Americans have really strong teeth<\/h3>\n
When I moved in my dorm at the boarding school, my dorm mother was kind enough to put a care package with hot chocolate, candies, and pop corn. After I ate the candies I moved to the pop corn, I opened and it saw oily, seasoned, kernels, so I tried to eat them (unpopped) and thought to myself, “how the heck are these Americans eating these things? They must have a very strong set of teeth.”<\/em> My roommates then walked in on me trying to eat unpopped pop corn and showed me that I was supposed to microwave it first.<\/p>\n A couple days after my arrival, my American mom told me that we needed to go shopping for some uniform pants. I said no, I already have lots of pants I don’t need any. She said no you need some, so I went along. When we got to the store, she started picking out navy blue pants and I was so relieved. I thought she meant underwear because in my language pant means underwear. I was embarrassed when she told me we need to go buy pants because I thought, “oh no she must think I don’t wear underwear.”<\/em><\/p>\n I sarcastically called a big girl skinny. In my country it is a good thing when someone is big. It is seen as a sign of wealth and therefore big people are respected for it. Thin people are made fun of, and I was constantly teased for being too skinny when I was growing up and wished I was bigger. So when I met this girl I thought she was beautiful and told her she was too skinny and needs to gain weight. If I had said that to my big friend in Ethiopia she would have laughed and taken it as a compliment. It is also very common to refer to skinny people as fatty, and big people as skinny, as well as referring to men as she.<\/p>\n I did not understand swear words in English were bad, so I used all the bad languages that I learned from movies left and right.<\/p>\n A classmate taught me that anus and wash cloth were other words for I love you, so I believed him.<\/p>\n Moving to America at the age of 14, not speaking English, and trying to do well in school in a language I didn’t speak was incredibly hard. But I am glad I have these stories I can look back on and laugh at myself.<\/p>\nUniform pants<\/h3>\n
Big girl \/ skinny girl<\/h3>\n
Movie vocabulary<\/h3>\n
Gullible victim<\/h3>\n
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