PJ's Update / Christmas Thus Far

I have an ongoing list of things I want to write about, but I keep putting it off and the list keeps getting longer. And since it's only a mental list I know I'll be forgetting things as more things happen. So finally... here's an update.

And the n key seems to have lost sensitivity, so forgive any lack of n's in the text.

PJ's Update
I've been working there like 2 weeks now. It didn't take long to get used to the system. It's really simple though it's really different from what I was used to from before.

I think the guy who owns it knew what he was doing when he hired me. He hired me so I could be the face and the voice for the store since I'm the only one working there whose native tongue is English. I've had SO many conversations with people just based on the fact that I'm American. I've actually received quite a few calls from Americans - probably bc it's a product they're used to. Comfort food. And of course they usually tend to ask about why I'm there. I had one call yesterday who, after she placed the order, said that was the quickest she's ever gotten through an order bc they're usually not able to understand her. I had no problem! It's always such a relief to hear an American accent on the phone.

I get tons of calls from foreigners and it takes a lot of concentration. In fact, just being in the store requires a lot of concentration and simplified speech. The other girl who answers phones with me speaks English very well but there is a limit. Everyone else seems to struggle to some degree. I work with 3 Indians, 5 Brazilians (all the drivers), 1 Egyptian, and 1 Iranian. The Brazilians are all really tall and really laid back. They're always joking around about something. The Indians are always really proper and dignified... and are kinda short. It's fun to see the different cultural differences.

I'm not getting a whole lot of hours there though, so I'm still looking for a 2nd job that I can work during the day time.

Christmas Thus Far
Last week was the annual Christmas party of the house. I was actually at work at the time but got to catch the tail end of it when I got off.

There was a huge feast. There was such a huge variety of food. Someone left me a full plate of leftovers and I had fun just startig from one side of the mountain and slowly moving over to the other side. There was even Yorkshire pudding in the mix.

Decorations were all put up the day of and the night before. One of the girls cut out tons of snowflakes and strung them from the lights in the middle to the 4 corners of the room. And there's a 4-ft Christmas tree with ornaments and lights and strung popcorn that another girl and I made. I remembered doing that when I was a kid! So the room has a very Christmasy feel to it now.

We had a Secret Santa gift exchange. I was assigned the guy whose room I was taking over - the one who just got married yesterday. I got him a box of cards with the title "How to Improve Your Sex Life". I crossed out the "improve" and wrote "start". And they also double as playing cards! He actually had me and got me an American-English translation dictionary. I had fun sitting down with a couple of the housemates and going through some of the words that I never even caught being different.

Once the night settled down there were a few of us Americans left that sat around a laptop and watched A Charlie Brown Christmas. Christmas tiiiiiime is heeeeeere. Man, that brought back so many memories!

That was the party (one of many). Today after church we watched the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional. And after that I was part of the Institute Choir that sang an hour of Christmas songs for the congregatio. We've been working on that for a couple months now. It was so fun to sing in a choir again! There were a few really rough spots, but I think overall it sounded pretty good. Then anyone who wanted to could join the choir to go sing carols on the street to the people passing by. Too bad there was hardly anyone walking by. Maybe they were taking the long way around. I dunno. But we sure had fun singing. :)