As I was saying at the end of my last post, this week we have been hosting a couple of Brazilian visiting scholars at our house. When my advisor first approached me about this, I was willing to put them up at our place and my wife agreed so long as we could get them into their own home by May so that we could prepare for the baby and enjoy the last month and a half in peace together. And so we embarked on our own little cultural adventure.
I want to share with you my biggest lessons from this experience, but before I do, I thought I'd tell you a but about these two visitors. They absolutely loved Betsy, respected our house and our privacy as our own, and were the most polite and agreeable houseguests we could have ever asked for. In fact, they were even easier than some of our own friends here in the States.
However, here are a few lessons we learned from this experience that will help you bridge the cultural differences.
1) Electronics are much cheaper here than in Brazil. I had a similar experience in the Netherlands. This leads to a willingness to buy things that would seem like impulse buys to us.
2) The concept of U-scan groceries was foreign to them. Our trust in the shopper (or our self-confidence in being able to catch the thief) is not what they expected.
3) Our water is safe to drink without question, and our roads are paved throughout the city and suburbs. Hershey's chocolate is dirt cheap. We don't realize how great we have it.
4) Don't put your trash can by the toilet. I use it for tossing Kleenexes but it is apparently a sign that you can't flush toilet paper.
5) Only put the soap at the kitchen sink that you want used on dishes. It is too difficult to explain that some is for hands and some is for dishes.
6) They are very well-prepared to deal with our society. Public transportation doesn't scare them, they love the Big Bang Theory, and online banking and ATMs are common at home. The world is so different and yet not so different at all.
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| Cow tower we built at the Tri-State registration. Thank you, "Clarifly". |
This year my biggest geek moment came when I met someone who used to work at the old Hoover lab in West Virginia. She showed me old pictures of their fermenters and suddenly the manual came to life. I realized how much our system has changed compared to the original system, and she had ideas to solve problems I had been struggling with back at work. It's "aha" moments like this (and networking/brainstorming over beer) that make conferences worth every penny.
Back on the home front we have broken into two main themes. I am working on home improvement projects in preparation for the baby. My wife is completely tied up with baby showers and room arrangements. Slowly but surely we are inching towards B-day and baby won't wait.
Late this weekend, my brother and I drove up to Camp Ohio and taught mountain biking to high schoolers. It's nice to get out and ride a bit, and I remembered just how much I need to get out to ride for Pelotonia this year.
Saturday night, we dropped by the hospital to visit my grandpa. Complaining of heart trouble, he was admitted to the hospital Friday night. My prayers are with him, my grandpa and the whole family. He has not been doing well and he seemed so unhappy in the hospital that night. We brought him a flower to let him see the sunshine that is outside and talked to him about the farm and how it looks while he is stuck inside. In his heart he will always be a farmer - no retirement can take that away. And I know he is miserable when stuck against his will in the hospital. Losing control of your mind is one of the things I fear most.
Farewell to George Jones this week.
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