"You're going home soon, anyways, right?" he says.
Gary......You may know how to make a mean Mongolian Rice Salad with Mayo, but your bedside manner leaves much to be desired.
Today, I officially ended my relationship with the Mrs Bunns family. (that's maybe a bit misleading.... technically, Gary ended my relationship with the fam)...I was hired under the pretense that they needed a random, rogue, illegal worker to complete menial tasks- oven cleaning, salad making, veg chopping- and I did just that.
Unfortunately, in an economy where 10 US dollars an hour is paid for minimum wage, it just didn't make sense for me to stay on.
The 'letting go' brought up some issues- the first of which being my supernatural power to control people's minds. This sounds a little LOSTish (give me credit, it's a Wednesday), but for about 20 minutes while I hid in the bathroom avoiding work, I actually said in my head "This job blows, I wish I was either fired or had a legit reason to quit"....
creepy.
The job wasn't fun, i felt stupid on a daily basis, i almost cut myself every time i picked up the knife, and I have a 1 month vacation coming up that i really didn't want to have to talk with them about....it's that whole Confrontation thing again....
So, as we part ways and I remove Mrs Bunns from my Facebook employment (or rather, change it to read February 2007-March 2007 instead of Feb-present), I think i'll take with me the valuable cultural lessons, the stories, the accent, and the chopping experience.
I can only hope they will smile as they remember my awkward blue jumpsuit, ability to sing all of the popular 1980s American Pop songs on Gary's CD, my affinity for Lion candy bars, and my stone cold silence when attempting to avoid confused conversation.
As the clock winds down before my mom gets here, emotions are running high in the flat- Spring Break planning is putting everyone on edge, and nitpickiness, loss of sleep, and a random combination of events have left some people frazzled.
I'm ok still. Aside from Mark and Carol's attempt to ruin any hope of me retaining an interest in being an english major, classes have been going well.
Our BritNovel class is the perfect example of A) why kids hate english and b) why two english majors should never wed. The class is like a shouting match between the two- a collision of literary theories and bad jokes, mixed with some rather unneccessary cajoling for a 9am class, with a dash of random quizzes that leave us all asking 'are you serious?'...
Bottom line- I wonder if maybe this is the right path for me. Obviously I've resigned myself to being the teacher that kids enjoy, the one that teaches what's necessary, the one that fosters interest (and clearly M&C are not this kind), but the fact that I have to wade through muck like this to get there, and the fact that what they're saying is extremely legitimate (albeit a bit overblown) literary theory that i should know and should take interest in..... it's scary.
They make reading unfun. this is why kids grow up to be social studies teachers coaching JV football. Or worse, accountants.
Classes at the university are going in two very different directions. TV is done for me- essay over, presentation 100%- so now, it's talk like a jackass (while making good, legit points) in seminar and feel superior time. Contrast that with say, American Lit (Hemmingway, Faulkner), where the professor sounds like a preacher who took ambien, and it's a whole new ballgame.
I'll never get over the simple joys that come with being an American in American Studies classes- Aaron and Emily and I talked about it at the bus stop on my way to TV the other day, and it's the same across the board- Emily is asked about locations during her Painting the Americas class, Aaron is seen as the resident genius when discussing The New Deal in history. How is it that I became such an expert on Sports in Television- suddenly my OCD Sportscenter watching has turned into a great skill.
god i miss sportscenter.
Our bonfire on Friday was not without its faults. Mark apparently caught wind (or I blantantly bragged about it during dinner), and surveyed the damage to much chagrin. An angry email later, and I was wrist deep in wet, charred timbers and a rusty grill filled with old nails that had sunk to the bottom of the blaze. What always strikes me as funny about Mark's emails is his inability to translate poor wit in person into unoffensive wit in type. He has an inane ability to come off as an asshole in every email he sends.... i suppose if the older generation was aware of such classic AOL shortcuts as 'lol' , he'd be a pro.
The weather continues to inspire. Hilary plans on stealing a few (15 odd) daffodils from campus tomorrow. The song 'wondeful world' by Louis Armstrong came on my ipod while waiting for the bus, and I can't say I've ever remembered a time when the skies were so blue, grass so green, clouds so white, or daffodils so yellow. I can't even fathom the shitstorm that hit the states- It's been 50-60 F for days now, and I can only hope it stays this nice....
Today presented me with some challenging news, but it deserves its own post...
later days.
