The Man With The Snails

The other day in class, our professor told us a story about a man with snails.  She had been in the Peace Corps and had seen a man every week at the market selling snails.  She described this man.  She described his habits.  It was to make a completely unrelated point about skewed data and histograms but I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about what this man would think, being spoken about in a far-away country.  Would he be proud?  Would he be embarrassed?  I also couldn’t stop thinking about the random people who have seen me do something regular or, more likely, embarrassing and who have remembered it.  Maybe a tourist will go back to their home and tell a lively story about an American girl who fell off of her bike… which I may or may not have done today.

This picture is better than one of me falling off of my bike.

 I met a German.  We spent lots of time talking and adventuring.  We took an amazing hike to see some hot springs.  Will he remember odd details about me? 

Sykes Hot Springs: Like having a baby.
When you're hiking there, you question why you ever
 signed up for somthing so crazy.  Once you get there, so worth it.

Marcus

I had the pleasure of meeting a wonderful girl from Arizona.  We went to the Steinbeck Center in Salinas and took a hike in Big Sur off of Pfeiffer Beach.  Will she remember one specific conversation or maybe just our experiences together?

At the house Steinbeck was raised in

Stephanie

I will probably always have a mental image of Subway when I think of one guy in my class.  I will probably forevermore shy away from Portuguese after this year.  I will always remember my high school French teacher.  From France, I will always remember Celine for her kindness and Celia for her patience.  Qualities and first impressions stick, sometimes unfortunately.   

Something I learned from the Steinbeck Center was that John Steinbeck based most of his characters off of real people.  What characteristics will I be remembered for?  My teacher just announced in class that she is getting a book published.  Will this man with the snails be included?  Will he make an impact on hundreds or thousands of students around the world?  I hope so.

California Girl

In a recent class assignment we were instructed to create a website.  I ended up linking my old blog – from teaching in France – to my assignment.  After spending the better half of my evening reading through my old adventures, I decided that a new blog is in order.

My newest home is Monterey.  I moved to this seaside city in California five days ago for graduate school.  I have yet to see the sun.  Seattle had better weather than this.  Yes, Seattle.  I hear that September is the best month.  We shall see.

The beach - the sun = A Monterey beach

I am attending the Monterey Institute of International Studies.  I am studying Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages while waiting to be sent off to the Peace Corps in June.  So far, I only have first impressions.  While attending Eastern Washington University for my undergrad, I felt like I stood out.  I had a different style.  I was well-traveled.  Everyone is like me here because we all are so different.  Yet we are all so similar.  There are 5 people with leather bags almost identical to my own.  One girl has my glasses. Everyone knows multiple languages.  Everyone has traveled to some extent, or comes from a different country.

We have yet to compare prescriptions.

With such a diverse campus, I am bound to have limitless stories of confusion and embarrassment.  Here’s a start.

Our entire first week has been orientations.  We did have one day that local businesses came and gave out free stuff: frozen yogurt, raffles, pamphlets, and the library even had a booth to give out library cards.  Apart from wanting to duct tape the mouth of the one girl in class who asks 20 questions, I like every one I’ve met.  I’ve only caused one person to feel uncomfortable so far. (While fishing for my wallet, some of the pamphlets and freebies from my purse fell onto the counter and the cashier seemed a little awkward.  Only later did I notice that I had somehow acquired a bag with condoms in it from the Planned Parenthood booth, and that’s what had fallen onto the counter.)  I’ve only waved back at one person this entire week who was actually waving at the person behind me.  And to top it off, I had a pretty smooth recovery.  It’s like it never happened.

This is a pretty good start.  I’m sure that I won’t be able to keep this record.  We will just have to wait and see if this nearly-flawless record continues.  I do have a couple of goals for while I'm here.  (I'm hoping that if I post it on the blog then I will be more likely to hold myself accountable.) I want to live it up as much as possible.  I'm here to learn, and I want to take as many opportunities as I can to learn, but I'm living in California. I want to see as much as possible.  I want to share my experiences with others.  I want to give back to the community, school, or church.  So here goes...