i am noticing that as i sit down to write blogs this week, again and again i am tempted to cop out of writing decent prose in favor of making lists. i once had a professor in college who loved making lists, and i aced her classes because i was pretty good at memorizing her lists of test material. as it turns out, i am also pretty crazy about making lists even though sometimes i think they are just annoying. sorry for those of you who share this opinion.
today, i want to make lists of mundane, day-to-day things that would bore you all to death. because it has been a rough couple of days, i want to make lists of things that just tick me off... which is really tempting, though i will save you all from having to read that list. i want to make lists of funny oddities that pop up in my head and practically beg me to share as i chuckle to myself about them. frankly, i am too lazy to write this week. so, here goes with a list of things i am pondering while i чакам за неща да направям, that is 'wait for things to do...'
or maybe while i wait for the motivation to find things to do... who knows at this point.
below lies the grand list of things i am thinking about today, august 20th, 2008.
1. i am thrilled my water is back on. i was able to deduce that the water drought was an unfortunate consequence of questionable 'roadwork' in the center of town.
2. i have an acquaintance here who is overly persistent in inviting me to coffee... annoyingly so. what's more annoying is that getting coffee with her, which is typically a three hour ordeal, is most certainly good for my language learning. i admit it. BUT, she is not one of the most popular people in the town... and i have been cautioned about spending time with her. so, i am suffering from this moral dilemma. do i accept the invitations, begrudgingly, to practice the language and risk tarnishing my sterling (read: virtually non-existent/still developing/ forever 'american' (whatever that means)) reputation? or do i start conjuring up a list of "gosh, i'm sorry i am so busy doing these things..." and create really fascinating tasks to complete like scrubbing my bathroom floor or daily bird-watching expeditions on my balcony to justify that i am too busy for said engagements?
3. here's another tid bit... i cannot help but remind myself that i did not come here to be the most popular person in town. if i am to ever effectively work with the roma people in my town (who are definitely not real popular) i should probably get over this 'wanting to please everyone' mentality. get over it. ok, pep talk over. but, seriously, Jesus extended a hand and a listening ear to the unpopular people, too, right? turns out i was paying attention all those years at the catholic school.
4. one thing i am still trying to get used to is the fact that seemingly NOWHERE in this country is there adequate change to break my 20 leva bills. i mean, not in my town, not at bus stations, not even in the capital! for example, while i was in the capital, i purchased some much needed items mentioned in the previous blog- tabasco sauce, avocados, you know, really important things like that. the total of these pertinent items was maybe 11 leva and change. i handed the clerk a 20 leva bill, to which i was given a really nasty look. the look translated as 'what, do you think i ACTUALLY have change for that? you MUST be ridiculous!' she promptly handed my 20 back to me and watched as i first scrounged through my wallet and then finally had to ask my friend for 2 leva to cover my costs.
i suppose i should have known this would be the case in a place where atms dispense 5s and 10s...these are the types of cultural idiosyncrasies i should be piecing together by now. but come on- to have someone make you feel like it is YOUR fault that they cannot make change is just absurd. seriously? i forgave this growing annoyance when i lived in a village of 1000 people, but i wonder...how do stores here make any money if they never have enough change to break 10 and 20 bills? 3 million people live in the capital! that is just nuts. ya, i said it!
addendum: let me not forget to mention that credit cards are accepted virtually nowhere here, too (except, presumably in high-end retail stores... like gucci). so, if all you've got is a twenty, you're alone, and there's no change to be given, looks like you're flat out of luck with your hopes of purchasing avocados and tabasco sauce.
5. edit: i felt as if the original information posted under no. 5 suggested opinions of mine that i rushed to a bit too hastily. the original data has been deleted for my own sanity.
6. i think there are more flies here.
7. i nearly had a run away avocado just now. i have been devouring each delicious bite of avocado on bread with cirene, and was just preparing such a scrumptious meal when i was scooping out every last morsel of avocado and the whole thing, pit included, sprung itself onto the floor in a desperate escape attempt. blasted avocado. worry not, friends, because i was able to save most of the avocado and slab it onto the already-lathered-with-the-best-cheese-ever bread and am now shoving it in my mouth as i type this. i am hoping it will calm my shaking body, nervous and twittery from previously drinking an extra tall coffee while sitting at the cafe with the aforementioned acquaintance.
8. oh ya, can you tell that i have had too much coffee? i feel absolutely spastic.
9. one of the toughest parts of my daily routine is walking outside and sticking my trash into trash bins crowded by people from my town scouring them for treasures in the form of food.
10. st, you'll get a kick out of this one. my dad said he recently spent twenty minutes of his life watching a documentary on this country. he spotted it on television and thought it would be interesting to see the sights of the village and landscape depicted in the show. turns out, though, that the documentary was about MOSQUITOES here as opposed to the beautiful scenery or traditional village life. haha. an entire documentary (which he did not finish watching) dedicated to highlighting the unique and captivating lives of the very blood suckers you despise. he said twenty minutes was about all he could take before switching from the brain-sucking, though no doubt informative, show about the mosquitoes whom you've befriended here. perhaps ' mosquito aficionado' can be added to the list of possible options for post-pc life. and, maybe there are more mosquitoes in here, too.
rant of peculiar (this country)-isms and other things is now officially over.
enjoy the preliminary pictures of my town. more to come.
the road to the post office...
my school from afar
the trash bins
my apartment building is the one on the left
No comments:
Post a Comment