Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Amusing things (or at least I think so)

Quote of the day from a learner’s response to the prompt “to me god is…” in my religon class: “To me god is the most high god the helper of the poo and rich.” This totally made me laugh much harder than it should have, but that seems like a good sign.
I feel almost manic today, fluctuating between incredibly happy and excited (mostly when I’m teaching) and so confused and frustrated that I’m almost on the verge of tears (because I have no idea what is going on at the school). I’m convincing myself that this is normal though, and I’m glad the causes of these feelings are the way they are and not reversed…
Instead of rambling about what I taught today, I thought a few stories about cultural misunderstandings I have already had might make a good post. The first is mostly just me being a crazy person, but my first night sleeping here I could not get my mosquito net up over my bed. I though it would be fine but as I tried to fall asleep I could hear many (large sounding!) bugs flying around my room and panicked. I moved my bed to the middle of the room and tied the net to my light fixture but it still didn’t cover the whole thing. As I sat there thinking I would never get to sleep, my roommate came in and laughed at me, catching this (huge!) beetle in her hand and saying “it is harmless. It does not bite.” She then proceeded to tell all of the staff about how ridiculous I am the next day, needless to say, I’m still sleeping with my top half under the net ☺
I also had an experince with a new collegue who I was trying to befriend as we drove her to a store a short ways away. I was trying to be polite and motioned exaggeratedly for her to get in the front seat. Except I forgot that the steering wheel is on the other side of the car, so in my attempt to make a nice gesture I forced her into the back seat. Awesome.
Lastly I had an audience while doing my laundry the other day. My roommate and a man who works at the school literally stood by and kept saying “do it again! Look at that!” and laughing at me. I suppose I can be a good sport about being the cheap entertainment as long as my clothes are clean…
Oh also, to answer an email question, yes spitting cobras are a real concern. Mostly only if I’m out in the middle of a field, but this is not just complete paranoia.

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