I am generally not a materialist. I don't crave things before I have them, and I usually don't miss them when they're gone. So, while I expected that I would miss Steve and Michaela and model railroading and Bobcat football, I was a little surprised that I missed big cars and American junk food before I'd even left the Minneapolis airport.
With that said, here are some things I gained an appreciation for during my first day and a half of travel.
1. Corners and ends of rows
In Bozeman, I can go almost anywhere at almost any time and find a nice seat where I'm not surrounded on all sides by many people I don't know. Such places are evidently not as easy to find in the rest of the world, though it's certainly doable if you're awake at 3AM because of air travel and time differences.
2. The Boeing 777
Step into one of these birds, and you know right away that they were built for international travel. The seats in first class look like lounge chairs and recline all the way down to a 180-degree angle. There's a ton of economy comfort seating; those seats are wide enough for my shoulders, unlike the economy comfort sections on most airplanes. Even the regular economy seats looked like they had more room than usual. I was about as comfortable on the airplane as I would have been on MSU campus during a crowded part of the day.
3. Empty middle seats
This is self-explanatory. Shoulder room is good. Elbow room is good. I've also made my top two all-time favorite airplane acquaintances over empty middle seats, although that could have been a coincidence.
4. College football
Five people from three different companies are going to four different cities and seated in the same general area of one two-leg international flight, and all of us know that the SEC is much tougher to get out of undefeated than any conference short of the AFC.
5. McDonald's
I know that if I'm out of the country for two years, so I should expand my cultural experiences. I plan to. But when it's 2:30 in the morning, and I haven't eaten since 2:30 in the afternoon, it's nice to go somewhere that is open and has a menu I recognize written in a language I read.
6. Bilingualism
I don't speak Japanese, Mandarin or Malay, but a lot of helpful people in Tokyo and Singapore spoke English.
7. Clear, well-placed signage
I hardly notice the signs in Minneapolis after walking through that airport hundreds of times, but I did notice that the airplane I caught there had two boarding doors and no sign to indicate which was better for me to use. I had to guess. Tokyo, in contrast, had a very sign clearly indicating which door was which. The signage there was very good in general, and those in Singapore somewhat less so.
8. The Singapore Airport
Signage aside, popular consensus is that the Singapore airport is the best airport in the world. I plan to post about it later, but without spoiling that too much, I have to say that I agree with popular consensus.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Tenuous Tokyo
I'm writing this post from Tokyo, which marks my first time leaving the continent of North America. I suppose that has a symbolic meaning, even though I won't see any of Japan except the Tokyo airport. (On the bright side, I will have two years to see other parts of Asia, and I will not see Godzilla). As far as that goes, airports are airports. I haven't seen many continents, but I have seen a whole lot of airports. The Tokyo airport is not a whole lot different from some of the other ones I've been to. Reading the screens to find my connecting flight is slower, because most of the time, the display is in Japanese. They flash to English occasionally, but not for very long. Normally, it's fairly easy to figure out which city is which in a foreign language, but in a language that uses an entirely different alphabet, there's not a lot I can do with it. Even with their extremely preferential handicapped policy*, security is quicker, because either their scanners or their people who read the scanners are much better.
Oh, and the wireless in this airport absolutely sucks, even by the standards of wireless internet, which rarely fails to make me appreciate wires. They make you load eight different pages--at pre-terms-of-use free internet speed (meaning it takes an average of two tries per page)--just to get on. Then after that, they say you're connected, but pages don't load. And that's why I didn't actually get to post this thing until I got to Singapore.
*Any time a person in a wheelchair shows up in line, that person (and everyone he or she is traveling with) automatically gets moved to the front of the line. I know I'm a bad person (and irrational), but I got to the point where I was really annoyed to see yet another wheelchair. Wheelchairs or not, though, it was still quicker than getting through a comparable line in the US, especially when you take into account that they always search my bag in the US.
Oh, and the wireless in this airport absolutely sucks, even by the standards of wireless internet, which rarely fails to make me appreciate wires. They make you load eight different pages--at pre-terms-of-use free internet speed (meaning it takes an average of two tries per page)--just to get on. Then after that, they say you're connected, but pages don't load. And that's why I didn't actually get to post this thing until I got to Singapore.
*Any time a person in a wheelchair shows up in line, that person (and everyone he or she is traveling with) automatically gets moved to the front of the line. I know I'm a bad person (and irrational), but I got to the point where I was really annoyed to see yet another wheelchair. Wheelchairs or not, though, it was still quicker than getting through a comparable line in the US, especially when you take into account that they always search my bag in the US.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Culture Clash, Not Christmas, Comes Early
One of the things that drew me to teaching in a foreign country was the opportunity to experience another culture. To do so interests me on its own merits, but even more interesting is having an understanding of the expectations and behaviors of other people as a basis to comment on and critique those of my own culture.
It turns out I'm gonna get a head start on the commenting and critiquing part.
Western Culture, and the U.S. in particular, has a really skewed definition of the word "need." I bring this up because, with my departure less than two and a half days away, I have actually begun to plan what I will pack. I was discussing these plans with someone who told me, "you need two pairs of swimming trunks."
