quirkies

There are some things here that I find…quirky (for lack of a better word). Just a sampling:

• When people type they put uneven amounts of spaces between words.
• The equivalent of glass-plus is used as an all-purpose cleaner. When I’d use soap and hot water, people here often use a spritz, spritz, spritz. (wood shelves, pleather couches, countertops, etc.). Chemicals shkemicals – pyew!
• People buy rags. Maybe people do this in the States, too – but my family uses old cloth diapers, old cut-up t-shirts or towels. It’s not like anyone is breaking their budget on the things, but I still find it odd.
• Many, many “recipes” for sweets here include the following: crushed tea biscuits, margarine, pudding, coconut flakes, and a can of orange soda. Again – in a place where a lot of people grew up growing what they eat, what’s with all of the processed gook? I think a pan of brownies has purer ingredients than a lot of the sweets we’re served. [The more I help make them, the less I want to eat them…shhhh.]

And another delightfully quirky experience: Tuesday night was to be an independence party of sorts for the clubbies. I didn’t know what to expect, really, and I thought that I’d take the few I assumed were coming out for coffee. Yet they showed up by the bucketload (25 is a bucketload for me anyhoo), and several of them brought songs to lipsynch to. Hi-lar-i-ous. I’m not sure if the boy who lipsynched to “I am beautiful” anticipated that his teacher of sorts would bust out laughing so much. Somehow, the thing turned into a dance: guys sitting awkwardly in a huddle and girls having a blast. Eventually the 14-year-old dj switched to slow songs, and brothers and sisters and cousins danced together. It was a hoot. This stuff is way more fun now that I’m 25 than it was when I was 15!