Conversation Partners #6

     On our last meeting, Deo brought one of his friends, Ivonne, who is also from Rwanda.  We gave our introductions and the first question that Ivonne asked me was how many languages I spoke.  Just as I had to tell Deo when he asked me this, I told her that I was the typical American that only speaks English.  We had a good laugh, and this idea drove the rest of our conversation.

     Deo asked Ivonne how work was last night.  I quickly asked her what she did, and she told me that she was a desk assistant at the GrandMarc who worked the night shift.  She told Deo that she doesn't understand American college students because she lost count of the number of "drunk girls wearing barefoot" that were coming into the GrandMarc on a Wednesday.  She said that they do not know how lucky they are to have the opportunity to be getting an education here and then they go and do irresponsible things all of the time.  I told her that I agree but then explained to her that it was probably because it was the start of dead days.

     Our conversation then switched to how differently children are raised in America compared to Rwanda.  Deo and Ivonne said that they have noticed that upper and middle class families are typically stricter in the raising of their kids in America while the poorer families are typically stricter in Rwanda.  Deo said that in Rwanda, this is true because the richer families are so busy with work, so they just let their children fend for themselves.  I told him that the same thing could be said for the poorer families in America; the parents could be working so many jobs to try to pay the bills that they do not have much time for their children.  We thought it was interesting that these things are switched in each country.

     As we were finishing this thought, the small, elderly lady that works at the BLUU (Sorry, her name escapes me) came up and started to talk to Ivonne.  Apparently they are really good friends.  When the conversation ended, Ivonne immediately said, "That's another thing that's wrong here!  That sweet woman should not have to be working at the age of 82!"  She told me that in Rwanda, once you hit the age of 65 (it even used to be 55 a few years ago) you cannot be hired anywhere even if you want to work.  I thought that this was interesting but told her that as wrong as it is for elderly people to be working to try to make ends meet, that Rwandan idea would probably never float in America.

    We carried on talking about topics similar to this for a while; it was definitely our longest conversation yet.  Eventually I had to leave to go to a job interview, so Deo and I said our goodbyes.  We promised that we would get lunch together a couple times over the summer since I will be living here, so I am looking forward to that.  I am very fortunately to have had this opportunity to make a new friend.
    

Conversation Partners #5

     Ever since Deo and I started meeting, I have always meant to ask him about about food in Rwanda and what he thought about American food.  I finally got the perfect opportunity to do so in our meeting yesterday.  Deo called me and asked if we could meet at the BLUU because he was very hungry.  It took a while to find Deo because on the phone, he just kept telling me that he "was at the restaurant."  So thinking he was at the "restaurant," I first went to Chickfila.  After waiting there for a while, I called Deo back and realized at the BLUU.  In his defense, I guess the BLUU is in fact a restaurant, I have just never thought of it like that.

     I had already eaten lunch, so I grabbed a cup of water and followed Deo around as he got his food.  When my friends and I eat at the BLUU, we grab our plates, go to one specific line, and get some food.  The first observation that I made about Deo was that he did not do this.  He would start at the vegetarian line and walk through all of the lines and really think about what he wanted.  After he got all of his food, we sat down and began our conversation.

     Of course, the first thing I wanted to ask Deo was how long it took him to get accustomed to American food; his answer was quite amusing.  He told me that he still isn't used to the food here and that he really doesn't like it.  He said that in Rwanda, most of the food is baked and almost no oil is used in their cooking while in America, everything is cooked and covered in oil.

     We continued talking about this for a while until Deo realized that he really liked the rice that they were serving today, so he got up to get more.  At first, he took his plate which still had food on it with him to go get more.  I stopped him and told him that at restaurants like this, we have to go get a second, clean plate to go get more food.  He didn't quite understand why and thought it was wasteful, but he did it anyway.  Even I thought that this social norm was a little weird and wasteful when I learned about it as a kid.  Why do I have to go dirty another clean plate just to go get another piece of pizza?  I know it has to do with germs, but I still think it is a little silly. 

     Anyway, I got to finally learn what Deo thought about food here, and we had a great conversation about it.  I am looking forward to our last meeting later today!

Learning Experience #4

I relearned how to play the guitar this weekend.

It's not that I forgot how to play the instrument, I just forgot how to allow myself time to play.  For the past four years, guitar has been a very big part of my life.  Some people read or play video games to escape stressors and relax.  I have tried these and many other activities for leisure, but they have never been able to fill my needs.  Finally, I discovered the guitar.  I found myself being able to sit down and lose myself in the fretboard for hours instead of the five to ten minutes that I was able to read a book. 

Up until this semester, I was always willing and able to adjust my schedule to allow for this special time.  Whether I stayed up an hour later than I typically would or decided to wing a biology lab quiz, I understood the benefits of this alone time and made these sacrifices.  Unfortunately, in my attempt to take 17 hours this semester, I forgot to allow myself this time.  Each day, I would walk into my room and see my guitars on their stands and think to myself, "If only I had time." It had been so long.  I had not even had time to find new songs that I was interested in learning.

