paint on a smile

Today I was exhausted. It seemed the exhausted bug was running through our office because mid-day we all turned to each other and exchanged comments about how pathetic and unenergized we felt. We decided we hadn't laughed enough. I quickly attempted to fix that for them by telling them I had a bug bite on my rear and that had to be one of the worst places to have one...how awkward if you scratch it! I hope you're laughing too now because the thought of spreading laughter and happiness around the world is the only reason I would ever tell you about such a personal bug bite. This discussion then led to me mentioning the Brad Paisley song "Ticks," which of course they had not heard. So I did what Fulbright sent me here for, and I shared culture...with my fellow Americans this time. They found it absolutely hilarious, and if you read the lyrics in a monotone voice like Lauren was, they are quite fantastically goofy redneck-esque. They get a kick out of a lot of my culture and stories.

The morning started with teaching Nursing school students about surface culture and deep culture. This is the idea that the culture we see is only the tip of the iceberg. Our customs, food, dress, religious rituals, etc. are all based on underlying deep culture which people may never know all about or understand even if they observe us--our surface culture. Lauren split the class with me since I had to split in the middle of a class to go to a curriculum meeting with Cambridge University Press. Lauren covered the history and celebration of Halloween in America and analysis of what it says about our underlying culture. Neat idea.

Shakespeare came none too soon this evening as I was ready to go home and start my 3...2 day weekend. I took tomorrow (Friday) off in lieu of the Sunday I worked the speech contest, but I have to work Sunday for the semi final round of the speech contest.

This evening, Lauren and I went to a fabulous opening of an art exhibit. Amazing! Lots of art, live jazz, and free food...just what I needed. When we walked into the room with the food, I was in New Haven again. The smell of the room was somehow identical to my grandmother's house on holidays. I think it was the mixture of bread, cheese, wine, brownies, banana nut bread, other finger foods, and lots of people that made it smell so familiar. It was really neat because the building the art display is in is this beautiful old Portuguese building that has been very well kept up. I wondered if it was an old government building. Interesting fact--we live in the oldest part of the city (according to Lauren); apparently next door to us is a turn about that used to be the city center. Nifty. The artists on display were a mixture of artists with Asian and European backgrounds. The lady we went to the vegetarian lunch with whom Lauren met through Couchsurfing about a month ago was there and had entered 4 pieces. This means there was also an Asian American displaying art in the exhibit as well. ....overall, this exhibit (and the food) made my day/night/week thus far. Unfortunately I have no photos of the gallery to share with you, though I did get one of only 500 printed books with the pictures of the art in it (for free!).

Here's the picture of the day today:

This is the opening to the Royal Supermarket on the way to my work. There are many Royals in the city. This one isn't as small as it seems. You actually walk down stairs to get to a bigger room. It's still much small than stores in the U.S. though. They could only fit like 10 Super Wal-Marts in the whole of Macau though. Okay, it's not that small...you get the point.

Tomorrow is looking to be a GREAT day! Business conference to help support my research, sleeping in, exploring, sunshine, and dinner with a MPI/USJ ETAs and a French guy crashing at Ray's place at an Italian place on the beach. Stay tuned.