Occasionally riding on a time machine in a blogsphere
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Giardia is nasty business. The most notable symptom is what is clinically referred to as, “explosive diarrhea.” It’s not pretty.
It’s one of the major reasons that government and health officials urge you to not drink the water while traveling in places like, oh lets say, Ethiopia.
In the entire time I spent Ethiopia, eating on the street, drinking non-bottled water regularly, I didn’t get it once.
I’ve gotten twice in the United States from Ethiopian food.
All my digital clocks and watches are set to 24 hour time. However, most of the people I interact with (Americans) are only fluent in the 12 hour dialect.
As a result, if someone asks me the time, I will look a clock at clock that says15:30 and without thinking I say “three thirty.”
In Italy, people will say “fifteen thirty” and I just get confused. I do the translation naturally but it only works one way.
I think I finally understand culture shock.
It’s that feeling you have when you stop for a second to ask yourself if people really live like this or if its a joke that someone’s playing on you. It’s when you look around to see if people are watching you and discretely laughing.
I seem to have this feeling every time I order adventerously at a resteraunt.
The North Korean defense minister says: “If [the United States], ignorant of their rival, dare provoke a nuclear war, the army and people of the DPRK led by Kim Jong Il, the invincible commander, will rise up to mete out determined and merciless punishment to the U.S. imperialist aggressors with the might of single-hearted unity more powerful than A-bomb.”
Mako says: “We too need an invincible commander.”
I mentioned a few weeks that I was a bad vegetarian because I would sometimes steal other’s chicken from the fridge because I liked committing the perfect crime.
Well, I flew to Italy a few days ago and I’ve been a REALLY bad vegetarian since then. Since I can’t really read menus, I just point randmonly or let other people choose for me. I’ve eaten beef at almost every meal since. But even in this meat-eating-period of my life, I want to call myself a vegetarian!
Why?
Well, I’ve noticed that most of the girls I like most (smart, politically conscious, sensative, thin) are vegetarians or vegans. I’ve also heard that vegetarians “taste” better.
Some are vegetarins for the health, the ethical reasons, or cause they don’t like eating cute things. I am a vegetarian for the sex.
If I have children, it will largely because I think it will be fun to name them. For example, I want to name my first child Debian.
Recently, I had the idea that it would be cool if children were named so that their first name or nickname was the same as their initials. For example, Benjamin Edward Newton would be BEN. Since my last name is Hill, the only name I can think of is Asher Scott Hill which, of course, would be Ash.
When was young and went by “Ben,” I could never decide if I would put BCH or BEN in the high score sections of video games and I think my plan will remove this ambiguity from my children’s lives.