Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Do you guys want a chatlog?

I have a chatlog for you!! Sorry it's so long. I'm not cutting anything out. I know you'll love it.

Jason: hello steve, i am better than you
Sent at 12:51 AM on Tuesday
me: jason
great scott
jason kramb

Jason: hello
me: how's it going?
Jason: guess where i am?
me: africa
tanzania

Jason: yup
yup

me: internet cafe
city i don't know
Jason: no, peace corps office in dar es salaam
me: oh cool
Jason: its not very exciting
me: oh damn
how's everything going?

Jason: lots of white people though
thats kinda fun

me: mmm feels like home
Jason: yup
its going ok

me: good
Jason: school is starting now so when i get back home i'll have to start teaching
whats up there?

me: nothing
school starts in august but until then i have no job
mikey's in vegas right now playing poker
i'm pretty sure he's getting owned
Jason: that's the way to go
oh damn
why is he doing that?

me: because mikey is kinda pathetic
he never got a job after he graduated in january

he just plays poker online
i guess online he can make money but in person he's not

Jason: can he actually support himself playing poker online?
me: yeah he said he can
he was living with his brother in chicago for a while, but his brother had to go back to cincinnati for school
not sure what mikey is gonna do, find a roommate i guess
Sent at 1:06 AM on Tuesday
Jason: thats funny
tell him good job for not giving in to the pressure to be a productive member of society

me: hahah yeah
speaking of which beard's going to grad school so he's avoiding it too

Jason: yeah that what i heard
me: also beard bought multiple mopeds at his parents' house
Jason: stupid beard
me: i think all of us went crazy basically
are the kids learning anything?
Jason: no not really
i really dont think i've thought anyone anything
taught

me: haha damn
Jason: yeah, i guess its a combination of the kids not speaking english well enough to want to pay attention to me and me not speaking swahili well enough to teach in it
and then all of the kids just being terrible at physics and math
me: hahaha
Jason: and i think they are in general much worse than sci 190 students, which is pretty bad
me: fuckk
at least they don't come in and bitch to each other about their hangovers and how much they miss mom
Jason: haha yeah that is true
me: i'm going to be teaching freshman english in the fall
feelin' pretty unprepared
Jason: by yourself?
me: yeah, like a real teacher
Jason: hm
make sure to dominate them
and give them all f's
me: haha yes
Jason: cause i
m sure they deserve it
me: haha i'm kinda scared they're going to be shitty
i don't want shitty students

Jason: haha
well from my experience you get use to it
me: hahaha
Jason: but yeah it would be nice if they didn't suck hard
me: hey have you been cutting your hair
or do you have a huge fro
Jason: eh, i cut it sometimes
so its usually shorter than in the states
but now its pretty long
me: cool
Jason: people here like short hair, so they think it looks a lot better cut
but i
am lazy

me: haha yeah
Jason: plus i have no water at my house
me: owned.
Jason: so that makes washing long hair a problem
yeah it sucks bad

me: how far away is water?
Jason: there was a pump at teh school which they turned on about 30 minutes every other day, so that was maybe 200 meters
but it broke
so now the next closest is like 1km or more
i don't really know

me: fuck.
Jason: i had to start paying someone to bring it
me: daaaaamn
Jason: yeah i don
t know why people choose to live there

me: africa....
so you have like 14 months until you can be done, right?
not that you're racing to get out of there or anything, but you started in september, i think?
Jason: yeah started in septmeber
so i'd be suppose to come back in November of 2009 i think
me: okay
Jason: but theres a pretty decent chance i'll quit a few months early so that i could start grad school in september
me: cool
Jason: maybe coming back in the very beginning on august or something
don't tell peace corps though
they would be unhappy
me: fuck em
Jason: yeah, they are pretty dumb
me: why are you in dar es salaam right now?
Jason: i have a meeting here today and tomorrow
peace corps likes to have meetings
especially when we are suppose to be teaching

me: what's the meeting about?
how awesome running water is?

