, really isn’t in Their Spirit. It is Messed Up, I will Tell You that! So, Moral of The Story here is to Listen to Your Intuition, even if You don’t want to. Because More likely than Not, It is Right. and, You may not know what You are getting Yourself into. So, I am going to rerun a Newsletter that Explains Perfectly about Intuition! Enjoy!

This Newsletter was Originally Written on June 17th of 2015 (Refer to Newsletter 454)

Welcome Back, My Readers! I had a Quick Trip this Past Week and I enjoyed Myself, I’m Relaxed, and I’m Ready to Go! One Highlight was that I got to see a Waterspout (a Tornado on Water) hit Land. Only a few Toys went flying but, No Damage! It was Awesome to see! So, on to This Week’s Newsletter! What are we going to talk about This Week? How about something that Most People, until Now, didn’t realize about Their PTLS Child. So, as We all know The Human Body has 5 Senses; Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste, and Hearing. Anyway, There are a few people in The World that have a 6th Sense. I would prefer, however to call it, PTLS Intuition. Now, I know that Everyone has some type of Intuition in the context of knowing what is Right and Wrong, What You should or Should Not do, or Go Left instead of Right and vice versa. Us PTLSers have this, Plus “People Intuition” as well as Knowing things about People before We meet them. An Example, is something My Friend, Deb told me. You See, There is a PTLS Member that I refer to as “My Kristin” (Double Shoutout!). Anyway, “My Kristin” and Her Husband were sitting at Dinner with Diddy. Well, Diddy gets comfort by Kristin rubbing His Back. Well, while Kristin and Randy were talking, they heard Laughing and They turned to find Diddy hanging over the Back side of The Seat, rubbing a Woman’s back very gently, as if He knew (which He probably did) that The Woman sitting behind them needed a little Comforting Back Rub. and, Come On, I am sure that We would all accept a little back rub from a PTLS Child! They are Comforting, after all.
Another Example, was a PTLS Child who was driving with their Family to go visit their Grandma. Well, The Kid knew that for some reason, they needed to go visit her. Keep in Mind, that Said Parents did not tell the Child that something wasn’t right with Grandma and in the middle of The Way going to Grandma’s House, The PTLS Child said “Bye Grandma” and Then, They got the Call that “Grandma” has passed away, They were shocked that the PTLS Child knew before them. As for Me, I have a Good Sense about People, whether They need a Hug or Some Love and Attention. If My Mom or My Brother is feeling Sad, I can sense it and sometimes even just a “How was Your Day?” greeting will help them. Other Times, I give them Pep Talks and Hugs. In The Case of My Friend, Deb, I sensed things about Her before she even knew me or Rather before I knew her. I have helped her with Many Things, just being around Her, and Talking to Her. When I sense things about People, I tend to want to Help them or Gravitate to them, to Comfort them in My Own Version of How Diddy helped The Woman sitting Behind Kristin and Randy at a Restaurant. Let Me be Clear, We PTLSers move away from those who we sense are Angry or Mean. But, We will comfort those are Sad. It makes me wonder about My Own Life and Senses, as I mention a lot, I am looking for the Woman of My Dreams, Bridgett Lafleur. So, How do I know that it is Bridgett Lafleur that is Her? It makes me Wonder now, why the Name Bridgett? I mean, I “Purely” came up with Her Name and All Details associated, right. But, I wonder if Her Name could be Lauren; Celeste; Another Name, My Friend, PTLS Family Member, Kathy, tells me her name is Indi and She lives in Australia. But, Anyway, I am firmly believing that Her Name is Bridgett and She lives in Georgia, again It must be that PTLS Intuition. My Friends have always wondered why I would rather watch a Romantic Comedy over an Action Movie or Horror Movie, probably because of That Intuition, I can’t handle People (or Animals) in Distress because I feel the need to help them, if I can’t, then I feel helpless and It makes me Upset and Anxious for Them. Hum.. the Meaning of Life type of stuff, I am just realizing. Funny how that happens. Maybe it is My Friend’s Mom’s Life Energy (I refer to her as “Ma” or “Deb’s Ma”) getting in My Head again. I should mention that too, I communicate with God, The Universe, and as Theresa Cuputo from Long Island Medium says, “Spirit” (My Intuition) Very Well. A lot of The Things that I put into The Universe, like Carol Holiday (“My Dream Girl”) turned out to be Real (Refer to My Newsletters about that). So, I guess You can blame it all on The PTLS Intuition. So, If Your Child reaches out to hold a Hand, Rub Someone’s Back, or Give a Hug, They are doing it because They sense that They are Sad or Unhappy, and They needed it. So, I guess it leads me to say, Thank You God for Potocki-Lupski Syndrome! It may or may not be Easy, and Sometimes it is Not, but I would Never Give it up! All in all, It all depends on How You see things but, My View is Great!



Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Intuition is Important to Pay attention to, A Hug from a PTLSer is given for a Reason.

July 15, 2020

The Christianville Spirit: My Fascination with Europe II




The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Brings Hope
July 15th, 2020-TCS # 696

Hæ, Ahoj, and Cześć, My Readers! Wow! Another Triple Greetings for Three Very Different Countries with Three Very Unique and Challenging Languages! The First is Icelandic for “Hey” (Pronounced like It Sounds). The Second is more Challenging than Iceland. It is The Czech Republic (or Czechia in English). The Greeting is Czech for Hello. Although, Even It is said, You may sound like a Pirate. Finally, A Very Challenging-Appearing Greeting. It is actually means Hello in Polish! Now, Contrary to what looks hard to say, It is pronounced “Chest” like the Chest Part of Your Body or in other words, the part of your body that covers Your Heart. These Greetings are One of Many Reasons why The Continent of Europe is Fascinating to Me. Think of This as Part 2 of My Fascination with Europe  Newsletter, Which I am going to Rerun in a Little Bit Here! So, as Briefly Mentioned in Last Week’s Newsletter about “Local Letters” or “Alien Letters” as I call them; That is another Reason Europe fascinates me! With Such a Dense Continent and So Many Languages with Each comes “Local Letters with some “Alien Letters”. In Other Words, Letters that are Only Used in That Language. Like 
The Swedish A (Å), 
The Czech R (Ř), 
The Icelandic O (ð), 
Icelandic Capitol (Ð) 
and, For Added Measure The Polish Letter L known as “The Stroke” (Ł and ł, Upper and Lower Cases). That is A lot of “Alien Letters”! Actually, There was Countries like Poland or Slovakia that have over 26 Letters. Slovakia, according to Recent Research has 46 Letters! Yes, You read that correctly! 46 Letters! and Poland, In Case You are wondering have 32 Letters! I know that Slovaks and Poles consider that Normal but, I can not imagine learning 46 Letters in Slovakia (SK) or 32 Letters in Poland (PL) as a Child. Imagine Expatting There and Learning all that! Meaning No Offense to anyone in The Process here! That is Enough to blow My Mind of Fascination! Of Course, I mentioned The Following before
The Czech Republic (Czechia, as it is now referred to in English) is Quite an Interesting Country and Language. Czech is most definitely not an Easy Language but, An Interesting One. I have been Very Fascinated lately with The Czech Republic as well as It’s Language. So Many “Funky” Letters in their Alphabet! The One that is The Most “Funky” and Unique Letter in The Czech Alphabet is The Letter R with a Mark over It. To Me, It looks like The Letter R with a Small V over it. Anyway, It looks like This (Ř) It is said that It is Impossible to Pronounce but, It is Pronounced “Aerch” and That is in The Single Form and The Ř is Pronounced Very Differently from The Single. Now, Let’s Bear in Mind that Czech People will tell you that takes a Long Time to Learn that Letter. So, The Final  Reason before I rerun The Original “My Fascination with Europe” Newsletter. So, I found out about Two Weeks ago that Google Street View is Finally Online in The Country of Austria (A)! Street View was Ready to go a Couple Years ago but, The Privacy Law organization of Austria said No. both Germany and Austria both have Strict Privacy Laws but, I digress. They finally agreed to Allow Street View in The Country with One Condition, an Asterisk*. The Privacy Commission has to Review Each Picture. Several Years Later, It is Done and Street View is Alive in All of Austria! So, I took the Opportunity and Cyber-drove across Austria, in including The Most Beautiful Region of Austria, The Tyrol Region. Now, a Bit of Asterisk* Situation here! Not all of The “Tyrol Region” is in Austria. As of Today, Anyway. You See, The “Tyrol Region” was founded in Austria and Even at One Point extended into What is now Italia (I). It is seen in a Unique Way. I call it The “Language Anomaly” because, at Least in The Italian Tirol Region, Due to Historical Aspect of It, They speak Two Languages. German (from Historical Tyrol) and Italian (Home Language). That sort of Makes sense until You consider The Town names. Seriously, They have Road Signs in Both German and Italian in The Tirol Region. So, There is Two Names is roughly The Same City. For Example, Brenner (A) / Brennero (I). Signs say “Brenner (I) when leaving Innsbruck and When You come into Italia (Italy), They say Brenner/Brennero. Coming from Italia, The Signs say both. Finally, The Southern Most City of The Tirol Region is The City of Bolzano but, In German, It is known as Bozen. the (A) Next to Bozen in This Context, The German Version of It. But, It is known as Bozen (A) / Bolzano (I). Anyway, I hope You enjoyed This History and Geography Lesson! Now, It is Time for The Original! Enjoy The Fascination!

