Matt's Samoa Blog: Odds and Ends Thursday 66

I was laid off 5 months before I joined the Peace Corps, and I spent that time desperately searching for a job, watching The Wire, and running on the treadmill. RPCV Cale once observed that every time I tell stories about this time period, the muscles in my face form a subconscious grin. As terrible as it is to be out of work, there’s a satisfaction that comes from having time off while everybody else is working. And that’s what I’ve been feeling all week. My school breaked a week early on account of the visiting Tahitians, which means Apia’s been relatively free of Peace Corps, and I’ve had some time to relax by myself without many social obligations. It’s been nice. Here are some other odds and ends from the week:

I’ve been watching “Deadwood”. It’s brilliant. But I wouldn’t recommend it to the faint of heart. Dakotan prospectors in the late 1870s had foul mouths and wretched lives. But that’s a good show. I hear I’m going to be disappointed by its non-ending.
I think the teacher at my school who wanted to throw cornflour in with the pasta wanted to do so because that would be similar to how curry is prepared in Samoa. I admit I’m not sure. I tried cooking curry once and failed miserably.
The Samoan teachers at my school as well as the Indian missionaries were baffled I took the boat to Savai’i on Saturday and returned less than a day later. “If I’m going to take the boat,” my vice pule told me, “I’m going to stay there for 2 weeks. I hate the boat.”
My friend Chris emailed me with a link to Rolling Stone’s recently released rankings for the top 10 Beatles songs. I have yet to come up with my own list, but I can tell you mine would include “I Should Have Known Better” from A Hard Day’s Night, and a bending of the rules to allow for the entire B-side of Abbey Road to fit within a single list item. I’m a rule-bender.
Okay, okay. So I’m writing these Odds and Ends 3 days late on the Sunday, August 29 (Though I’m only including odds and ends from the August 20 – 26 time period, for those who are keeping track at home), and I just realized I’m 3 days late in posting the answer to Monday’s semicircle problem. The answer is 20°. Sorry for the delay.
That picture of Dylan I posted Tuesday cracks me up.
When I took over molding rice on Wednesday, the girl who preceded me had shaken the rice out with a small up-and-down motion. When I took over, I introduced the practice of slamming the container on the serving plate once, which used inertia to get the rice out of the container one the first try nearly every time. But the other students and staff preparing dinner seemed a little shocked with my use of force; as though this was too violent a way to treat rice. I found this strange because many common practices in Samoa—husking coconuts, cutting grass with a machete, slaughtering pigs—is reliant on use of strength and force. But I guess once stoneware gets involved, people get weary.