All in a Day's Work

• Sleep in a little later than intended because I couldn't get to sleep last night (because I slept in so late yesterday). Check.
• Scrounge up breakfast: a single fried egg and Twinings tea. Check.
• Catch up with Hannah while sipping tea. Check.
• Explain to house help in a mixture of Arabic and English (neither her first language, Amharic) that Saturday is actually yesterday, not today. Check.
  She hasn't shown up for work the last two Saturdays, well, because she thought today was Saturday.
• Stop in the ducan to pick up lunch and Mongolian salt tea supplies. Check.
• Teach Geography to my 6th-8th graders and welcome the new student, a sweetie. Explain to her that when I talk about giving the other students money as part of our mock game show, I am joking. Check.
• Make Mongolian salt tea with my 4th and 5th graders and make it through the next lesson. Check.
  They thought it was so exciting that they were "cooking," even though they weren't entirely joyful over the taste of the outcome.
• Eat lunch and watch Kathleen, my co-worker's visiting fiancee, paint watercolors. Check.
  She's amazing; check out her web site!
• Go to language class. Refrain from crying because, even though I studied for hours over the weekend, I couldn't remember half of the words in my teacher's review. Check.
  Fortunately for me, my teacher is good-natured and patient.
• Nap on the floor on my ten-minute break. Check.
• Ponder why in the world the English translation for a word that should mean "foreign" or "western" is "syphilis." Check.
  Anyone smart figure that one out for me? The best I could figure from Googling the word origin of "syphilis" is that it was at one point called the "French" disease, and another word that came up in the translation was "Franks." My teacher was pretty apologetic when I teased her about calling westerners such a negative thing.
• Catch two debabs home. Tell the lady sitting next to me that no, I am not Palestinian. Check.
  I took it as a compliment; here, to be Palestinian would be far better than to be what I am.
• Go to the Canon store to inquire about camera repair, since mine suddenly stopped working. Check.
  Found out that it's just a teensy metal piece missing, and that it should be repairable . . . when the technician returns the end of next week.
• Go to the fruit stand in hopes of finding mangos. Success! Check.
• Look over the handbags in the decoration store, since I could buy one with Christmas money. Decide against it until my current back rips more. Check.
• Order ful and hobz (beans and bread) myself for the first time and take home a steaming plastic bag of hot food for $1. Check.
• Soak my vegetables in vinegar water. Check.
• Enjoy beans and bread, no matter if they cause future rumbly tummy. Check.
• Blog. Check.