Mañosa

-- means ¨picky eater¨

I´m having an ¨off¨ morning.

The maid is back.

The fact that that alone is making me have an attitude should be cause for concern, I think.

I, for one, feel that I am ungrateful.

But I´ve fallen into a routine. I wake up in a foreign country, wash my face with soap from a bottle that I can´t read, say good morning to my host parents who are watching the news in a language that I can´t understand, and then I go to the kitchen, and make myself a mountain of scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast, and soy milk.

And after that, I can face the world. I can handle the honks and cat calls on the way to the bus, I can deal with the stares and giggles of my fellow classmates when I pronounce words wrong, I can eat 70 pounds of rice a day, I can stumble through catching a taxi that [hopefully] won´t kidnap me. But first I need to make my own breakfast.

Like I said, ingrate.

I´ll be working on this. Independence is great and all, but I really wish someone would tell me how obnoxious I am. Example:

Dear Charlie,
Someone is making you breakfast. And then washing the dishes afterward. Shut up and deal with it.
Love,
The Mature Person You Hope to Someday Be