So, it turns out I'm kind of an awesome wildlife photographer. Who knew? Thanks, squirrel, for being a poser and making it so easy. And for being so darn cute.
(Want to see more recent pics? Click on 'My Photos' to the right.)
I cut my hair today, it now looks like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction. It took two hours, it was the most meticulous haircut I have ever received. He was amazing. I wish I could take him with me to Chongqing. Tomorrow I move into a hotel with the other volunteers in downtown Chengdu. We have a few days of meetings and then I move to Chongqing on Wednesday. It's about 4 hours away by train. Our new school helps us move, I am crossing my fingers they bring a car or some strong men to help! My suitcases are hella heavy. We had a banquet last night for our host families. The power went out so we ate in the dark, and then we decided to move to a restaurant next door where dinner started all over again. It was a very China evening. I will post pics asap.
I bought a bag of salt at the grocery store and was looking for a salt shaker. No luck at all, nothing even remotely like a salt shaker. I was so confused as to how there could be salt but no salt shakers. How do people get their salt evenly and cleanly onto their food? Then I opened the bag of salt. It has the consistency and texture of brown sugar, there's no way it would pour out of a salt shaker like the granulated salt I am used to. It's eye-opening to realize how many of these cultural biases I have. The big ones you can try to prepare yourself for; these small ones catch you off guard, and I think it is the small ones that most contribute to culture shock over the long-term. As we (Peace Corps Volunteers) like to say, "Everything's the same, except it's all different."
My mom's culture believes in ghosts and the supernatural so I've grown up hearing 'ghost' stories accepted as fact. I am somewhat skeptical of ghost stories, but I do get a kick out of them. An episode of Destination Truth (I know, I love this show) was filmed at Duckett's Grove castle in Ireland to investigate spooky goings on -- somehow ghost stories in old castles just seem that much more believable and entertaining, you know? I don't think I'll have time to go to Duckett's Grove when I'm in the UK but it is definitely going on my list for a future trip. I'd like to go to the southwest coast of Ireland, too, as I hear it is one of the most beautiful parts of Ireland. And then there's my fridge; it's been making weird noises that of course don't happen when maintenance goes in to fix it, but I was able to record it on my phone. My coworker informs me it sounds like my fridge is haunted. Oh, that I could be so lucky! Alas, I thi...
Comments