Five Questions
I know I’m late to jump on the bandwagon, but that seems to be the story of my life. Maybe this will turn into less work for me. Since everyone’s done it no one will ask me for questions. Not that I mind. I would love to ask some questions.
Maybe I should explain what I’m talking about. It all makes sense in my own mind.
Tequila Mockingbird has asked me five questions. I’m going to answer them. If you want me to ask you five questions leave me a comment and I’ll do so, but then you’ll have to answer them in your blog and make the same offer. Righto?
Here’s the questions:
1. When you meet people, do you trust them automatically, or do they have to earn your trust?
The first one and I’m already having trouble. I guess for the most part they have to earn my trust. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume they have good intentions, but I won’t just hop into the car with a stranger or anything like that. It takes me a long time to develop a strong friendship. I’m pretty shy at heart so I guess I do tend to keep people at arm’s length.
2. For some unknown reason…yeah, I know…I should know the reason since it’s my hypothetical, right? anyway, for some unknown reason, starting tomorrow you have to go on a diet of nothing but pb&j sandwiches for a year. So, what would you eat for dinner tonight?
That would be the nastiest diet ever! I hate PB&J. I ate them one whole school year and then have never eaten one since. But ok, if I have to do it I have to do it. As long as it doesn’t involve fish I guess I won’t die. Now the real question–what would I have for dinner tonight. Mexican food! I’d have a deep fried chili burrito from the place I used to work, with beans and rice from this little place in Brookings and salsa from the Cafe Rio in Astoria. Or maybe I would have a burrito machaco from Cafe Rio. Mmmmmmm. I want one of those so bad I can taste it. I don’t particularly care for their beans though and they have to do some serious work on their chips.
3. What’s the best book ever in the entire history of books?
How ironic that Tequila Mockingbird would ask me this question. The best book ever in the entire history of books is without a doubt To Kill a Mockingbird. Great characters, wonderful lessons, vivid writing. It just doesn’t get any better. I read it in high school and liked it well enough but it didn’t really stand out as brilliant. Rereading it as an adult was the best thing that came out of teaching. I should reread some of the other books I sort of liked in high school and maybe I’ll understand why the teachers were so keen on them. Don’t think I’ll ever understand The Scarlet Letter though.
4. If your life was a movie, who would play you? and, who plays your love interest?
Probably that girl Carmen from Popular. Is her name Sara Rue? That’s the only heavy actress I can think of. She’s not really overly fat, but she’s not super-skinny and a lot of my life has been dealing with weight problems so that would be a good fit I guess. I’d prefer Michelle Pfieffer. My love interest. Hmmmmm. Indiana Jones. That would be quite the movie, eh? Seriously. . . I just asked Mike and he says Arnold. Mike is a strange, strange man. How about a younger, better groomed Tom Cruise? Oh! I know, I know! The guy who plays Gary in Early Edition. What’s his name? Kyle Chandler? He’s a young Tom Cruise look-alike.
5.What do you miss most about not living in the united states?
This is the question that has prevented me from answering these questions sooner. I’ve thought a lot about it these past days and have come to one conclusion: the ability to easily and effectively communicate with those around me. This one little thing has totally changed my life. I used to be a respected member of society. Now I’m just an oddity. I feel completely incompetent when I go to the pizza place, the doctor, the grocery store. . . You get the point. I feel like people can’t see the real me because I am unable to use their language and show them the real me. Instead of the intelligent human being that my friends and colleagues know me as, these people get someone who can barely say “I’m not so good at Swedish. I have to go potty.” If I could communicate effectively I am sure I could find a decent job. I could find more friends. I could call people and take care of business. I know a lot of it is my own fault for not working harder at learning the language, but the point still remains that I don’t know the language and am miserable here. I can’t wait till we move back to the US!
Though I am so glad that I’ve had this experience. I will never treat immigrants in the same way again (I hope). I believe I’m a much more open and understanding person now that I’ve had this experience. I also see Europe as a more real place–before I thought it was some sort of fantasy land but now I understand it is a place just like the US that has very similar problems. There is no fantasy land.