This Newsletter was Originally written on July 13th of 2016 (Refer to Newsletter 504)

Hej, Ciao, and Bonjour, My Readers. I am saying Hello to You in Three of My Favorite Languages; Swedish, Italian, and French. Funny, My Mom’s Side of The Family is both German and Italian. Personally, I like the Italian Side, The Food and Music side of them. But, Of Course, Who wouldn’t like Italian Food! If You didn’t, an Angry Grandmother would be after You. You-a No Like-a My Food?! Anyway, on to This Week’s Newsletter. So, In My Newsletters in The Past, I have mentioned about wanting to Expat to Europe, My Fascination about Europe, All about Europe. So, I am sure that Most of You are wondering Why exactly. Well, There are quite a Few Reasons Why. So, Let Me Explain. Now, I have to say, bearing in Mind, that to some people This is a One of those Oh-So-Sensitive Political Situations, But, I am going to make this more about The Fascination and Passion for This Part of The World. So, Here We Go! The First Reason is something that for Most of The World is most likely The Craziest Idea but If You see a Map of Europe, You would understand why. It is something called Schengen. As In The Schengen Agreement. What is that? Well, It is basically an Agreement named after a Town called Schengen in Luxembourg that is literally a stones throw from France and Germany. That is All! Just Kidding! There is much more! The Best Thing (or Worst thing to some people) is the fact that You can Freely Travel between Countries (in Europe, They refer to them as “Members States”) without having to Stop at The Border Crossing and Have Your Passport Ready. You just drive across The Border and Continue on, that is as long You follow the Rules in Imports and Exports. Now, The Police of The “Member State”, will check Your Passport at Your Hotel or Other Business. That is only so “Member States” can make sure that You are following The Rules. Now, The Best Part of Schengen (“Freedom of Movement”, Europeans say) is that You can Live in One Country and Work in another. For Example, You could live in France and Work in Italy and Vice Versa. Schengen covers Most Countries across Europe with the Exception of a Few. Now, There is an Option that You can Opt-Out of Schengen. Countries like The United Kingdom opted-out of Schengen but, Oddly, They have their own “Freedom of Movement” Condition in Their Area. One of My Favorite Youtubers, CGP Grey (Who explains Europe very well!) claims that because The UK is part of The British Isles and They are an Island, that they should not do Schengen. That is Okay though. So, The Next Reason, It ties together with The Schengen Agreement, in fact It kinda led to The Schengen Agreement. After World War II, Europe was torn a part and Europe needed to a way to come together via something that was then The European Community, now known as The European Union. So, Just so We are Clear, some “Member States” are not part of The European Union but, are part of the “Schengen Area” like Norway and Iceland. The People of The European Union came up with the Name, “Member States”. To Explain how Schengen and The European Union (or EU) work, is that it is like The “Member States” are sort of like Their Own US State, only with Different Flags, Road Signs, Country Sign, and Language. Basically, Crossing International Lines in Europe, to an American is like Crossing a State Line only with The Things I mentioned above, hence the Term “Member State”. When You do cross a Border, You see a Sign that has The Country’s Name in It’s Own Language usually with The European Union’s Blue Flag with a Circle of Stars instead of a “Welcome to “Member State” like The US. For My Favorite “Member States”, You would see Italia for Italy, France for France, and Sverige for Sweden. By The Way, I have Many More Favorite (actually, Favourite) “Members States” but, those are a Few Examples. After You see “Welcome” Sign, Then You see the Speed Limits Sign (A Speed for Inside “Urban Areas”, Outside “Urban Area”, and Motorways) usually The Speed of Motorways is about 120 to 130 Kilometers an Hour. (That is except for Germany’s Motorways or “Autobahn”) 
Now, The Whole Thing that I mentioned about Flags, Road Signs, Country Sign, and Language is a Fascination of it’s Own. It is Amazing how You can drive across Europe and See/Read Signs that are in Different Languages. Each Member State has it’s own Road Signs in Different Fonts AND Languages. Talk about a Road Geeks Dream, right there! Each Country has a Different Flag on top of that, and It’s own Country Sign to make it easier for Europeans to know what Country is What and By The Way, Some of the “Country Signs” are confusing. So, One Time I was googling pictures of Road Signs around The World, when I came across a Sign that had “Country Signs” and Capitol Cities of those Countries. As I explained one time about How Close Bratislava, Slovakia and Vienna, Austria are. I found a Road Sign Pointing to Those Cities and More. I will post The Picture of Them on My Newsletter.
 
