Just called to tell you that your daughter almost ate raw chicken...

True story. Seriously.

So if you saw my previous blog, you'd see that I had a Global Citizenship Induction dinner. So basically the older GC students put together a program that made us realize that there is more than one perspective. We were given cards with a name, country of origin, age, gender, and reason for coming to the US. Then we were separated and sent to the "DMV" and given forms in different languages. I think mine was in German, but I was from India, and the person there yelled at me in Russian or something.

Then we were taken to a separate room where two guys acted out the perspective of the "Afghani bombers" who wanted revenge for America killing their entire family.

Then we were taken to another room with three girls dressed as Afghani villagers who acted like host families to us. They made a "special dinner" for us (which was in the middle of the rug) and offered it to us. They said that they spent hours at the market and paid a lot of money for meat, which they hadn't had for months. The lights in the room were off but the windows were open, so it was a little murky and when I looked at the platter, it looked like chunks of pork (like the ones Nana uses for pinakbet) and super-lumpy-coagulated gravy next to it.

So they offered it around and the first girl said "sorry, I'm a vegetarian". The second and third person said 'no thank you'. There are two "foreign" students in the GC program: me, and Chuanfeng, who is from China. (Gisella and I agree that I am "foreign" because we were discussing the similarities between Hawaii and Italy and the fact that it is very different from the mainland US - almost a separate culture) So Chuanfeng and I are looking at everyone else like, 'why aren't you even trying it?' So when the platter came to me, I tried to make polite conversation while I figured out what to grab and asked: "What type of meat is it?" The girl looked startled and said "uh...chicken".

Since the room was so "murky", I couldn't see what to grab so when I was about to take, she moved away. She went to Chuanfeng next and he took a piece and popped it into his mouth. This is the funny part. "No don't eat it!!" they shouted and surprised, he spit it back out. It was raw chicken. I couldn't see that it was raw and they were so surprised that Chuanfeng actually picked it up and even more shocked when he popped it in his mouth.

Later when I was talking with Gisella, she asked me, "you were going to eat it, weren't you?"

I was totally going to eat it. I just couldn't see it clearly enough to figure out what to grab and what was "gravy" (turns out the "gravy" was liver or lung or some such and the chunks of "pork" was the chopped portions with the fat). Some part of my mind recognized what it was because when I was going to reach for it, I was prepared to swallow a chunk of the "gravy" whole. :/

So Gisella and I were talking and she said that only two of the entire program were prepared for it: Chuanfeng and I. She said that though I didn't actually reach for it, I was prepared to and she said she saw the intent, but could tell I was confused. So when I told her that I didn't grab it because I couldn't see it, she laughed.

-

Right afterwards I had the first lesson/meeting for the Swing Dance Club, so I went to that. It was great. We're learning "East Coast Swing" right now, and they taught us the basics last night: the "basic step" (or just "basic"), inside turn, outside turn, close position, "basic" in closed position, and a tuck turn. There weren't enough guys for the girls, so we had to switch every few practice times. I had about five partners (wow that sounds weird) and three or four times I went without one. One of my partners was my from Jose so we can practice our steps later - we both have issues with timing and some of the turns so we can work on that. One of my partners was a 6' Russian dude. He had a name that sounded French (Felipe, or something that started with an F - I keep forgetting it...was it Francois? :/ ) but when we talked about the steps (and how tall he was compared to me), he spoke with a Russian accent. He was a pretty good partner. x)

The interesting thing is that the "lead" (aka the guy - so sexist, yeah? x) ) leads with one hand. We use one hand when we dance, which is pretty cool. The president explained that the girls are like Barbies (:/) so we had to keep our arms somewhat rigid, so that when the guys make small motions with the hand holding us, we turn. The "follower" (aka the girl) had to be able to interpret the signs given by the lead and act accordingly. The only time we have two hands on our partner (wow that also sounds weird) is when we're in close position, when it looks like we're about to do the tango.

Anyway, when we were finished with swing, I went back to the dorm and called mom to tell her that I almost ate raw chicken. That's where the blog title came from. I was super tired, so I'm not sure if she said this or if I dreamed it, but I think she said "I'm glad...sort of..." x)

Jya!

~E