For those of you who would appreciate some information about how the living in Miami culture is going, I seem to have lots of time on my hands tonight and only DBQ's to grade (AP History Document Based Question Essays, i might as well explain that now because in the course of talking to someone that will probably slip out)... anyway I am fairly good at avoiding grading on Friday night and so I have a few episodes to share which will hopefully make you laugh, which is of course my ultimate goal.
Today I went to Michaels because I need to make place cards for the NHS induction ceremony and I was out of white card stock (go figure) and so I waited in line for at least 15 minutes. During that time everyone around me is speaking in Spanish. The area where I live (kendall) has many hispanics, so this is not weird, but i would say that whenever I go to Michael's there seems to be a higher hispanic to gringo ratio than other places. Back to the point... i was listening in on the spanish conversations trying to figure out what people were saying. one woman even said something to me and i think i understood the context if not the words and so i laughed and smiled like i knew what she said, because truthfully i think i did. so that was great, then it was my turn to check out. The lady asked if that was everything and i think she said it in spanish, but who knows, out of nowhere I responded with "si" and either i said it quickly enough that she didn't notice my accent or I look enough like an hispanic she responded back to me with the total in Spanish. All was going well because even though numbers are not my strong suit, the total appears on the computer screen as always. But then my cover was blown because she asked me something and i had no idea what she wanted, she kept on saying "tres, tres" and i was very confused because i had given her a five dollar bill and my total was 2 something, so i would have expected her to say five or 2, but 3 was confusing, and so i ended up having to speak in english, and she knew english, but i always want to try to communicate in spanish because i think it's fun. she wanted to know my zip code, which is 33196, and so it all became clear.
Other things... Tropical Storm Noel was supposed to hit Miami this week, but it never came, which really is a blessing. I told my students that 1/3 of me is terrified of hurricanes, because i have heard horror stories, 1/3 of me just wants a small one to come so i know what they are like, and the last part of me really just wants one to come so i can get a day off from school and sleep in... oh well I made it through another week and now i don't have to adjust my plans at all because we are still on schedule. only 2 more weeks until thanksgiving!
Some students said that I remind them of Drew Barrymore... what do you think? i don't think i look like her, but she's pretty so i took the compliment.
And lastly my biggest pet peeve about Miami of all time is....... you cannot buy one single piece of clothing in the stores right now that you can actually wear outside! really the entrepreneur who actually opens a store that sells weather appropriate clothing here would make a fortune, well at least he or she would have all of my money.
Today I went to Michaels because I need to make place cards for the NHS induction ceremony and I was out of white card stock (go figure) and so I waited in line for at least 15 minutes. During that time everyone around me is speaking in Spanish. The area where I live (kendall) has many hispanics, so this is not weird, but i would say that whenever I go to Michael's there seems to be a higher hispanic to gringo ratio than other places. Back to the point... i was listening in on the spanish conversations trying to figure out what people were saying. one woman even said something to me and i think i understood the context if not the words and so i laughed and smiled like i knew what she said, because truthfully i think i did. so that was great, then it was my turn to check out. The lady asked if that was everything and i think she said it in spanish, but who knows, out of nowhere I responded with "si" and either i said it quickly enough that she didn't notice my accent or I look enough like an hispanic she responded back to me with the total in Spanish. All was going well because even though numbers are not my strong suit, the total appears on the computer screen as always. But then my cover was blown because she asked me something and i had no idea what she wanted, she kept on saying "tres, tres" and i was very confused because i had given her a five dollar bill and my total was 2 something, so i would have expected her to say five or 2, but 3 was confusing, and so i ended up having to speak in english, and she knew english, but i always want to try to communicate in spanish because i think it's fun. she wanted to know my zip code, which is 33196, and so it all became clear.
Other things... Tropical Storm Noel was supposed to hit Miami this week, but it never came, which really is a blessing. I told my students that 1/3 of me is terrified of hurricanes, because i have heard horror stories, 1/3 of me just wants a small one to come so i know what they are like, and the last part of me really just wants one to come so i can get a day off from school and sleep in... oh well I made it through another week and now i don't have to adjust my plans at all because we are still on schedule. only 2 more weeks until thanksgiving!
Some students said that I remind them of Drew Barrymore... what do you think? i don't think i look like her, but she's pretty so i took the compliment.
And lastly my biggest pet peeve about Miami of all time is....... you cannot buy one single piece of clothing in the stores right now that you can actually wear outside! really the entrepreneur who actually opens a store that sells weather appropriate clothing here would make a fortune, well at least he or she would have all of my money.
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