Thursday | Racquetball with Stefan

On Thursdays, I play racquetball with this guy named Stefan. He's a physics major, parts his hair on the side, and we always play really close games of racquetball. We usually always go to a third tiebreaker game and the score is usually very close. I don't know how many times I have won or he has won but it's probably close. It's nice to know that we are basically at the same level of skill. It's nice having someone else wear those silly glasses with you too.

Stefan usually hits it through the little gap on the back wall where people can observe. He doesn't do it on purpose, but he is very good at hitting it up there unintentionally.

We usually play a little over a hour. We've gotten faster as the semester has progressed so instead of playing best of three games we play best of five and we usually have to go to that fifth game for tiebreaker.

Stefan is a little more outgoing than I am. He always initiates the conversation as what time we can play next. I usually just nod my head and say, "Yeah, that time should work for me." I am a much better at emailing when trying to be social. Usually, I'll throw in a little joke here or there just to lighten the mood because e-mails should be funny, not serious. No one ever gets a bland letter in the mail from someone they know.

Racquetball is a weird sport. It's not tennis, which I was getting comfortable with, and it's not baseball, which, for me, naturally takes over the natural fundamentals of any other game. Racquetball is weird because I combine both tennis and baseball into it. I have to move around, lightly on my feet, like tennis, but I get to smack it like a baseball. So my best shot is a ball waist high, where all I do is it hit it like a baseball, top hand and all. It smacks the bottom of the wall and scoots across the floor.

You don't talk much in racquetball and if you do it is hard to hear. Racquetball courts echo like no other.

That is the main event on Thursdays. That is, until racquetball is over and then "The Office" is my main event. It could be my lab for "Environment and Humanity" but, you know, who looks forward to going to class? Especially a two-and-a-half hour one?

Wednesday | Pie Night

Wednesday is "Hump Day." If you don't know why it's called "Hump Day" I shall explain. Wednesday is the middle of the week. The week is like a hill. Wednesday, being in the middle of the week, is the top of the hill. So when it is Wednesday, you are now getting over the hump of the hill. Hence, "Hump Day." Still don't get it? Well...try thinking.

Wednesday, is also "Pie Day." Where at Baker's Square (you would think us college kids would call it, "BS" for short, but that is not the case, I wonder why?) they have a deal where all you have to do is buy one thing from the menu and you get a free slice of pie. So I got a glass of apple juice and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup pie. Delicious. Yes!

Here, I experience the same things as Taco Night(See Monday). I experience community, deliciousness, and friendship.

Here, is where I'm learning my roommates "Chewbacca Call." My roommates can make this sound like Chewbacca does in Star Wars. I can't do it, I just gargle my spit and sound like a dying cat. But they can't whistle like I do so it's all good.

That is Wednesday, Hump Day, almost to the weekend.

Tuesday | The List | 01 | Culture

On Tuesday nights I go tutor Somalians. I do it through an organization called SALT. I think it stands for Somali Adult Literacy Training. I'm doing it through my Cultural Communication class. Well, we're required to do it for class. By the end of the semester I will have over twenty-four hours under my belt so, technically speaking, I will have spent one day with a person from another culture.

If you want to get technical, we spend every day with a person from another culture. At least this is what I learned in my class and have observed since then. For example, go to taco night and see who orders a hard shell and who orders a soft shell. I grew up always having soft shell while my roommate grew up always having hard shell. Cultural/Experiential difference. Another example, have macaroni and cheese and ask people what they usually put on their "mac & cheese." I grew up always having ketchup available. I found out early in my college career that this is super weird. Others think putting ketchup on eggs is normal while I think it is disgusting (sorry mom). Others think putting ham in their "mac & cheese" is weird. Again, cultural differences.

So to get more technical I am revising "The List." I am changing it from "spend an entire day with a person from another culture" to "spend an entire day with a person from a different ethnicity."

Now, you could probably get technical about that one too but let's just pretend we won't. I blame on my technicality on my other class, which is Media Law. Hooray for "legal-eeze" language!

Now, I've only been there once, and tonight will be my second time, so I cannot give a huge amount of detail on how things work. So, I will just share my experience from my first time there.

The first fifteen to twenty minutes was "training" and welcoming. I met some regulars who were my age, and cool. There was Amanda, who knits, and Sarah, who lives in the inner-city for outreach and missions. There were more but these two seemed like the regulars.

I mostly stood by them, because I was nervous and didn't know what else to do. The Somalians were already having class but for break they came in and had tea. The regulars sat and talked with them while I just kind of stood there, not knowing what to do. Sarah introduced me to some of them and I shook one of their hands. I was told not to initiate a handshake unless they initiate it first. So I just smiled and stood there.

There are three levels of tutoring. I was with the middle group, where they know basic sentences and that is about it.

Right as I was about to follow Amanda and help her tutor the middle group it was sunset. Because the majority of the Somalians are Muslim they pray five times a day and sunset is one of those times. So a little fifteen minute break and then the tutoring got started.

I helped Amanda teach three men about maps and directions. I taught left, right, and straight. I'm not sure they caught on but I tried. We worked on spelling and pronunciation also. About five minutes in I was so grateful I learned English. English is such a hard language! I was trying to make the sounds for the word "bus" and he kept spelling it "bas." It was probably because I kept going, "Ba, Ba, Ba" for the letter "B" and then "Uh, Uh Uh" for "U." No matter how I tried it kept coming off like it should be spelled "Bas." So, I'm sure I'll get better at it. Don't even get me started on the word, "avenue."

Overall, it was a good experience. Uplifting. Enlightening. Encouraging. Beautiful. I felt that I wasn't doing it out of pity, out of my class requirement, but because I sincerely wanted to help, to serve, someone who wanted it.

I'm sure I'll post more on this later. The stories will surely come up, not that I'm expecting anything.