| Be Unconventional 1-28-02 Well, I was randomly wandering around, trying to find some woods. But the further I got, the thirstier I grew. Somehow, I got it in my mind to stop at a random house and ask for a cup of water. I passed up several houses, then finally, I decided on one. The mailbox read "Payne," and at first I was a little afraid. I looked at the house, though, which still had decorations up from Christmas, and although it was surrounded by oldish-looking objects, and a little overgrown with dead bushes, it looked somehow inviting. There were two sets of stairs leading up to the walkway. I took the second set, closest to the house. Finally at the door, heart pounding, because I am not used to this sort of thing, I rang the doorbell. A friendly-looking older gentleman answered the door. He looked friendly, but also a bit suspicious. I imagine he thought I was selling something. I asked him for a glass of water, and he told me to come in. I stepped inside the doorway. It was a split-level entrance and I stood on the landing. At the top of the stairs, I could see a small kitchen area in which an equally friendly-looking, frosty-haired lady stood. I took her to be his wife. They gave me a glass of water, but then they decided to find a plastic cup for me to take with me, in case I got thirsty on my trip. As the gentleman (for a gentleman indeed he was) prepared my water, his wife asked me where I was from. I told her my hometown and that I was from the college. Upon further prompting I told her that my major was not quite decided yet, but that I wanted to do something with languages. I went on to explain that my roommate had grown up in Taiwan and was teaching me a little bit of Chinese. On cue, the woman asked, in Mandarin, if I could speak Chinese. I recognized that it was Mandarin, but the only words I recognized were the first and last. 'Ni' (you) and 'ma' (which is the equivalent of a question mark). Seeing that I was at a loss, she changed her phrase to 'shye shye ni" (thank you). This I understood. I also noticed a Malaysian accent. As it turned out, she had been in Malaysia in the Peace Corps. I told her about the Malaysian friend I had who was also teaching me Chinese. She informed me of so many things that I had not previously known, including several travel opportunities offered here at my college. It was absolutely amazing to me that I picked a house at random, and the inhabitants just happened to know Chinese. They were quite wonderful people that I am very glad to have met. We talked for a little while before I finally went on my way. I gained several things from this adventure. I have made some new friends, I have been encouraged with my Chinese, and I have this story to tell. I am not necessarily suggesting that you go randomly knocking on people's doors, but neither am I suggesting you don't. I think that people today are far too afraid of other people. I have some experiences due to my incredible lack of conventionality that I would never have otherwise. Try it sometime. You might just amaze yourself. |
| Random Adventure 2-18-02 On Monday, a friend of mine suggested we go back to the cave we had been at the day before, do our homework in there, and sleep in there. I thought that was a foolish idea, considering we all had eight o'clock classes the next morning, and let's face it, who's going to actually sleep or do homework in a cave? Right? Apparently, I am foolish, because the next thing I knew, I was packing an overnight bag and talking one of my pseudo-roommates into coming with us. The four of us left around eleven PM. (yes, that's right folks, if we had gone to sleep the moment we left we would have had eight hours of sleep before waking up for our classes in the morning.) It took us a while to get to the county where the cave was, and Resa and I were not entirely sure where the cave was, so when we finally got into the cave it was around twelve-thirty AM. We explored the cave a little and that was lots of fun. Then around two, we decided it was time to do homework. So we all lay down in our sleeping bags, flashlights in hand, to study. Two-thirty rolled around, and Resa and I were the only ones still awake doing homework. I decided it was time to sleep, so I turned out my light and settled down for a nice (three hour and fifteen minute) night's sleep. It was cold. I kept scrucnching down and trying to fall asleep, only to be awakened again by the cold. I finally fell asleep, though. And I only know that because I was awakened very suddenly by the cries of my companion, Resa. "Eva! Get up! There's rats in here, tons of them, everywhere! They're huge!" I was sitting straight up, heart pounding relentlessly, searching frantically for these thousands of rats who were undoubtedly planning on eating my face off. There was Resa beside me, holding her flashlight, pointing at our open can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, but I did not see any rats. Resa has a tendency to exaggerate. There were rats, that's true, but there were two of them...maybe three. At first I was terrified, but then I saw a rat run across the cave, dip its head into our soup can and then run back across. It was kind of cute, but then I began to wonder if they had been eating our soup only after we were finished with it, or also before. (Eww.) Meanwhile, Carrie and Raj had been peacefully sleeping through the whole thing, all the rustling of the rats (who had been running about a foot and a half away from my head until I had awakened) and all of my squeals of fear (Resa likes to scare me.). So when they woke up, they did not believe us about the rats. They thought we were making the whole thing up, just to scare them. But we got pictures.... |
| One happy rat licks a Campell's Cream of Mushroom Soup lid about two feet from MY jacket. |
| Carrie, Eva and Resa study in a cave. Yes, it can be done. (Notice the open box of crackers by Resa....) |
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