I grow on you slowly, like a fungus

Thursday March 25

Okay, so I have developed a system in which I can make decent updates to my blog. I know for someone as obviously intelligent as I am to have taken this long to create a solution to the problem of my laptop not connecting to the internet and keeping my lovely readers in the loop as to my goings on is astounding. Nevertheless, I have done it. I brought my trusty laptop to my site and am putting my updates onto a jump drive to upload them when I get to the cyber. I am a genius. I will make a photobucket account soon, so pictures will be forthcoming.

I have decided to try to give my blog more of a lessons feel, because the 3^rd goal of the Peace Corps is to help promote a better understanding of other people on the part of Americans. But before I do that, I must go through some self analysis. Apparently, my laugh is maniacal and my sense of humor is a little twisted. The most recent example that I can think of is that my CBT group (by the by, I am not supposed to use real names, so take that for what you will…) and I are in one of the larger cities having lunch, when the subject of 1990’s memorabilia came up.

“What about those stickers? The rainbow ones with the unicorns and everything that everyone had in elementary school?”

“Which ones?” They asked.

“Oh, I know the name. They were all cutesy and stuff, too.” then I yelled out, “Oh yeah. Anne Frank!”

“I’m quite sure it’s not Anne Frank.”

“Yeah, Anne Frank.” I said matter-of-factly.”

“Anne Frank, the 16 year old diarist who was killed in the concentration camps of Germany?”

“Oh, I guess not, but a name like that.” And then I yelled, “Oh yeah, Lisa Frank. I’m very oblivious. I remember once thinking that Schindler’s List was a movie about a forgetful man who needs to go shopping for groceries.”

So, yeah, I’m funny in my head. They eventually get my sense of humor, though. I like to say that I grow slowly on people like a fungus… you know what? Too much time has passed in this month to write down everything that has been going on. It would take pages upon pages to detail, so I will be brief and then we will start with the lessons.

1.) I am really learning a lot about myself so far. Even after being gone for a month it seems like I am a completely different person. I talk more, I am more outgoing. I know this seems hard, given how I am in large crowds. But I mean I am being more outspoken about my beliefs and what my needs are. This is really building my confidence.

2.) I am too hard on myself. The other volunteers say this to me. People said it at home, but now hearing it here, when all of us are basically infants in regards to understanding the language and culture of where we are. We have two years to do this. We have time. There is always time.

3.) I am actually capable of eating 6 Thanksgiving size meals a day. I kid you not, I am eating the equivalent of a loaf of bread, a chicken (if you combine the types of meat into one animal.) and a small garden of fruits and vegetables.  And yet I am loosing weight; it must be the walking or something.

4.) The most important lesson: it doesn’t matter where I am, the people around me are the same. We all want to seek happiness and avoid suffering. The desires that we have may be complex or simple, they may be as obtainable as making breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the day, or they may be the desire to completely understand a language that isn’t even written in a matter of weeks. But we all desire that which brings us happiness and avoid that which brings us suffering.