No. Just no. A "need" is something like protection from the elements, or food to eat and water to drink (unless your diet includes a few specific species of cactus, in which case water to drink becomes a luxury). If a fisherman falls out of his boat, then he needs to swim, but even then, he doesn't need swimming trunks. He's not going to improve his chances of survival by stopping to change clothes in the water. The only time people truly need to swim is when they find themselves unexpectedly in water too deep to wade. If one of my flights makes a water landing, then I will need to swim, but at that point, my trunks would be in the fuselage of a ruined airplane, and hopefully I would not, making them useless to me anyway.
Any sort of planned swimming excursion is recreation. Recreational swimming is by definition unnecessary, and does not qualify as a need. It might or might not qualify as a want. A mutual acquaintance of mine and this person's defended the statement as being colloquial and understood to mean that I would want to take two pairs of swimming trunks. If that were so, though, I do not think this person would have become irrationally angry when I said, "I don't think I'll take swimming trunks. I don't really enjoy recreational swimming," and even angrier when I suggested that if I change my mind, I will probably end up wearing out some athletic shorts (which I will be taking plenty of to wear around the apartment), and that I could swim in the ratty old ones. No, there are people in this country who think that it is absolutely necessary to have swimming trunks. And that's just the most ridiculous example. There are plenty of things people think are "necessities" that others are perfectly capable of going their who lives without.
Sorry, but that's messed up.
It turns out I'm gonna get a head start on the commenting and critiquing part.
Western Culture, and the U.S. in particular, has a really skewed definition of the word "need." I bring this up because, with my departure less than two and a half days away, I have actually begun to plan what I will pack. I was discussing these plans with someone who told me, "you need two pairs of swimming trunks."
No. Just no. A "need" is something like protection from the elements, or food to eat and water to drink (unless your diet includes a few specific species of cactus, in which case water to drink becomes a luxury). If a fisherman falls out of his boat, then he needs to swim, but even then, he doesn't need swimming trunks. He's not going to improve his chances of survival by stopping to change clothes in the water. The only time people truly need to swim is when they find themselves unexpectedly in water too deep to wade. If one of my flights makes a water landing, then I will need to swim, but at that point, my trunks would be in the fuselage of a ruined airplane, and hopefully I would not, making them useless to me anyway.
Any sort of planned swimming excursion is recreation. Recreational swimming is by definition unnecessary, and does not qualify as a need. It might or might not qualify as a want. A mutual acquaintance of mine and this person's defended the statement as being colloquial and understood to mean that I would want to take two pairs of swimming trunks. If that were so, though, I do not think this person would have become irrationally angry when I said, "I don't think I'll take swimming trunks. I don't really enjoy recreational swimming," and even angrier when I suggested that if I change my mind, I will probably end up wearing out some athletic shorts (which I will be taking plenty of to wear around the apartment), and that I could swim in the ratty old ones. No, there are people in this country who think that it is absolutely necessary to have swimming trunks. And that's just the most ridiculous example. There are plenty of things people think are "necessities" that others are perfectly capable of going their who lives without.
Sorry, but that's messed up.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Something Really Cool That Is Going To Happen Sometime
The question I get asked most often about my impending trip, besides "are you excited," which I already covered, is "do you speak Indonesian."
This question is actually two questions, because it's asked with an uncertainty that indicates I'm also to answer the question of whether or not Indonesian is a language, which it is. As far as I can tell from trying to read it, Indonesian is a mix of several languages. Many nouns in Indonesian look to be English-influenced, although most words are nothing like English, and all the spellings look Dutch. I could just look all this information up, but I did have some linguistics in college, and I feel like it will be more fun to try figuring it out for myself.
I do not speak Indonesian. This seems to worry the people I know more than it worries me. Part of that is likely because I don't do worry. The rest is because people seem to think that I will be essentially unable to teach due to the language barrier. I do not believe this to be the case, for a number of reasons. The first is that the school has hired other Americans to teach English before, and because they hired me with the knowledge that I do not speak Indonesian, and that you can't learn a language in a month. I would guess that the intent is for me to teach older kids who already know some English.
Beyond that, I know that I will have teacher aids assisting me. I know that the school has three native Indonesians already teaching English. I do plan on picking up Indonesian while I'm there, and I know that I was fairly good at languages back when I was learning French. Most of that time, I had the aid of an above-average memory, but when I at my very best, I didn't. I suspect I will figure out a system that works for communicating with my students.
I think the bigger adjustment for me will be how much authority I have in my new position. Right now, I'm a substitute teacher, which makes me management in name only. I don't have keys or detention slips or even an official name badge. I lack all the tangible instruments and trappings of authority. I generally have to persuade students to do things, rather than just telling them to. I have to get by with charisma and very occasional intimidation. I'm going straight from that to being in charge of teacher's aids and (or so I'm told) the three other English teachers, which means actually being somebody's boss. I don't know exactly what being the head of the English department at a trilingual Indonesian school entails, but I doubt it involves a whole lot of convincing students to take notes on Mythbusters videos instead of snapchatting, using only my wits and charming personality. I suspect there are easier ways for the person in the former position to get things done, and I wonder how long it will take me to figure those out.
