Lesson from the Locals

This past week Ted and I had the opportunity to learn something delightful about Philadelphia; and by delightful I mean extremely annoying...

Last Saturday we had the second greatest snowstorm in Philly's history. Yep, twenty-plus inches of snow and it was madness. Yesterday, we got another eighteen inches. In our neighborhood, the row homes are tightly packed (there are sixty-six homes on our one block), and since no one has garage space, parking spots are often hard to find on a day-to-day basis. Well, since digging one's car out of two to three feet of snow is such a chore, people here feel entitled to leave a lawn chair or orange cone in their spot, in order to keep their spot 'reserved' until they return home.

This may not sound so ridiculous, but I came home a few nights ago to find seven empty spots on our street, each with a cone or lawn chair situated right spack-dab in the middle! Seven empty spots, and I couldn't park in any of them. These spots don't actually belong to anyone, so I don't know where the fantasy comes from that you can claim spots that aren't yours! Hmph, it had me in a tizzy for about - 5 minutes. But, I suppose I have no choice except to obey the cones and chairs... :)

Baloney.

A friend in my program is from Burma. He has worked in the development field for at least twenty years, and he is now pursuing his MBA in the U.S. to enhance his skills and better equip himself for starting his own NGO in Burma. His name is Myo.

Myo is very quiet. We had the opportunity to enjoy Thanksgiving Day with him, at the home of my academic advisor Connie. He has a wife and two children back in Burma, and I think the separation, plus the language and cultural barriers here in the U.S., must be difficult for him. But he is such a kind-spirited person.

One day during our three-day residency for our Applied Research course (Jan 14 - 16), I was complaining of being hungry to the classmates at my table. I had packed an unusually light lunch that day and chose to eat it all during morning session (because my breakfast cereal didn't hold me over too well.) Myo must have heard me, because when I turned around to say "hi" to him about five minutes later, he insisted that I take one of his three baloney and cheese sandwiches.

I politely and appreciatively declined, but finally gave in to his persistence. It was a baloney sandwich on white bread, with random dots of cheese. I don't know how the dots got there. I was thinking "wow, poor Myo, unable to find his usual Burmese cuisine here in this foreign land and he must succumb to the worst of processed American food products" or, perhaps this is what happens when a married man is separated from his lovely, capable wife and thrown into a bachelor's lifestyle once again :)

Ted and I tried to get together with Myo for dinner back in December, but the timing didn't work out quite right. We hope to get together with him soon.