P.O.S. is officially mostly paid for. I may be able to pay the rest on Friday if the university gives me the rest of the money they owe me. Mostly likely, I'll have to pay the rest on the 23rd. Either way, I don't feel so bad now. I just hate owing people. What if something goes wrong, what if I wreck it, blah, blah, blah....
I'm prepping for a workshop this afternoon. I like workshops because it's a bit of prep on my end, but more focused on doing activities than me lecturing. I think everyone learns more that way, too. I've seen that allocating more time for Q&As are a good use of time as well.
Other than that, I've just kind of been in a funk about blogging. I think it all relates to expatriating into a new country (I read ahead of time what the process will be like and I think I'm hitting a new stage!!!). I think it makes it extra hard that I'm dealing with faculty and staff across the entire university versus tucked away in some department somewhere. I'm pretty sure I have another national male problem brewing. I'm going to try some overt rudeness next time to see if I can dodge it. I hope I'm not becoming paranoid, but you can never put down your guard here. That part is absolutely exhausting. It goes against every part of my personality!!
On one hand, you have the security guards at the gate. Young, guys that high-five me as I drive in and out. They shout my name and light up whenever I yell out to thank them and to have a good day. I've never had a single issue with any of them. Then, I have the "professionals" that have left their country for a bit. They believe they are worldly and want to converse about all sorts of things. Fine, good, not a problem. But they may downplay their culture trying to impress me that they understand my point of view. I can't seem to get across it's not a Western thing or a Papua New Guinean thing...it's a professional thing. I'm married, you're married. All conversations, visitations, phone calls, etc should be directly related to work. If it's not, I can't go there because there doesn't seem to be an understanding about male/female friendship here. I honestly don't get it, don't understand it, and it is very frustrating. Nothing is overt, so you don't want to look like an ass calling them out on it, but I know there's a hidden agenda. It's just too much contact...too much invasion of personal time and space. To be honest, this is absolutely one of the hardest thing about being here. Anyway, having my guard up all the time is exhausting and, in fact, I've been sleeping for nearly 10 hours a night for the past couple of nights. Maybe I've been making up for the Easter weekend. Who knows.
Oh, that fish I said was HUGE.... well I asked about the weight and converted it to lbs....368 lbs! I told you it was HUGE! And yet they said they've caught bigger...
Other news? Molly's trash can got stolen. Creepy that someone stole it in the middle of the night. Don't like the idea of people lingering under the house when you're sleeping...ew....
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