Working On Sunday Afternoon

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Quick Notes

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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.
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Salt

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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."
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Haunted Irish Castle And American Fridge

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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...
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