Parting Thoughts

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As I leave Boston I realize just how much culture shock I experienced here. Within my own country. For those of you who have never left the country (or those of you who have never traveled around your own country) it's definitely quite a revelation. When I first arrived in Boston I knew no one. I tried the usual stunts that we Southerners use to get to know people (nodding to people on the bus, randomly saying hello, sitting and examining someone's book while they read, asking questions) but as I soon discovered these people did not want to talk. They had their set schedules, and for the most part their set groups of friends. One had to tap into their lives (which was not an easy job) to get to know them as people. My first weekend here was quite lonely. I tried my best but I knew no one and wasn't living with anyone. It took quite a few tries (and many T - subway - rides) before I finally started making some friends. Fortunately on Monday I had class and met a nice number of people through my class. In the end it was, surprisingly enough, the T (subway) which was the best place that I found to make friends. As I'm leaving Boston it is these people (and their friends) that I will remember the most.

But it wasn't just the people that was a new experience. My living situation was also something which I had never experienced before (and may never again). I had decided to live with an elderly couple who wanted me to work 12 hours a week for them in exchange for free rent, board, laundry, groceries and internet. They had a three story house with a pool, hot tub and a dog and wished for me to house-sit and dog-sit while they were away and cook meals (Monday-Thursday) as well as clean the pool, water the plants, lifeguard and occasionally baby-sit. At first glance it seemed to be an easy job. But as I soon discovered the TEFL class that I was taking took up a lot of time (as it took quite a number of hours to write my first couple of lesson plans), the class itself was 6 hours a day (not including lunch). The jobs that the family left me to do soon became tedious and time-consuming. The treatment was more like that of a house-cleaner than that of a friend (not that I should have expected any different). If I had had to live under these circumstances for much longer I wouldn't have been too happy. But for the short term it ended up not being too bad.

For those of you who are wondering about the name that I put up for myself the explanation is a little more difficult than you may think. As many of you know one of the things that I really enjoy doing (if not am really good at) is learning languages. Now for those of you who know Spanish, English, Hindi and Chinese (as I do) translating my name comes easy. For the rest of you here's a short description. The title literally means "I'm a new teacher." Estoy -
(Spanish) I am; a - (English); Naya - (Hindi) New; Laoshi - (Chinese) Teacher. So it's not in one language but all four of my languages. I just randomly decided to combine "a" and "naya" into one word. If you take these words apart and try to examine them within their own languages too much they make no sense at all. But together it sounds pretty cool.

If we were to gramatically follow the sentence it would be translated as follows in my languages. In spanish the sentence would be: Soy (not ESTOY) una nueva profesora. In Hindi the sentence would be: Mai eck NAYA guru hun. In Chinese it would be: Wo shi xin LAOSHI. And of course we know the sentence in English.

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