I've traded studying Swahili for social life. I'd venture to guess that would be a general consensus as eating, laughing, and talking is probably more enjoyable than learning the difference between adjective, noun and verb agreements of ki-vi and m-wa class noun or memorizing the concept of how to tell time Swahili style. In the Swahili language, to tell time is to understand that there is 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. Day begin at 6:00AM and night begins at 6:00PM. Therefore to express 7:00PM, one would translate that as "hour ONE of the night". I better learn how to count because telling time will be a challenge for me. 8:00 PM would be "hour TWO of the night" and 9:00PM would be "hour THREE of the night" and so forth. 3PM would be "hour NINE of the morning". The clock face's 12 hours are completely different. The 12 is replaced by 6, 3 is now 9, 6 is oddly enough 12, and 9 is replaced by 3. CRAZY CLOCK! If one's mind work backward and enjoys insanity, here is another grammatical structure and cultural concept of how to express days of the week. Saturday is the beginning of the week, unlike Monday as we know it in the West. So, Saturday is expressed as "1st day", Sunday is "second day", and Monday is 3rd day" and now you understand why one better know how to count with fingers. Randomly enough, Friday is "congregation day".
There is only so much time in a day to do everything and now with less than 2 weeks before leaving home, it is now or never to see my friends and enjoy their camaraderie. My calendar is pretty full with lunches, dinners, events... and as I write this, I just happily accepted an Angels game with junk food galore.
I have been quite a recluse in the past several years where my social life has taken a back seat. I was comfortable being comfortable and didn't miss the social action. The thought of having to dress (the worse part), applying make up (cause as a middle-aged woman, you don't want your natural face to scare children), touching my never brushed hair (how do I hide my premature gray) and whatever entails preparation for a social outing was emotionally, mentally, and absolutely physically exhausting! When you get older, comfort takes precedent in aesthetic and sometimes even the potential of "fun". Fun to me is not having to "work" at getting ready to go out. You get addicted to Hello Kitty fluffy plush PJ pants. It's hard to take those off; it's like your second skin.
I am somewhat "making myself to be out there" again as I did once upon a time where I was a seasoned social butterfly. In the past several days, I am realizing how much fun and good time I am having with my friends. In a way, I have started to miss them already and realized their importance. I am grateful for my friends. Mostly I am grateful for their generosity as they have extended themselves and their invitation to me for normally, I would be off the radar for many as I never call a single soul. If it wasn't for the pro active initiation of my friends, I would have not meet them again...cause I'm too dang lazy to call! (blame it on Hello Kitty)
Thank you friends for allowing me to enjoy your company one last time before I leave home. I will miss you all.
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