Yesterday was another long day. Not at first of course; days are never long at the beginning. It did, however, seem to drag on into the night with an indeterminate length and strength. One would think this was a bad thing, but it actually turned out all right.
The morning was test time for the university students, so I had free time after reading the listening portion until that part was finished 10 minutes later. Then I was correcting those sections as they began their other parts. This lasted until my class with the engineers/vets. This class was about clothes and comparisons and opposites. They had minimal problems with this except for the inordinate amount of differences between British and American English. Then came the question. While I explained to group 2 some of the opposites and how confusing they can be on my own accord, group 3 actually asked about them. "What is the difference between light and dark and bright and dull?" AHHHHHHH!!!
If I have to keep explaining opposites to people, I think I am going to quit! Who invented this rather odd language of English anyway? Actually it is quite amusing to see people struggling with the difficulties created by all of this. Even for native speakers some of these things are not easy. Oh the fun of teaching things that make little sense.
The class ended, and it was time to get back to marking. The marking lasted the rest of the day. Then I came home. As I was walking from the van to my apartment, the other teacher asked if I really wanted to go out to dinner at the Persian restaurant, which I immediately agreed to do. Of course, she had to wash her hair, so it would be a little while. I didn't think much of this until it turned out to be just over an hour and a half later that she came over! Apparently it usually takes her 2 hours, so she must have rushed a little so we could have dinner at a semi-decent time.
The restaurant was fabulous! It has one large fountain at the front door, and a fountain that looks like a river (complete with fake ducks) running down the center near the back portion of the restaurant. This ends not to far from another "fountain" that looks like a large waterfall. The front part of the restaurant is made up of regular tables one would expect to find at a fine dining establishment; in the back are raised "beds" on which you sit after having taken your shoes off. It is like sitting and eating off the floor, except you have to climb onto it. There are cushions, so it is quite comfortable.
The food was also quite excellent, and well priced. At first it seemed a little expensive ($13 for a kabab), but then I realized that the pop (soda), water, and all you can eat salad and desert bar were included in the price. And the kabab came with a large plate of different types of rice (purple, yellow, white...the colors were wonderful), vegetables, and bread. It was very filling, and the atmosphere made the wait well worth it.
After spending about 2 - 3 hours in the restaurant, we walked to Maximall (a clothing store). I walked around with her for about half an hour and she tried on various tops and looked at the jewelry and other such girlish nonesense. Then we crossed the street to Bakery and More for some ice cream...and they were out!! They said they would have some tomorrow...but it was quite dissappointing for that night.
The cab ride home was interesting as well. The person made me sit in front while the other teacher had to ride in back alone. The driver attempted to talk to me all the way home. He asked me where I was from, if I like Iraq or America better, if it would cost a lot of money to go back the US with me, and various things like that. I only caught half of it, though as it was all in Kurdish. I am not sure what possess these people to constantly talk to me when they know I can not understand. I generally don't mind, but sometimes I just want peace and quiet, and I would probalby pretend to not understand even if I did.
I got home around 11ish, and I was tired. I said good-bye to the other teacher, but then got caught by the Bangladeshi who works on maintenance and such. It is here that I learned that there are some twisted similarities to English in their lanauge when it comes to family. Apparently "mommy" is Bangladeshi for mother's sister, while "daddy" is grandmother and "dadda" is grandfather. He tried to teach me more, but I have sense forgotten them. I am already going crazy with all these words floating around in my head. I really need to find a way to organize them. Even when looking to say thank you, the first words to enter my mind are the Arabic, the Polish, and the Finnish...eventually the Kurdish gets there, but it is still a little slow. Perhaps as time goes by, I will be able to get it faster.
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