Finally, this past Sunday, I decided to make room.  I am a big Washington Wizards fan, so I was sitting in our living room watching the game on mute while filling out flashcards for my organic chemistry lab final.  At the half, I turned the TV off and really started to focus on these flashcards.  Then I thought to myself: if these professional athletes get a break, maybe I deserve one, too.  I went in my room, grabbed my guitar and tuner, and moved the flashcards off of the table.  It had been so long that my nice guitar, which can go several hours of playing while staying perfectly in tune, was a whole step (2 frets) flat.  I eventually got it sounding nice again and began picking.  The first thing that I noticed was that the calluses on my finger tips that develop after months of playing were completely gone; it felt as if my fingers had never touched the strings before.

I played for a while and then turned the TV back on because I thought that halftime would be over.  To my surprise, there were 2 minutes left in the third quarter.  I was finally able to lose myself in something again.  It felt so reinvigorating.

Uncontrollable Laughter #2

     I have a religion night class.  I hate night classes.  Fortunately, the professor is really laid back and the class is full of funny people.  Also, because it starts at 5:30, many students bring food with them to hold them over until a ridiculously late dinner.  This past week, one student, let's name him Josh, brought a banana in for his class.  Josh has also had the professor in some of the other classes that she teaches, so he in particular feels comfortable joking with the professor.  Upon finishing the banana, Josh thought it would be funny to attempt to throw the peel in the trash can.  As you can probably guess, he missed terribly.  What was funny about his miss was that it landed on the overhead projector in the corner of the room.  Also, the professor did not notice because she was focused on the lecture.  Josh crawled on his hands and knees up to the projector, reached up, grabbed the banana, and dropped it in the trashcan all without the professor noticing.  At this point, the entire class was laughing and the professor was so confused.

     The funniest part for me was that the professor never learned why the entire class suddenly burst into laughter.  Somehow the class kept it together and never spilled the beans.  She kept asking over and over again over the course of a few minutes.  After 5 minutes, the class finally calmed down enough to continue with the lecture.  I am just really glad the professor did not offer extra credit for anyone to tell her what was going on; that would have made for a much less exciting story.

 

Learning Experience #3

     I am a chronic procrastinator.  For some unknown reason, procrastinating has always worked for me.  I am not saying that I can sit down the night before an exam and be stress-free while looking over my notes- I am usually stressed to the max.  However, I am able to use this stress as motivation to study.  This works, but I know it isn't efficient or healthy for me.

     This is always the dilemma for me: it is hard for me to just casually do work because I need stress for motivation, but the stress is beginning to take its toll on me.  Recently, with the help of this class, it has been my goal to break this habit. The main reason I started this goal was because it would be impossible and incorrect to do 12 blog posts and 10 comments in a single night.  Because of this, I have forced myself to evenly distribute the posts throughout the semester.  Also, it would not be interesting to see my blog posts, which are supposed to be a representation of my growth throughout the semester, all clumped together in the last week of the semester.

     So how has this been working for me?  Well, I'm not going to lie, it was extremely difficult at first.  I would come up with excuses such as "well... I have a big test this week so there's no way I can do a post."  Eventually, I began to make progress.  The biggest thing that helped me break the cycle of procrastination was looking forward to finals week.  If I left a lot of my work in this class for that week along with 6 final exams, I would fail miserably.  I began to see it as the sooner I finish these things, the more time I'll have to study for my two big organic chemistry finals.

     All in all, I think I have taken a large dent out of my procrastination habit.  Last week, I even began to make study guides and note cards for my other exams (something that I usually wait until dead days to do).  I hope I can keep myself focused on this goal of mine. I have noticed that it leaves me more time to have fun, so I plan to use this as my motivation in the future.

Funny Situations

Learning Experience #2

     This past weekend, I went to New Orleans. Needless to say, I learned a lot on the trip. The first thing I learned is that I should no longer let a long drive keep me from going somewhere. I have passed up several opportunities to go on trips simply because I didn't want to drive too far away. Luckily on this trip, I was forced to put up with the drive. To my surprise, minus the idiot drivers in Baton Rouge, the drive wasn't too bad. Even if it was a pain, I would have been extremely disappointed if I missed out on the trip because of it.

     The next thing I learned on my trip is that there are certain times where I need to stop worrying about how much money I am spending and just concentrate on having fun. Yes, I went over the budget that I allowed myself, but I wouldn't have had half the fun if I was constantly worrying about this. On past vacations, I've spent a lot of time worrying about my budget, and now I feel like it really held me back from making the best of my trip. Trips like this are typically a rare thing for me, so I can justify splurging like this a couple times a year.

     The last major thing that I learned on this trip is to never let preconceptions from keeping me from trying something new. I went to Felix's, a famous oyster bar, and was physically forced to try a raw oyster. I'm not here to say that I loved it, but I did love the experience. My trip also included me doing something else that I never thought I would do. I won't say what it was on here, but I will say that it was completely legal, and I now have a small, permanent souvenir to commemorate the best trip of my life.