One Sign going Strait says
 E-59 (called European Routes) to:
 “Wien” (Vienna, the Capitol of Austria)

Then, on The Right side You have 
E-60 West to Linz/St.Pollen with D
D means Deutschland (Germany), 
and 
E-60 East says: 
CZ (Czech Republic),
 SK (Slovakia), and 
H (Hungary). 

Further down, E-59, You will see a Sign that
 says The Following: 
“Wien-Centrum” (Vienna City Center), 
Prague-CZ (Capitol of Czech Republic), 
Bratislava-SK (Capitol of Slovakia), and 
Budapest-H (Capitol of Hungary)

Another Sign I saw and Took a Screenshot of a Sign with Wien and E-60 with  The Country Signs of 
H (Hungary), 
SK (Slovakia), 
SLO (Slovenia)
and 
The easiest one, I (Italia).
 So, While We are talking about Roads, Europe has an Interstate-like System called The E-Road System. I found out yesterday that They are called European Routes. Think of it was an Interstate, only an Inter-Member State. Hehe, Get It? Anyway, These European Routes (or E-Roads) take you across Europe from One Member State (or Country) to Another. I could tell you how to get from Malmö to Milano, Italia. E-20 to E-45, E-45 to E-43, and E-43 to E-35 respectively. I could tell you what Member States too! 
Danmark (Denmark), 
Deutschland (Germany), 
Öesterreich (Austria), 
Suisse (Switzerland), 
and Italia (Italy)
again respectfully. I will tell My Mom that and Her Head would Explode. Like What to Where?! And, Finally, The Final Fascination, You can literally drive on a Train to go from France to The United Kingdom or Vice Versa. So, The Fact that You can do that is just beyond Crazy! It is much shorter, I am told to drive onto the “Eurotunnel” versus going on The Ferry. Just remember, as They say to Drive on The Left in The UK and Right in France. In Case, You are wondering The UK and Ireland are The Only Ones in Europe  who drive on The Left. All in all, Europe is a Very Fascinating Part of The World and I really want to see it’s Fascinations before They are all gone. I am thinking that I might have to start a Go Fund Me account to help me do this!


Thanks (Takk and Grazie) for reading The Christianville Spirit. Oh! The Places You can see in The World!

