okay so I don't know if I told anyone on here but next week I'm leaving to El Salvador, which is a country in Latin America and where my grandma lives. since I've never been there and has lived in Pennsylvania my whole life, I'm not really sure what it's like to live there.
so, while my family and I were dropping off my sister at the airport since she was leaving to Guatemala for a college thing, I said to my dad as a joke, I repeat, as a joke, "I hope we have air conditioning at our house," (we're staying with my grandma) "I wouldn't be able to sleep in the heat."
and then, guess what? my parents start a twenty minute life lesson about how some countries like El Salvador aren't fortunate enough to have things like air conditioners, shoes, or have a decent amount of money, like we are in America. it's like when you say you don't want the food they give you at dinner, and then they pull the card and say, "think about the children in Africa! they'd be so grateful to have a plate of food in front of them!"
I wanted to say so badly to them that I was joking and I knew we were going to have to deal with fans to keep us cool, but I didn't (we were in public, yes, I know my manners) and just listened to their lecture. you wouldn't believe how mad they were at me for saying something that sounded spoiled, but again, I was kidding. I didn't mean it, oh my god.
trust me, I really do feel bad about the kids there who only own a pair of flip flops, but how am I supposed to know what it's like living there if I haven't even left the well-developed country I live in? it's like this: "oh, I don't want to live in Australia! I heard there's deserts in every corner, and I don't want to live in a place where tumble weeds are at every corner. even though I've never been there, I'm pretty sure since there's the Great Victoria Desert, and not much else but a building or two."
what? how can you know what it's like to live there if you haven't gone there? same thing with me and El Salvador. sure, my grandma lives there, but she never talks about it (not that I know of, most of the time she speaks to me in Spanish and I can only understand about 3/4 of it). but how am I supposed to know it's a poor country if I've never been there?
(so far, I haven't studied the country in school. so don't comment how I should've known since I learned it in school, when I didn't even read a chapter or taken a quiz about it).
it just pisses me off how my dad sounded like I was supposed to know it, and how seriously he took it. like, I WAS JOKING. I'm sorry that I haven't flew my ass off there and lived in a home for a few days! honestly, I didn't even know El Salvador was a developing country still, I thought it was like Brazil or something. actually, now that I think of it, I haven't really thought of the country's economic activity, all I thought about was how far we were going to be from the beaches, lol.
basically, the lesson of the day is: don't tell a joke to your parents. they'll take it seriously and give you a life lesson about it.