Vignettes from Malta part 2
Ants and Uncles
My roommate pointed out that there were ants on the balcony. I told him things would be okay unless he ate in the room. He looks at me and asks, “What do I normally do?”
We decide that it is my turn to tell the front desk about the soon-to-be-though-not-quite-yet pests since he told them about the bees.
When I come back, I ask, “You know what comes after ants, right?”
“No.”
“Uncles!”
He says, “And when you break your ankle, you should call your aunt.”
Fun-Sized
Another international student and I decided to team up to waste time together. We grabbed a couple of things from the cafeteria and headed outside. At some point in the conversation she turns to me and says, “Why? Because you’re fun-sized?”
What? Fun-sized? Well, I guess I have had friends call me that before.
Money on the Table
I haven’t figured out yet if this is an actual thing or if it just seems to be. The few times I have gone to the grocery store, the cashier wouldn’t take my card from my hand. I had to lay it on the counter space. In other places, they have waited for me to put my money down, and in both cases, the card or money got returned to the counter rather than my hand. Of course, I have also been places where I have handed my card or money over and received change or the card back in my hand, so I cannot say for certain that there is a cultural arrangement of how money is handled.
My roommate pointed out that there were ants on the balcony. I told him things would be okay unless he ate in the room. He looks at me and asks, “What do I normally do?”
We decide that it is my turn to tell the front desk about the soon-to-be-though-not-quite-yet pests since he told them about the bees.
When I come back, I ask, “You know what comes after ants, right?”
“No.”
“Uncles!”
He says, “And when you break your ankle, you should call your aunt.”
Fun-Sized
Another international student and I decided to team up to waste time together. We grabbed a couple of things from the cafeteria and headed outside. At some point in the conversation she turns to me and says, “Why? Because you’re fun-sized?”
What? Fun-sized? Well, I guess I have had friends call me that before.
Money on the Table
I haven’t figured out yet if this is an actual thing or if it just seems to be. The few times I have gone to the grocery store, the cashier wouldn’t take my card from my hand. I had to lay it on the counter space. In other places, they have waited for me to put my money down, and in both cases, the card or money got returned to the counter rather than my hand. Of course, I have also been places where I have handed my card or money over and received change or the card back in my hand, so I cannot say for certain that there is a cultural arrangement of how money is handled.