July 8, 2020

The Christianville Spirit: Judgement v. Risk


The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Brings Hope
July 8th, 2020-TCS # 695

Halló, My Readers! This, Believe it or not is a New Greeting that I have not used before. It means Hello in Icelandic. Yes, My Readers! Icelandic, “The Land of Fire and Ice” as They call it. Of Course, The Land with Letters like Ð and  ð. Not to Mention These Letters Þ þ. It basically looks like The Letters I and P had a Baby. Of Course, The Alien Letter of Iceland (We have talked about Alien Letters before, Refer to “Fun in Learning Geography” Newsletter) is ð. It basically looks like an O with Airplane, to describe it to Someone for Them to Remember. Sort of like What helps me know The Swedish A (Å). The Icelandic O makes The Czech R (Ř) look like a Walk in The Park! Then again, I could be Wrong. By the Way, One last note that The Icelandic O, I did not know this before but, Did You know that The Icelandic O (ð) is a Lower Case Letter and It’s Upper Case Letter is the Ð, The D with a slash through it. So, You just learned a Few New “Local Letters”! Good for You, My Readers! I am Proud of You! Anyway, onto This Week’s Newsletter. Let’s Talk about Something that is a Struggle for Me. Finding a Job! Okay, It is actually a Struggle for All of Us PTLSers. Now, The Thing of it is that , It is not that We can’t get a Job, that is not a Problem! Our Work Ethic? Being on Time? Nope! We are Perfect with that! The Problem is although It is not Legal to do so, More often than not, It is because They are Judging us because We have Special Needs for One of Two Reasons. The First One, is that They think that We can’t do XYZ Job because of The Aforementioned Special Needs. Again, There is that that Nasty Word, Can’t. Of Course, We can do it! Of Course, that is said to be within Reason. Nothing Heavy to Carry and Stress Level is Lower. For Example, I really enjoyed it when I worked The Local Ballpark. All I had to do was Hand Out Programs. That was it! No Heavy Lifting, Not A lot of Stress, and A Perfect Routine! Now, The Biggest Issue and This is the Second Reason. Now, Again, Yes I can work. My SSI might be docked down a bit and that is Okay. But, The Second Reason, has to do with a Fine Print Heavy Asterisk*** Legal Issue! By The Way, Heavy Asterisk*** Issue means a Complication Issue with Conditions. Without Offending Americans, Speaking to Those around The World, to Understand, There are a lot of Lawyer Commercials in The United States. They can be used for Any Reason no matter how Mundane. Basically, I live in a Land where The Most Offensive Term is not Derogatory, It saying “I’ll Sue You!”. In Short, The Second Reason is that People with Special Needs in The Work place would be a Liability! In Other Words, An “I’ll Sue You!” Risk! Yes, My Readers, It sickens me too! in My Opinion, to Hire Me is Worth The Risk! I won’t Harm The Company! But, Again, It has to do with Judgement and Risk. Like it or not, Judgement usually wins! Of Course, Ya Know, There are Some Cases in which The Risk Wins! Just being Positive here! Anyway, so Here is Rerun Newsletter about The Judgement v. Risk Case!

This Newsletter was Originally written on August 29th of 2018 (Refer to Newsletter 604)

