So, do you ever have those moments where you're thinking about one thing and then that leads you another thought, which leads you to another one? And pretty soon, you're wondering what it was you were even thinking about in the first place? And then your head explodes?

That happened today, and I remembered back when I first got to site, I asked my co-teacher's daughter, who speaks impeccable English some questions from this cultural workbook that Peace Corps gave us because I'm a nerd like that. One of the interesting things that I asked her about was how non-Americans view Americans. According to a  Newsweek article from I don't know when, people from six countries-- France, Brazil, Great Britain, Japan, Mexico, and Germany-- were asked to choose from a list of qualities those they most associated with Americans.

The list of qualities are:

Decisive
Industrious
Sophisticated
Greedy
Lazy
Energetic
Sexy
Intelligent
Nationalistic
Rude
Honest
Self-indulgent
Friendly
Inventive

I thought the four qualities most associated with Americans would be:

1. Friendly
2. Greedy
3. Inventive
4. Honest

And the four least associated with us...

1. Intelligent
2. Sexy
3. Sophisticated
4. Nationalistic

According to Newsweek, the top four were:

1. Energetic
2. Industrious
3. Inventive
4. Friendly

And the bottom four:

1. Lazy
2. Sexy
3. Honest
4. Sophisticated

My co-teacher's daughter's top three:

1. Energetic
2. Industrious
3. Greedy

Bottom three:

1. Lazy
2. Honest
3. Sexy

All of these results were actually better than I expected. I consider myself to be a fairly hardworking person, so I'm always really afraid that people are going to think of me as lazy. I have to justify every "lazy" activity I do to myself, like watching a movie. It's exhausting. 

Missing you all

I called in sick the other day and just sat around watching "Harry Potter" movies, which always makes me think of my brother. For some reason, I'm feeling really nostalgic and missing America a lot lately. I think partly because it's fall there right now, which is my favorite season, and it's still hotter than you-know-where here.

And, of course, I'm missing how easy it was to talk to everyone back in the States. No expensive phone calls or crazy time differences. I knew everything that was going on in everyone's life, even the little mundane details, and now, I feel like I can barely keep up with the big events in people's lives.

Two goals, goal two

Despite the busy and glamorous life I am living out here, one of my followers had the gall to call my blog a fail since I hadn't updated since May. It's not that I haven't wanted to and not that there haven't been things to blog about, but I am a perfectionist and didn't want to put up any blog that I hadn't spent ample time writing and re-writing and then starting over and re-writing again. But, I do have to remember, this is just a blog and not up for the Pulitzer Prize.

So, just a bit of an update.

School's ending in a couple of weeks for a three-week break. During this time, I've set a few goals for myself:

1. Lose 20 pounds
2. Marry the beautiful man from the Nescafe commercials over here.

Only two items. Completely do-able. If those don't pan out, I do want to create a classroom management plan for my two schools that is simple enough for my co-teachers to continue without me there. This has always been my weak point; they are both better at this than I am, but there is one class at one school that always seems to get the better of us, so I would like to try something new. I think I'll also spend the majority of the break playing catch-up in the areas that I've fallen behind in. I need to organize my lesson plans, create materials, etc. In other words, Yay, Break!

But, before break begins, my co-teacher and I are co-hosting a Halloween party at my big school, which I am super stoked about because, if you know me, you know my love of hosting parties. Any chance I get, I'm throwing one. So, I saw this one, called it Peace Corps Goal Two, and I'm on my way. Obviously, there will be a few compromises made, but I'm still looking forward to it.