Isn’t it strange how after awhile things that seem really strange to you become normal if you’re exposed to them over a period of time? Here are my Top Ten examples:
- The electricity, water and internet are not guaranteed. The electricity might flicker off a few times a day, but thankfully we have generators that get it back on quickly. The water system goes out periodically and then you might get lovely brown water or no water at all and funny noises come from different areas of the house as it tries to pump water that isn’t there. If it’s a cloudy day, there isn’t hot water, because it’s all heated by solar panels. But really we have it like a resort here compared to our neighbors who don’t have electricity and bathe and wash their clothes in the river.
- I asked my supervisor to buy me toothpaste today. (He asked if I needed anything from town, and we were out in the store.)
- I walk to work. I walk home. I carry my veggies and my groceries and my mail and my computer and sometimes all at once! It’s a beautiful walk.
- Pests: I drink ants in my coffee and catch rats in a live trap. Then I have to give it to the science teacher so she can freeze it for science class dissection. I use a spray called Mortein that seems to kill before contact as it’s being sprayed at the insect. Frightens me a little to think about what that might be doing to my lungs. I change out cockroach baits every 3 months. Or I should . . .
- I consider my brother-in-law’s basketball shorts a routine part of my outfit.
- Today was the first time in a month I went further than the bread store across the street.
- This morning I went to an event with 3 people from the UK, 1 from Switzerland, 3 from the US and 1 from Germany.
- I play hockey. I play a competitive team sport. That might be the most outrageous one on here!
- You buy it when you can get it, because you don’t know when you’ll get it again! Which makes me feel a bit like a hoarder. I rejoice when I find chicken breasts in the store. And sometimes, they even have some that are cut up in little pieces. That’s awesome! Going shopping is like a treasure hunt. You just have to keep looking!
- I take a flight to get to most places, and I prefer it that way. The road is rough! You think Indiana has pot holes in the spring? Those are nothing, and the winding around the craters in the road can make you sick. And when you hear something in the early morning that sounds like you’re being bombed, it’s actually just a truck hitting the potholes in the road outside of center.
It all just brings this life here character!