Annoyances

Jenny is inviting everyone in blogdom to share ten things in their lives that annoyed them this week. Usually I try to keep my complaining to a minimum as a courtesy to my readers, but I guess I should be willing to give the public what it wants. Here goes:

10 Things That Have Irritated Me This Week

1. My digital camera is giving me trouble.


2. The RA in my dorm is never around and, as far as I can tell, never actually does anything, even when he is supposed to.


3. My mail is delivered to a box in another building. The people who sort the mail are supposed to put up a sign that says when the mail has arrived and is being sorted and another sign that says the mail is all out. Usually they forget about the sign. Often there is a sign up saying that the mail has not arrived when, in fact, it has already arrived and been sorted. As a result, whenever I check my box, and it is empty, I have no way of knowing whether or not the mail has been sorted. Perhaps I got no mail, or perhaps it just hasn't come yet. It is annoying to have to make several unnecessary trips to another building. If they would just manage their signs correctly, I would be spared so much time and trouble.


4. Receptionista seriously hurt her coccyx and would not go see a doctor, despite the urgings of many people. We were all terribly worried, but she finally went, so yay.


5. My Portuguese teacher just got back from Brazil. She had promised to bring me back twenty kilos of this cheese, and then she didn't. Needless to say, I was devastated.


6. Actually, quite a few of this week's irritations have to do with Portuguese class. One of them is that it is time for us students to plan our year-end presentation to the other language groups. My feeling is that we should present something that draws on what we have been learning in class or that would supply useful or interesting information to the other groups, two of which are comprised of less advanced Portuguese students. One suggestion I had was that we could each select one aspect of the grammar that we found particularly interesting and briefly present it to the group. Instead, we are doing a Portuguese version of some show on the comedy channel. I can't even begin to tell you how much that sucks.


7. Also in Portuguese class, we got into the subject of headlice. I was telling the teacher (who is Brazilian) about the interesting cultural phenomenon that occurs in the US when young boys start making a big fuss about girls having cooties. One of the students interrupted me and said that cooties are not lice; they are completely made up and do not actually exist. Well, that's not what the dictionary says.


8. Anyway, from there the teacher explained how in Brazil the big parasitic infection that children tease each other about is worms. She seemed to think that worm infections were just a tropical problem. I started to explain that we have them here in the US. Then one of the students (a different one from annoyance #7) disagreed with me. When I started to cite evidence to the contrary, he shouted "MAS NÃO É MUITO COMUM!" He won the argument by virtue of having a louder voice. But he is wrong. I know for a fact that worm infections are very common in the US. According to this article, up to one in three American children will get pinworm, and that is only one species of infectious worm.


9. I am annoyed with myself for not budgeting my time as well as I could, especially in view of the fact that the year is coming to an end. If I don't get completely on the ball soon, some of my final grades may end in disaster.


10. Someone told me that I complain too much.

So there you have it -- a good healthy dose of ugly negativity.