Hola, My Readers! I am happy to be on My Regular Newsletter Writing Schedule! I missed you guys! So, There is Something that came to My Attention This Past Week that Made Me feel “Special”, and Not the Good “Special”. You See, in Having Special Needs, which One would think is Easier than being Typical, don’t have to worry as much about Life’s Worries, It is an Easy Life! Or, so We think anyway. Okay, Given having Special Needs, gets you some Bypasses and Help as well but with it, comes those Times. This Story is one of those Times. You See, In order to have the Help You need as well as Trying to be as Independent as possible, You have to get Services to help you. Services can be given via The Government or The State in which You live in. In Texas, That means It is given via The State of Texas. Basically, It’s getting The State, Medicaid, and A Coordinator Company to all agree in Giving You Services. It is really complicated! Basically, I have a Case Manager that I see every month and They basically check in to How I am doing. The Extras like Supportive Employment, In-Home Services, and so on, You have to request. Anyway, so Along with The Coordinator Company checking in, The State checks in to see How you are doing in terms of Your IQ, to see See if You need The Services or not. This only happens once every few years, The Last Time being in 2013. Now, It was not The Test itself that bothered me, It was that I was not prepared for It. Now, Truth be told, An IQ Test is not something You need to be prepared for, unlike School Testing, The SAT, or ACT Tests. But, A Psych Person told us to come in, and We thought it was only to Update Yearly Paperwork but, It turned out to be that They were going to Test My IQ, I was Tired and still recovering from Going to Sweden. So, The Person told My Mom leave the room to do The Test. I tried My Best, even with My Perfectionist Ways. Now, They is No Wrong or Right Way to do The Test, Just give it Your Best Shot! But, The Thing is, The Way in which You are treated when comes to IQ Testing as well Other Ways of treating People with Special Needs, tends to swing towards, (In a Child-Like Voice) You be Careful Now because This Person is Speecial! In Other Words, Asking something like “Can You do This?!; Match Shapes?; Numbers? (Frontwards, Backwards, and in Order); 2 Plus 2; Geography Questions (Nailed It!); Science Questions; and, Sometimes, Psych Questions (Luckily not This Time). If It were You, It would make you feel Less Than. Thank God that They changed The Name in which They call Someone with a Low Score, (Pardon The Language here) Mentally Retarded. Today, They use The Term “Intellectually Disabled”. Ya Know, to My Mind, that Sounds like a Machine or a Robot that is messed up a little bit. Not quite that It is Useless but, Quite that It needs a little Tune Up. Computer Nerds, On It! Another Theory is an Office Printer that You need to go to The Printer itself to press “Print” instead of on The Computer. If You do try Pressing Print on The Computer, The Printer say “Intellectually Disabled”. Now, In My Mind, One could read that as a Joke like “A Priest and Rabbi walk into Bar..” and Truth be told, It could be a Joke. But, To Me, It is not. I have known that I have Special Needs and I embrace It! PTLS makes me who I am. But, My Readers, It is NOT Who I am or What I am, if that makes sense. If Someone introduced me as “Hey Guys, This Christian, He has Special Needs, He has PTLS” versus “This is Christian, a Great Friend of Mine”, It makes me feel better. I am proud of Have Special Needs, but to Reminded of It, Is basically Putting a Label on The Office Printer saying It does not work when, It just takes getting up to Clicking “Print” on The Machine and Surprise! It works just Fine! Now, I may not excel in Certain Areas like Math, unless It is showed in a Better Context. I may not be up to The Social Level of People that are My Age. But, I do excel in Other Things, like Geography, History, and Politics. Not to Mention; Road Signs, Human Emotion, and Intuitiveness, to name a Few. I don’t need an IQ Test to tell me about that, because I already know about that. Heck, A Couple Years Ago, I was able to Fix My Computer after It had a Virus. All in all, PTLS makes Me Special, but I like to say that It makes me Unique.




Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Don’t Judge, Don’t Limit Us Incredible People!

July 1, 2020

The Christianville Spirit: National Holidays and The Fourth of July


The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Brings Hope
July 1st, 2020-TCS # 694

