Passport photos

I am lazy, though my definition of laziness is a bit strange.

I need to re-apply for my national identity card, and in order to do that I need to have three professionally-made passport photos. Most people go downtown to a special photo shop to have them made, but I'm too lazy (and cheap) to go downtown.

Instead I moved a couch so I could move a bookshelf so I could put a chair against our white living room wall in the exact spot where the sunlight was hitting it. Then I borrowed the lamp from our flatmate's bedroom (the one and only lamp in the apartment) and stuck it on the bookshelf, hoping it would provide a satisfactory amount of "fill" lighting. I had to figure out what to put my camera on while I sat in the chair and smiled. I finally settled on the clothes hamper I haven't been using. Sounds "professionally-made" so far, doesn't it?

I took some pictures with our handy little camera, uploaded them to my computer, and used the GIMP to make it look like I had used a real fill light instead of a pathetic desk lamp. After some research online I edited the photos down to 35mm x 45mm and emailed them to myself.

I then went in to work, where we have a color printer and some photo paper that has been sitting on the shelf since possibly the turn of the century. Before printing my "for real" photos, I did some test runs on a regular piece of paper. There was far too much yellow and not enough blue, so I had to tinker with the printer settings a bit. I also noticed that the printer was streaking a bit, but there wasn't anything I could do about that.

Then I said a quick prayer, carefully lined up my vintage photo paper, and clicked "print." When it came out, I saw that the first row of photos contained a very obvious purple streak across my hair where the yellow ink cartridge had apparently failed to work. How many people do you know who are such hardcore Vikings fans that they would streak their hair purple for their passport photo?

Fortunately I had anticipated trouble and printed several rows of photos at once. The rest of the pictures came out okay.

I grabbed the paper cutter and presto! 3 professionally-made passport photos. I'm a professional, right? I'm a professional at something anyway, even if I'm not quite sure what.

I probably need to get a real hobby, but this kind of thing is just so much fun!

Sleepovers

Rainy season has finally hit, and that means sleepovers! Last night we were playing games at a friend's house when the power went out. We found some candles and began telling stories been candlelight.
My wife was telling a very strange story (because she wanted  it to rhyme) when suddenly the wind whipped up and started slamming doors shut all over the building. We "battened down the hatches" just in time for the first blast of rain.

The rain was heavy for a good while. We couldn't see much outside because of the power cut, but we figured there was probably a good deal of flooding going on. There probably wasn't much point in trying to get home through the flooded streets, so we set about making sleeping arrangements. My wife and I got the guest bed, which was a pretty sweet deal. Guest beds are a great invention, especially during rainy season.

The fantastic thing about last night was that we had toothbrushes along, even though we hadn't been expecting to spend the night. My wife had two spare toothbrushes in her purse because we had to stay overnight at another house two weeks ago when a similar storm hit during the evening. It's the little things that make a big difference!

Ready... Set... Not Ready? Too bad, Go!

When I was back home I got myself psyched up for the idea of building close friendships with guys here. And shortly after I got back, I went to visit some of my friends. And then, well, life set in. I like having local friends, but I like having them on my terms. Seeing them once a month is often enough for me. It takes a lot of mental energy to visit them because here you don't visit just one person; you visit their entire family. Their entire family will be speaking a language you don't understand very well and following centuries of cultural norms and expectations that you know little about. Trying to navigate these cultural elements and nonverbal communication methods requires an intense amount of concentration.

It also requires physical energy because transportation here is primarily on foot, and when you visit somebody's "family" that often includes their parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and possibly a few close friends- most of whom don't live in the same house and possibly not even the same neighborhood.

So, like I said, once a month is sufficient for me. But that isn't often enough to really build a deep friendship. I think I knew that, but I also wasn't motivated enough to change it.

And so, two weeks ago God brought somebody knew into my life. He was walking along behind my wife and I as we were chatting away in English. When I paused for a moment he greeted me in the local language and then switched into choppy English. We had a nice chat, partly in English and partly in French, and when we had to part ways he explained that he wis hoping to go to a conference in Oregon in September and he needs a lot of practice speaking English. So I gave him my phone number.

Since then he has called me at least every other day. We've met up three times, once for half a day. He is a really nice guy and a lot of fun, and he is assertive. He isn't pushy, but he also has his heart set on becoming great friends with me in a short period of time. Sometimes I feel a bit intimidated, but then I realize that I think he is exactly what I needed. Thank you, God, for pushing me out of my comfort zone again.