Even Mr. Ezra
I suddenly remembered that I actually came to Malaysia to study the food here. As I was told that I would have ample free time (kind of a gotcha, I only teach for 7 hours a week, but am on campus for 35) I had a proposal to study the many differnt kinds of curries in Malaysia. Indian, Malay, and Chinese cuisines all have curries so I figured I'd have a great chance to compare, contrast, and consume. The problem being, of course, that where I spend 95% of my time, there's really just the Malay curry, the Malay, fish, the Malay philosophy of food.
And it's a fun philosophy too. If I could boil it down to one sentence it would be:
Mix something tasty with something plentiful.
If it had another caveat it would probably be:
Add in a fish.
And if it had two caveats, the other would definitely be:
Eat the parts you shouldn't be able to eat.
It's also worth noting that while half of Malaysian cuisine is decidedly unprocessed (whole fish and rice might be the only true staples), the other half revels in its ability to make meats into balls, crackers, sausages, and heart shaped nuggets. And they really do love these foods. I saw most of the female teachers order three hot dogs each to supplement their plates of fried noodles. Three hot dogs as a side dish! For breakfast! And keep in mind, only half of these teachers were visibly pregnant.
In other news, I had my first assembly today, and it was everything I thought it would be and much, much worse.
Basically I sat for 1 hours and 40 minutes so I could give a 5 minute speech on the benefits of spontaneity as it related to improv and speech. Needless to say, no one understood it. I'm now faced with the ironic choice of whether or not to bother repeating a slower version of the speech at a future assembly. I'm guessing I'll avoid hypocrisy for the time being.
One of the only things I did catch during the 95 minutes I wasn't speaking, was when the principal sad "Ezra" and "Respect." Curious, I asked one of the teachers what he said.
"He said that the students must respect all of the teachers, even Mr. Ezra."
"Oh," I said. "Thanks."
I don't want to be too concerned, but that's strange, right? Like if I told you, "you have to love everyone, even poor people" you would assume that as it stands, people didn't like poor people.
To be fair, they really have very little reason to respect me. Aside from me being taller, older, and more American than the students, I'm really a pretty laughable teacher. Yesterday I showed up half an hour early to my one class and started teaching until one of the students told me my mistake.
"Cool," I said. "So I'll see you in half an hour, and we'll pretend none of this ever happened."
Still, if the students have to be told to respect me, at least they don't have to be told to like me. Or at least they don't have to be told this at an assembly. Or at least if they are told this, no one bothered to translate it for me so I can go on being ignorant.
That's not really as comforting of an "at least" as I would have hoped for.
Whatever, I'm going to go make a fish head/hot dog sandwich after this next class. That'll cheer me up. And besides, I hear hot dogs have to be tasty for everyone, even Mr. Ezra.
And it's a fun philosophy too. If I could boil it down to one sentence it would be:
Mix something tasty with something plentiful.
If it had another caveat it would probably be:
Add in a fish.
And if it had two caveats, the other would definitely be:
Eat the parts you shouldn't be able to eat.
It's also worth noting that while half of Malaysian cuisine is decidedly unprocessed (whole fish and rice might be the only true staples), the other half revels in its ability to make meats into balls, crackers, sausages, and heart shaped nuggets. And they really do love these foods. I saw most of the female teachers order three hot dogs each to supplement their plates of fried noodles. Three hot dogs as a side dish! For breakfast! And keep in mind, only half of these teachers were visibly pregnant.
In other news, I had my first assembly today, and it was everything I thought it would be and much, much worse.
Basically I sat for 1 hours and 40 minutes so I could give a 5 minute speech on the benefits of spontaneity as it related to improv and speech. Needless to say, no one understood it. I'm now faced with the ironic choice of whether or not to bother repeating a slower version of the speech at a future assembly. I'm guessing I'll avoid hypocrisy for the time being.
One of the only things I did catch during the 95 minutes I wasn't speaking, was when the principal sad "Ezra" and "Respect." Curious, I asked one of the teachers what he said.
"He said that the students must respect all of the teachers, even Mr. Ezra."
"Oh," I said. "Thanks."
I don't want to be too concerned, but that's strange, right? Like if I told you, "you have to love everyone, even poor people" you would assume that as it stands, people didn't like poor people.
To be fair, they really have very little reason to respect me. Aside from me being taller, older, and more American than the students, I'm really a pretty laughable teacher. Yesterday I showed up half an hour early to my one class and started teaching until one of the students told me my mistake.
"Cool," I said. "So I'll see you in half an hour, and we'll pretend none of this ever happened."
Still, if the students have to be told to respect me, at least they don't have to be told to like me. Or at least they don't have to be told this at an assembly. Or at least if they are told this, no one bothered to translate it for me so I can go on being ignorant.
That's not really as comforting of an "at least" as I would have hoped for.
Whatever, I'm going to go make a fish head/hot dog sandwich after this next class. That'll cheer me up. And besides, I hear hot dogs have to be tasty for everyone, even Mr. Ezra.
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