observaciónes

As I walk to and from work everyday (from my new home, near the industrial park) I find myself taking note of everything that is new.  Normally I would not be very interested in an industrial park, but I find it fascinating to see everything coming to life when I am walking to school at 6:30 AM for the 7:00 AM class  that I teach.  There's everything from a mattress factory, a furniture factory or warehouse, Honda, a big plant where it looks like they put together and sell lumber (I love the smell of the fresh wood that's been cut), an appliance manufacturing place, etc.  I know that I shouldn't be, but I find myself surprised to see expansive, modern-looking buildings and warehouses where everything under the sun is manufactured, stored, sold, and carted away in 18-wheelers, which are in abundance in and around the industrial park.  Of course along the way to the industrial park are little stands and carts where local women cook traditional food for the workers.  And today there was a man walking a pig on a rope.  I wouldn't call the rope a leash because I do not believe that the man & pig were out for a stroll or for the pig to do its business.  I can't help but wonder if the pig was on its way to be slaughtered.  It's still all new & perhaps I'll lose interest, but for now it's interesting.

Another observation, which I've not yet written about, is the fact that every building--house, store-both large and small, school, factory, office, etc.--is walled or fenced-off, boarded up, locked with multiple locks & protected up the wazoo.  I only have 3 keys to get into my new house.  For my previous one, depending on which door I entered, I had 4.  Most public buildings have 1 or 2 or more armed guards at the entrance.  For the school where I teach, I have a key to the office that I use and to the bathroom.   There are always at least 2 guards at the entrance, wearing bullet-proof jackets.  They usually seem very bored as it doesn't appear that they have much to do, which maybe is a good thing.  The only thing that I have seen them do is open & close the gates to the entrance to let people & cars enter & exit.  They also store the only set (to my knowledge) of keys to the classrooms.  There are 3 floors to the school and each floor has its own ring of keys with one key for each classroom on that floor.  I don't know why the classrooms are locked from one class until the next, but it's always a process to get the keys to unlock the classrooms.   Occasionally no one seems to have the keys, perhaps because the last person to take them mistakenly brought them home or the cleaning person has them.  One time my students & I were stuck in the hallway as no one seemed to have the keys.  I went to the guards several times & eventually one of them discovered that the keys were in his pocket!

Last, but not least, I am including a photo of my bowl of chicken soup that I had at my previous host family's house.  It does look like a hand in the soup, but it is actually a chicken foot.  I am not interested in eating the chicken feet, mostly because, from my perspective, there's nothing to eat from the foot other than skin and bones.