culture shock in forms (or phones)

So my adjustment is going pretty well but yes there has been some weirdness for me. I guess that's what culture shock is. At first is was mostly about food. Why is there never rice? And there's the spoon-and-fork thing. There's stories here: so the FIlipinos eat with a spoon and a fork. When I was new out there I tried to watch my trainer eat and copy her. And it was very hard. After 2 or 3 weeks I noticed something--everyone else ate backwards from her. My trainer was left-handed! Once I switched hands, it was SO much easier! Then I always ate like a Filipino, unless there was a shortage of spoons then I ate with a fork like an American but that didn't happen very much. (If there was a shortage of spoons AND forks, I could also eat like a Filipino--with my hands). Here's the real story: On my last day, we ate in the mission home and at one meal we had salad first. I dished up my salad and was thinking (and I probably said something) about how American it is to have salad first. Then I promptly picked up my spoon and fork, and . . . had no idea what to do. Serious, there was some kind of conflict in my mind, "how am I supposed to get this on my spoon?" and "I know forks and lettuce go together but my fork is in the wrong hand" and such, for a few moments really. Then I realized, yes I need to be American and use a fork, and I did and ate my salad successfully. Since I've been home, there was a day we ate meat and I didn't want a knife I just wanted to use my spoon.
My biggest culture shock that I am still going through is the cell phone. In the Philippines Quezon City mission, since I got there, all the sisters have one cell phone per companionship. The senior companion would hold it. I was a senior for the last 11 months and so got quite used to the Filipino style of cell-phoning. This is going to be hard to explain . . . . Most of the time you don't call anyone, but if you do it's usually not because you want to talk with them. You text people. Texting is more efficient money-wise. There are no phone plans in the Philippines, it's all pre-paid--you load your phone with money and as you use it the amount goes down, and talking to people makes it go down faster than texting people. So, you text people. If you text someone and they don't reply, you may call them, but not to talk to them! It's so their phone will make noise, they will hear it, read your text and reply. They call it "missed call". Then if they still don't reply after you missed call them, it means they have no money left on their phone and so if it's pretty urgent then you really call them, and you get straight to the point or you're going to run out of money too. Really, you just say what you need to say, get an answer, and that's it. Introducing who you are and other unnecessary chit-chat are usually omitted. Earlier when I was impatiently waiting for people to reply, because I know I can't do the "missed call", my Dad said "have you CALLED anyone?" And it was just kind of a weird feeling that "yeah, I guess I could call someone--and talk to them." So I did. And it was rather abrupt. But yup, that's my culture shock. I have unlimited text at this point and it's fine with me! If it's not fine with everyone else, sorry, it's just going to take some time to get used to American-style cell-phoning again.

HELLO!!!!!!

Well, I'm back! Time to start internetting again. Sigh. You know, missionary life is so simple-- you can use a computer for one hour a week, that's all. Now it's like, you can use a computer for one hour every hour . . . or something ;-). So I'll be periodically inserting mission stories and other random happenings here for you in the underworld. Let's start with some airplane adventures:

I live in Utah so I didn't have to fly to the MTC although that would have been fun. When we left the MTC it was November 11, 2008. Me and 6 elders. We went straight to the airport and made our way to the gate with stops for pizza and such. We had time so planned to call parentals before we had to board, but what happened is there weren't enough phones so we were going to split the time and the first elders took all the time so the other half of us had to wait until LA or Taipei. Probably Taipei, because we would only have 2 hours in LA but 4 in Taipei. What happened is when we got to LA they changed our flight so we only had 1 hour. I guess that would be all right except it was November (close to Christmas?) and there was some kind of construction on the airport, or something, well anyway there were a couple REALLY long lines we had to stand in and it was an exciting time to put it lightly. We DID make it onto the plane. BUT then we didn't go anywhere. For about an hour we didn't know what was going on. After another hour we still didn't know. It was about midnight at this time so we tried to sleep a little but you know how airplane seats are. Before the third hour was up somehow we learned why we hadn't gone anywhere--there was a bomb threat to our plane! By the end of that hour the police had showed up and boarded the plane and I think they took someone off and/or a few bags. At least they didn't make everyone get off, there were a lot of people on that plane. After another hour we were able to take off. That makes a grand total of sitting in the airplane without even going anywhere for 4 hours! Then the flight was about 13 hours after that. Hooray! Good thing our layover in Taipei was supposed to be 5 hours . . . so yeah then we only had 1 hour which is actually less than that because you have to get on the plane like, half an hour early right? so yeah. We found a bathroom and then the other half of us tried to call home. That was interesting. And then they weren't expecting me anymore so we didn't get to say much and then the elders were like, "we have to get on the plane now!" so yeah. That flight was only an hour. We got out of the airport all right and by the time we got to the mission home it had been 30 hours since we left the MTC, and we did not experience Wednesday November 12, it went straight to Thursday November 13. And that's what I know so we'll leave it there.