I also wonder if the additional authority will turn me into a jerk, or into a bigger jerk than I am now.
This question is actually two questions, because it's asked with an uncertainty that indicates I'm also to answer the question of whether or not Indonesian is a language, which it is. As far as I can tell from trying to read it, Indonesian is a mix of several languages. Many nouns in Indonesian look to be English-influenced, although most words are nothing like English, and all the spellings look Dutch. I could just look all this information up, but I did have some linguistics in college, and I feel like it will be more fun to try figuring it out for myself.
I do not speak Indonesian. This seems to worry the people I know more than it worries me. Part of that is likely because I don't do worry. The rest is because people seem to think that I will be essentially unable to teach due to the language barrier. I do not believe this to be the case, for a number of reasons. The first is that the school has hired other Americans to teach English before, and because they hired me with the knowledge that I do not speak Indonesian, and that you can't learn a language in a month. I would guess that the intent is for me to teach older kids who already know some English.
Beyond that, I know that I will have teacher aids assisting me. I know that the school has three native Indonesians already teaching English. I do plan on picking up Indonesian while I'm there, and I know that I was fairly good at languages back when I was learning French. Most of that time, I had the aid of an above-average memory, but when I at my very best, I didn't. I suspect I will figure out a system that works for communicating with my students.
I think the bigger adjustment for me will be how much authority I have in my new position. Right now, I'm a substitute teacher, which makes me management in name only. I don't have keys or detention slips or even an official name badge. I lack all the tangible instruments and trappings of authority. I generally have to persuade students to do things, rather than just telling them to. I have to get by with charisma and very occasional intimidation. I'm going straight from that to being in charge of teacher's aids and (or so I'm told) the three other English teachers, which means actually being somebody's boss. I don't know exactly what being the head of the English department at a trilingual Indonesian school entails, but I doubt it involves a whole lot of convincing students to take notes on Mythbusters videos instead of snapchatting, using only my wits and charming personality. I suspect there are easier ways for the person in the former position to get things done, and I wonder how long it will take me to figure those out.
I also wonder if the additional authority will turn me into a jerk, or into a bigger jerk than I am now.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
T Minus One Week
Concussions are magic.* After all, the core of magic is just doing things that ordinary people or physical phenomena could do, but on a radically different timescale. When you have no short term memory, all of life is both an instant and an eternity away, at the same time. It's like living in a quantum paradox thought up by Stephen Hawking, or a magical kingdom thought up by Walt Disney.
All of this is to explain why, regardless of who asks me, or how everyone thinks I should feel, I'm not exactly excited, and not even close to nervous, about my two-year trip to teach English in Indonesia, for which I leave in exactly one week. Technically, exactly one week from now, I will be in the Minneapolis airport, and I've spent enough time there that while it isn't exactly home, it doesn't feel like having left home, either. After the Minneapolis airport, I will be in Earth's atmosphere, and then in Tokyo, neither of which are anything like home, so for the purposes of this blog, I leave home in a week. That's seven days, which works out to 168 hours or 10080 minutes or 604800 seconds, but all of those measurements just say "an instant and an eternity" to me. It's simultaneously way too late to be nervous and too far away to be psyched up for. It's simply something really cool that is going to happen sometime.
And, I guess, if your brain works the way it was built to work, "sometime" is pretty soon.
*Do not, under any circumstances, go out and get concussions. You do get a few freebies before they start affecting your personality, but things like short-term memory are actually useful, and hiding the lack of it takes a lot of practice, after which it is still a lot of work. Not to mention that even one concussion is bad for your long-term health. I also wouldn't wish the grinding, piercing, nauseating, eye-bending, mind-splitting migraine headaches on the worst of my enemies, although I can't complain about the lack of a sense of smell.
All of this is to explain why, regardless of who asks me, or how everyone thinks I should feel, I'm not exactly excited, and not even close to nervous, about my two-year trip to teach English in Indonesia, for which I leave in exactly one week. Technically, exactly one week from now, I will be in the Minneapolis airport, and I've spent enough time there that while it isn't exactly home, it doesn't feel like having left home, either. After the Minneapolis airport, I will be in Earth's atmosphere, and then in Tokyo, neither of which are anything like home, so for the purposes of this blog, I leave home in a week. That's seven days, which works out to 168 hours or 10080 minutes or 604800 seconds, but all of those measurements just say "an instant and an eternity" to me. It's simultaneously way too late to be nervous and too far away to be psyched up for. It's simply something really cool that is going to happen sometime.
And, I guess, if your brain works the way it was built to work, "sometime" is pretty soon.
*Do not, under any circumstances, go out and get concussions. You do get a few freebies before they start affecting your personality, but things like short-term memory are actually useful, and hiding the lack of it takes a lot of practice, after which it is still a lot of work. Not to mention that even one concussion is bad for your long-term health. I also wouldn't wish the grinding, piercing, nauseating, eye-bending, mind-splitting migraine headaches on the worst of my enemies, although I can't complain about the lack of a sense of smell.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)