Some parting words from America's favorite minimalist, Apple Guru Steve Jobs:
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
So i realize that in my painfull month of employment, aside from bashing Gary and my decline of appreciation in the British accent, I haven't really touched on my esteemed colleagues.
Yesterday sucked. You know that feeling of being in a situation where you have no idea what's going on, but you have to fake it- like a class where you didn't read the book, but the professor insists on asking you the big questions in front of the rest of the class? Yeah, that's how my Monday went.
Take one of the busiest cob shops in West Bridgeford, subtract a few lazyass employees who skipped out on work, and replace the normal short order cook Tom with me, the friendly neighborhood American who -despite years of sandwich making experience and a college education- is apparently a moron. Gary had boasted about the difference between an academic education and the education that comes from experience, and he was intent on making me fail in the latter.
It's hard to convey the hectic atmosphere of a workstation where I'm simultaneously frying bacon, cracking eggs, cooking sausage, making cobs, cleaning flat iron grills, buttering buns, scooping beans/mushrooms/tomatoes, and attempting to look like i know what i'm doing while my boss is hovering, 'making sure i get on alright'. It was frustrating.
At one point, i was accused of trying to kill the patrons who were unable to eat bread, simply by cutting a bun over the jacket potato station. I had no idea we had separate stations. I then buttered the bun with the potato butter, thus insuring the demise of 1% of the gluten-free population. I didn't lose any sleep last night over it.
Back to the supporting cast: Maxine- 35 year old who looks like she's 25. Parties hard, but can still sympathize with Amanda, the part owner who accused me of hating people with dietary disabilities. She's cool, but the accent is so thick I swear she's making fun of me....
Natalie- my girl, my mentor, my short friend, 25 maybe?, basically told me everything I needed to know, and did half of my job yesterday- at the same time, a bit of a stickler. She has invested her whole life in this job, and it's sad.
Gary- as previously stated, hates academics but loves slicing vegetables. Simon Cowell meets Emeril meets Droopy Dog
Amanda- her accent is one that will stick with me forever as the 'Nottingham Accent'- part owner, used to like me but i have a feeling it's wearing thin. I may be the most paranoid worker ever.... She's a blond ball of energy to say the least...
Tom- former uni student, in his last year of schooling, nice guy- too nice? works up front, so i hardly see him (or the rest of them, really...)
Heidi- new girl, attends Trent, admitted to having diarehha....wtf is going on? Good to see someone else struggling....
In other news, my dependance for TrentFM grows.... it's the only station we listen to at work, and I'm getting hooked on the strange affinity for repetitive BritPop, hip British Rock, classic Cranberries and Alanis Morrisette songs, along with the same lame commercials every day... My favorite commercials? One, for oven chips ("CHIPS GLORIOUS CHIPS! MMMM CRISPY! CHIPS GLRORIOUS CHIPS MMMM FLUFFY!") and another, for insurance sold by the company Churchill, which uses a really annoying bulldog who apparently speaks in a Winston Chuchill accent and dares the listener to 'challenge Churchill'- don't they find this moderately offensive, that the greatest politician in the last 100 years is being personified in animal form, and given a crappy accent? I'm trying to think of an American equivalent, but nothing is coming to mind.....
Last night I busied myself with everything but my TV Cultures final- instead, I managed to download a creepy fundamentalist Christian independant film/documentary that shows kids in a very conservative yet very cutting edge bible camp in Devil's Lake, ND. Basically, more terrifying than the Islamic movement in the Middle East.... You think I'm kidding? Imagine an America in which 88 million people disavow all faith in the public schooling system and home school them in order to teach their kids that Darwin was a satanist, Harry Potter is the work of the devil, and George Bush is the closest thing to God that this nation has ever seen. Scared yet? It's real, and it's part of the evangelical movement -
Rememember that Ted Haggard guy?
A different take, using some other clips from the movie...
I guess for now, I'll leave it at that.... I was up until 3 finishing the paper, and i guess to be pefectly honest I wasn't that impressed with it. Something about writing about The Office for 2000 words just didn't flow well- I hit about 1500 and it'll have to do- the assingment was for 1500-2000, so good enough.
Mom and Darol here in 2 days, cleaning, packing, planning, reading, enjoying the weather- lots to do.
This is what HAPPENED when 9 students from the middle of nowhere WERE picked to live in a flat in the middle of Nottingham, England.
This is what HAPPENED when people stopped being polite, and start being REAL.
This WAS Luther- Nottingham Campus, 2006-2007
...And now I'm back.
February 2007- March 2007