When we flew home it was April 1, 2010. I only had one companion this time, an elder again. We left the mission home at 5am and there were no problems getting anywhere we made it onto our flight to Japan right on time. But we didn't leave on time. This was the deal this time, we were supposed to have a 2 hour layover in Tokyo and a longer one in San Francisco. So the plane pulled out from the gate and then it stopped. After half an hour the pilot came on the intercom and told us the check engine light was on . . . and they'd get it fixed in 30-60 minutes . . . hmmmm. Well it was fixed in 30 minutes then there was paperwork for just that long again and so we took off 2 hours later than we were supposed to. Great, we think, we're going to be stuck in Japan. So we get there, and go to land, then suddenly the plane pulls up again. Yeah, that's weird . . . after we're over the ocean again the pilot tells us he doesn't know if we'll be able to land. It's really windy he says. Then, oh, and there's a plane stuck on the runway that blew a tire trying to land. Of course the one runway was closed because there's a plane on it. They closed the other runway because of the wind. We circled around for a while but eventually (after an hour) were able to land. We didn't worry too much about missing our flight since even though no one could land for a while, no one was able to take off either. BUT then they made us go through security AGAIN, I don't know why, but somehow our plane waited for us and we got on and then left--the gate . . . remember there's a plane stuck on one runway and there's only two runways. People are landing and people are taking off but it's a very slow process when you have an international airport like that with so many planes coming and going. Fortunately I guess we only waited in line for 1 hour before taking off, making us 2 hours late. But somehow that nice long flight was 1 hour shorter than it was supposed to be, thank you jet stream. In California we cleared customs just fine and that elder went home and I rechecked my bags and went to the gate to wait another hour before my flight home. So I'm looking out the window enjoying the spring-like weather, and I'm thinking, "yeah, it's probably something like that in Salt Lake, maybe fewer clouds but very nice--because it's April now, that's springtime"and along those lines. I even talked with this guy who was going out there for a ski trip, he asked me what the weather is like in Utah. I told him what I just told you and was ok with the idea that there's snow in the mountains, that's how it's supposed to be. Then when we're on the plane the captain says "now we're headed to snowy Utah" and I wasn't excited anymore. For the weather, that is. Those of you who are also from here know that yes, it snowed, and it was cold. Good thing my mom brought me a coat. So, no more problems, my family was there, we went straight to the church, I got released, and we went home. It took about 28 hours total, leaving April 1 in the morning and getting there/here April 1 in the afternoon.

Goodbye! This is how to keep in touch while I'm away. Be back in 18 months!

MTC Address (September 10, 2008 to November 12, 2008)
Sister Sharon Alice Gatrell
Philippines Quezon City Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

After November 12, 2008 (until approximately March 2010):

Pouch Mail (letters only, no envelopes—fold 1 page into 3 panels and tape it closed)
Sister Sharon Alice Gatrell
Philippines Quezon City Mission
P.O.Box 30150
Salt Lake City UT 84130-0150

For anything other than a single sheet of paper [ie pictures, candy, trash, (no really, I dare you to send me your trash), letters in envelopes, etc.]
Sister Sharon Alice Gatrell
Philippines Quezon City Mission
Ortigas Center, P.O. Box 13873
Emerald Avenue, Pasig City 1600
Metro Manila, Philippines

Ow

I stapled my hand. The stapler jammed, then came open, and I was trying to squeeze the top back closed because with most staplers you can do that and they don't staple you. This one was not one of those staplers.

Cuteness

My brother Caleb (11) has started taking violin lessons and had his first recital Saturday, with my mom at the piano. Aw!

More Frustrations

Aaahhh! I just spent over three hours trying to get my farewell posted online and it still won't work! Please, someone with video making knowledge help me!!!!


And I went shopping again yesterday for 7 hours. I think the end is in sight...

Can I have some more alone time with the rack?

So this week I have been marathon clothes shoping like never before. Holy freakin' crap. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent at two different malls searching for things that prove elusive. Namely, skirts that reach to the mid calf and are small enough to fit me. I tell you, in those two malls there were about 4 skirts that satisfied those criteria, and three out of the four were dry clean only for care. And the fourth was ugly. You would think that being in Utah it wouldn't be this hard to find appropriate missionary clothes! So then my mom searched online for things and found stuff for massive amounts of money and then being online I couldn't very well try any on to know if they would really fit me or not. My dad told us to search for "missionary emporium" or something, despite our outbreathings that such a place was only for guys, and by some miracle there is not only a place called "missionary mall," but there is also a place called "sister missionary mall!" Certainly they would have appropriate clothing that would fit me!

So we went there today. It is in Provo. What a drive! And what a day of shopping! After two other long days of shopping! I think we were in that store (even though it has mall in the name, it is really just a store) for three hours. Mind you, for all of those three hours I was constantly changing clothes and looking at color schemes. near the end, while I was trying to decide on colors, the lady kept asking me what I wanted and I finally just asked her if I could have some alone time with the rack. Those kinds of decisions can't be rushed! Especially since these are all the clothes I am going to be wearing for the next year and a half! To put this in perspective, or, for some idea of the enormity of this shopping trip, whether it means anything to you or not, we bought 4 skirts (a navy A-line, a brown A-line, a light brown half-full, and a grey half-full), 6 shirts (2 short sleeve--white and green; 4 long sleeve--white, pink, blue, and tan striped), a dress (red), a jumper (blue), a scarf to go with the dress, and a bag. So this evening I have been bit dizzy and I should probably go to bed now. And there is more shopping ahead of me.

We already bought shoes, three shirts, and exercise clothes, and have yet to get pajamas, luggage, first aid kit, and then we have been unsuccessful at finding me a suit so my sister is going to make me one. Yes, even the sister missionary mall did not have a suit jacket that fit me. Sad, huh? I think it would be nice to have a suit. And it will be black since I couldn't get a black skirt yet. But that means I have to go shopping to buy the black fabric. D'oh! We went to a fabic store yesterday and it was awful! They didnt seem to have anything I liked! Dressing modestly is so hard! I wonder what sister missionaries do that don't live in Utah. Where in the world would they be able to find what they need? Wow. I'm still dizzy so I probably shouldn't think about that too hard. Maybe I'll ask people in the MTC. Which is less than two weeks away. Good night everybody!