Blending in...or not

Friday, August 13

The hotel where I am staying has a restaurant, so I walked over this morning and had a yummy breakfast there. In typical York fashion, I was finished eating in about 7 minutes, then sat there sipping my coffee and hoping that someone else would finish before me so I could get an idea of the local protocol for leaving. Even though everyone else looked as though they had been there a significantly longer amount of time, none of them looked as if they would be leaving soon. When I could no longer pretend that I was still eating, I finally leaned over and asked a nice looking woman near me if I was supposed to pay at my table or at the front and if I should tip. I think I’ll bring something to read with me tomorrow morning and try to at least draw out eating to 15 minutes rather than 7!

After leaving breakfast I decided to take a look around campus. It was so nice to take a long walk after sitting on the plane for hours yesterday. There was plenty of activity around the campus as the incoming freshmen were having orientation this week. While I wandered around looking at the different buildings and stopping to take a few pictures here or there, I was acutely aware that I was sticking out like a sore thumb! Not only was I the only white person among hundreds of people on campus, but the clothes I was wearing (while acceptable for the rural field site where I will be spending most of my time here), are more suitable for going on a safari than walking around a college campus in the middle of a big city!

Later in the evening, Ivy (the wife of one of my classmates at UCDavis) came by and visited with me. We chatted for a couple of hours and she said she would plan to take me shopping for fabric soon to make me an African dress. She made a couple of beautiful dresses for my roommate Lacey when she was here last summer.