Every morning I wake up and immediately need to know what time it is. It's like this urge wake up on time. I don't really know what I have to be on time for. Most days here we don't even have a schedule. I never want it to be too early, but I especially don't want it to be too late. Anything past 9:00 and I'm disappointed in myself. Anything before 7 and I will go back to bed. However, Lorie and I are still on Utah/Idaho time. I don't know what it is, but we are just not tired at all at 9 or 10, so we just continue reading or watching movies until we feel like we could sleep.
After I check the time and I need to wake up, I leave our icebox of a room and go into the kitchen where I hope that there's still some cereal left (I love cereal). I usually get something to eat and then wait for Lorie to wake up. Then, if she's hungry, we'll have pancakes or she'll eat out of the box of cereal or a can of fruit. Then I check my mail and blog to see if there are comments (thanks for all who do comment). I also check my facebook for news on "what's goin on." Or, like they would say here..."what a gwaaan!" (you have to say it really loud and annoying for it to take full effect) Can you see why we're so confused with the language?
I've been spending a whole lot of time researching Graduate School. I'm starting to narrow it down...I'm really interested in the University of Illinois, University of Texas, University of Georgia, University of Utah, and Purdue University(*Note: This is subject to change). These are the ones that seem like they would be the best fit for us. I am most interested in Illinois. There's something about it that really grabs my attention. I have no idea what it is, there are just some things that sound good. You know what i mean? For example, chocolate ice cream has a nice ring to it. And it sounds right to listen to this new music thingy that I put on my blog (Somewhere over the rainbow is playing). However, University of Georgia is one of the top ranked overall for communication and University of Texas is in the top 5 for both of the programs I'm interested in (Interpersonal and Organizational Communication). I still have a lot of time to decide. I graduate from BYU-I next April most likely, and I want to know where to apply. So, we'll see.
Then, Lorie and I debate on whether we should have Macaroni and Cheese for lunch, or Ravioli. This is a tough decision when you are eating them all the time. Mostly because you don't really want either and it's just not that fulfilling. Tuesdays are nice because it's buy one get one free at Dominoes. But that only lasts so long. I did however, make Top Ramen Shrimp flavor with actual shrimp in it. We bought some shrimp for less that a dollar and it tasted really good!
On Wednesdays we usually teach a workshop. We've been told that people will come in the afternoons, but we haven't had a great showing. It could be because the word isn't getting out too well, so we are planning on teaching these workshops in the evenings so that more people will be able to show. Also, we plan on making flyers and contacting the Branch Presidents to make sure people know. They come really late to everything so it makes it really difficult to put an actual time on these things. Some Jamaicans show up like an hour early, so you'll have one person too early and another person too late. What are we to do? Then we find another day during the week, like Saturday or whenever they are free to be able to finish the workshop. Even with all the time we put into these things, it seems like it doesn't completely sink in....so we need more time to help them learn to interact with their resources by interviewing and phone calls.
I imagine we'll get a really good showing when we start doing the Self-Employment Workshops. People seem really interested in Self-Employment.
Night Time is a big mystery because we never know what we'll end up doing. Once it gets dark, it's pretty creepy around here. Bartley usually comes home around dark, which is a good and a bad thing. He has a slapstick sense of humor. So he laughs at the tv when it is not funny. Like, a man was getting eaten by a shark and he was dying laughing. On another show, Martin Luther King's friend had to ride in the trunk of a car because the police wanted to kill him, once again...hilarious? He says a lot of things in a mumbling voice and we don't understand him so we just say "uh-huh" and "oh" a lot. He loves debating about Barack Obama and so we told him that Barack supports gays and he calmed down about Obama. The CIA is also very interesting to him. Everything is a plot by the CIA. Mostly, the CIA is out to get Jamaicans.
Jamaican TV is funny. There are two stations for those who don't have cable. tvJ and CVM. I like CVM better. At 10am they show American movies on both channels. This is February which means Black History Month. Yes, even here. So, we are getting shows that are about slavery. The good thing is that we will come back very aware of the oppression. The majority of commercials are loud and are about the upcoming plays at the theatres around Jamaica. We don't understand almost 100% of these plays, as they are in Patua. So, we almost completely discard TV. We got some movies from the Warrs. They let us borrow You've Got Mail, Prince Caspian, Amazing Grace, Doc Hollywood, and New York Dolls. We haven't even watched the last two. We watch You've Got Mail about once a day. Prince Caspian is fun to watch. Amazing Grace is good, but not great.
I put a couple songs from You've Got Mail on this Playlist. Can you guess them? I put And So It Goes by Billy Joel on here for Blank.