Happy July, My Readers! Yes, My Readers! Can You believe It is July now?! So, Happy July! Today being July 1st means Two Things. Okay, Three Things. The First Thing, of course, Is that We have reached The Point of What I now called “Mid-Year”. Between The Days of June 30th and July 1st, is The Middle of The Year. Baring in Mind that 2020 has not The Best of Years. Ahem..Dreaded Coronavirus AND A Huge Thick Sand Cloud from Africa came to Texas. Said Cloud of Sand being Referred to as “Godzilla”. Yeah, A Crazy Year! We are all in agreement that Instead of saying Happy New Year when The Time comes, We all must yell “Jumanji!”. A Word to The Wise, If You do not Understand the Jumanji reference. Watch The Original Jumanji Movie (It was made in The 90‘s) and Watch The Updated Versions of The Jumanji Movies (With Updated References!). For Now, Take a Second to Juust Breathe! The Second Thing only applies in You or Your Child is still in School, but Overnight, They changed into The Next Grade that They will be in. I know a Few People who became Seniors overnight. Yes, Really. Seniors! Of Course, I know a few Seniors who will be now going to College. That is a Bigger Jump than becoming a Senior. And, Finally, The Third Thing, Only apart 4 Days Two Neighboring Countries have Their National Holidays. Now, One would say that Countries have More than One National Holiday, like The US and Veterans Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, and so on. However, Every Country has One National Holiday that above All Others. Today, July 1st is Canada’s National Holiday, Canada Day and The United States’ National Holiday, The Fourth of July. The Thing about National Holidays that should be Talked about, not Always in a Political Way is about How We celebrate it. Now, Every Countries, It is always Nationalism v. Patriotism Debate on How a National Holiday is celebrated. Some Countries, It is with a Huge Military Parade with Guns blazing; Anthems Playing on Loud Speaker, That is more of Nationalism. In Other Words, You are telling The World that There is No Better Country than Here, Where ever “Here” is! There is Mixture of both like Making Sure that The National Language is spoken during Daylight Hours. I say that because in France, They must speak in French on The Radio between 9 AM and 9 PM. France is a Definitely a Country of Both Nationalism and Patriotism. Which brings me to Talking about Patriotism. Being Patriotic, means to be Proud of The Country that You that Live in. Fireworks in The Air, Having The National Food (In The US, We have Cookouts!), and Of Course, The Country’s Flag is put Everywhere. Now, Is It Okay to be Proud of Your Country? Absolutely! Do You have to Put it in People’s Faces? My Rule is that is long as You do Humbly! The Point here that We should all be Proud to be from Our Country. Speaking to Americans here! Our Country is Awesome (Patriotically Speaking) and We should be Blessed to even be able to be from and live in The United States of America! No, Our Country is not Perfect. No Country is Perfect! But, As Americans, We should come together to Celebrate the Founding of Our Country. Think of It this Way, If We weren’t You Guys in The Northeast would part of The UK and Us down here in Texas could have been either Part of Mexico (or Any of 5 Flags over Texas) and Yes, We could still be part of The Republic of Texas. Anyway, To Help us Come Together, I am going to Rerun a Newsletter about National Holidays and The Fourth of July.

This Newsletter was Originally Written on July 4th of 2012 (Refer to Newsletter 307)

Well, My Readers in The United States, “The USA”, “America”, or whatever you like to call it; Happy 4th of July! For those outside The United States, July 4 is just another day. You See, every country in our lovely World of 246 Countries, we have our own little “Special days” in our own countries. So, for some a simple day like July 1 or October 26 for example, to you in one country is just another day in the week or work week, depending on wether it is part of the work week or not. For the record, July 1 is Canada Day and October 26, which is also My Brother’s Birthday is also, the National Holiday of Austria, respectively. Anyway, each one country in our world of 246 countries have their own day. Of Course, the meaning of the National Holidays are different and some National Holidays are set on an easy day like June 21, because it’s The First day of summer, the Summer Solstice, and The Longest Day of The Year. In Greenland, their National Holiday is on June 21 because it’s the longest day of the year, where (and, I kid you not) it stays light out for 24 Hours and you can say the same the Winter Solstice, it’s dark for 24 Hours. So, June 21 makes sense for a National Holiday in Greenland for that reason and again for the record, they call it “Midsummers Day”, respectively. Also, there are National holidays the we make our own like St. Patrick’s Day, the National Holiday of Ireland on March 17 that we here in The US, Celebrate as well. Now, back to My Country, The United States of America, we have 2 names for today, we call it The 4th of July most often but, it’s technically called Independence Day because it was the day that a document known as The Declaration of Independence was signed and that was what made us, The United States of America and to be free. So, as a result, we celebrate Independence Day with Fireworks, Pomp & Circumstance, Good Music, and Good Food. However, when I was younger, I was scared of Fireworks and they hurt my ears because I had hypersensitive hearing. The fear and hurting of My Ears from Fireworks lasted until I was 10 or 11. All in all, we have our own National Holidays to celebrate, no matter where you live. By The Way, I’d like to wish, My PTLS Sister, Danielle, a very Happy Birthday because she was actually born on The 4th of July.



Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Celebrate not just your own National holiday but, maybe others as well.