During orientation, we were well warned that much of our time would be spent on communal couches in living rooms watching tv. I find that I do spend a lot of time watching tv, though not in my living room. My family doesn't have a tv in our living room, but there is a tv in each of our bedrooms. This coming from a girl who unplugged her tv in Dec 2008 and put it behind her couch to be lost in dust.
In general, I spend a lot of time in my room. My family has wi-fi, so I can surf all day, or skype friends back home or blog, whatever I feel like doing. I frequently make lists for the future, and budgets for the future and look for apartments and jobs for the future. Or sometimes I read, or work on my new story or knit. It doesn't really feel like I am being present, like I am engaging.
During orientation we were also told to know that when we needed rest, to take it, but not to hide from our experience here. I struggle with how to balance that idea. By spending so much time in my room, on the one hand, I am not connecting with my experience here, on the other hand, if I was in my living room, I would still be alone as my host family are in there bedrooms watching their own tvs.
So now I am proposing a test. If I go sit in my living room at night instead of my bedroom, will someone come sit with me? Might I engage my family in a way to which they are not accustomed?? I am going to find out, but it has to wait a few weeks. They have gone back to the beach house for the week and I am going to Mancora for the next week.
I'll keep you posted on what happens.
katie
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