Jason: i'll bring that up, since it is suppose to be about volunteer concerns or something
i am the representative from my region

me: hahaha
that's probably kind of a concern in your region

Sent at 1:27 AM on Tuesday
me: have you kept up with the news?
nothing really interesting going on, actually

Jason: i kind of keep up
i listen to bbc radio

me: cool
Jason: so they talk about some good stuff
way to much soccer and cricket though
me: yeah probably
i just ignore headlines on my home page
israel, iran, sudan charged with war crimes, blah blah
Jason: haha
some things never change
me: true
where do you want to go to grad school again?

somewhere in washington dc?
Sent at 1:31 AM on Tuesday
Jason: i'm thinking finland at the moment, there's a school with r master's in applied physics /renewable energy program
me: oh dang awesome
Jason: i applied this year and got in, but i'll turn them down since i'm still here and apply again next year
me: haha suckers
Jason: yup
me: i heard finland has running water
Jason: it does, and you can drink it straight from the tap
crazy!

me: hahaha
you know tony's working for pappa storti now
doing something or other, i don't know
Jason: is he at home or in chicago?
me: in chicago, he lives pretty close to my brother
oh fuck
i'm going to copy this chatlog onto my blog and they're all gonna get insulted
whoops i didn't make their lives pathetic

Jason: well they are all pathetic, we knew that
me: yeah
teresa got into the PhD program at her school
Jason: cool
me: which means like five years of research, no more classes or teaching, and she'll get the phd
Jason: so you'll be in colorado for a while then?
me: yeah
i'll get the master's and probably teach for a while
no idea what we'll do after she graduates

Sent at 1:40 AM on Tuesday
Jason: so you'll teach after you finish but she's still going?
me: yeah, i could try to go straight for a phd but they usually look for teaching experience, i guess
with a master's i can teach english in college, just not a lot of upper-level classes
Jason: when are you gonna start writing books?
me: gotta wait for that war i get involved in
i'm pretty sure that's how it goes

Jason: just go to iraq now
me: hmm
iraq, eh
i bet going to iraq would be really shitty
i've been writing a little bit this summer but i suck at focusing

Sent at 1:45 AM on Tuesday
me: how much do you get to talk to the girl in finland?
also what's her name?
Jason: Tähti
i'm talking to her now
she came and visited last month too

me: oh awesome
Jason: yeah it was really fun
but other than that we usually talk on the phone like once a week for an hour or less
so we talk some, but not crazy lot

me: yeah that's not much
Jason: and write letters maybe once a week
and they take about a week to deliver

me: haha
Sent at 1:48 AM on Tuesday
me: are you trying to learn finnish?
Jason: eh, not really now
i have a book on it but it is suppose to be pretty hard

me: yeah
Jason: and i still dont know swahlili well enough, so i'll probably wait until i go there for school to really try
me: oh that's true
Jason: but i will try to take some classes and learn it eventually
me: awesome
was the application to the school in finnish?

Jason: na, the program is sort of targeted to international students so a lot of it is in english
me: cool
Jason: yeah it seems liek a cool program
and finland is pretty cool too
a slight step up from tanzania

me: hahah
racist

Jason: am i allowed to be now since i've lived in africa?
or is it still not ok?

me: if you make at least one friend
Jason: thats all it takes?
me: yeah, man
then anything you say is cool
because you aren't racist, you have black friends
fuckin AFRICAN friends

Jason: awesome
than i can say whatever i want i think
i got way more than 1 african friend

me: so are they all lazy thieves or what
Jason: of course
me: knew it
teresa and i moved closer to our schools
but now we are surrounded by white people
no more indians or mexicans or africans
just white people although i think a couple are immigrants' children

Jason: thats a little dissapointing
me: yeah
oh well, never talked to the old neighbors anyway

Jason: do you talk to any of the new people
me: nope
not yet at least
i hide in my apartment

Jason: it sounds like i should be giong now
me: okay cool
good luck with africa

Jason: i might get on later
you have a good time too
laters

me: okay...it's two AM here so hopefully in the morning maybe
bye

Sent at 2:01 AM on Tuesday


Yeah. I talked to Jason. Jason rules. Jason probably really wants some running water.

I'm sure this post is already immense so I'll just say nothing is happening here. Teresa is visiting her family in Texas and I'm sitting around staring at objects all day. I think tomorrow I'm going to go clean the old apartment and maybe speak to another person...

3 comments:

Jon said...

Fuck, I didn't know he actually applied to that Finnish program. He told me about it, and I considered it because I was interested in renewable energy. But they don't give you a stipend. And cost of living is kind of high, especially now. So it'd be like burning $600+ a month just to go. And you can't get a side job. That is all.

Anonymous said...

Psh.

$600 is nothing.

Mikey drops that in one night at the club.

Anonymous said...

This is the worst thing I've ever read