two points for honesty

Most of the Indians I have met, particularly in the office, are brutally honest. It's like all of the American attempts at subterfuge, diversion, and (to use my favorite phrase) passive aggression are lost on them. For instance, the other day someone said to me, 'I wanted to tell you that you have a really cute face in your picture'. She was referring to the picture on my entrance badge, which was taken when I was hired a year and a half ago, and in which I have much shorter hair and a more meticulous makeup job than I've been wearing to the office here. The way she said it, though, did not imply that I had a cute face in general; instead, it seemed to indicate that I had looked cute in the picture and should attempt to look like that again. I've heard reports of even stranger things being said (for instance, one coworker has a picture of herself before she came to India, and someone looked at it and said 'India has really taken its toll on you'). I think perhaps things are more literal here; for instance, I gave a presentation today and asked for feedback on it, and I actually got feedback from people on it. In the US office, I would have given the presentation, asked for feedback, and it would have been understood that no one would respond and I wouldn't be offended by the lack of response. So imagine my surprise when I actually got messages from people who attended the presentation with suggestions for improvement. Crazy! It's just a further indication that my passive aggressive tendencies won't work particularly well here, despite my affinity for them; I've honed them almost to an artform in the US, but it's hard to stay passive aggressive, rather than just aggressive, in the face of comments about one's appearance.

I was at work for a mere thirteen hours today, and came home and spent another half hour sending some emails, as well as twenty minutes or so talking to one of my roommates. I'm switching apartments at the end of the month; apparently they are as anxious as possible to put me in an apartment with other women, despite the fact that I am already settled into my room and do not have a problem living with men (reference Walter). I do have a problem calling them 'men' rather than 'boys', but they're also both older than me and managers in the bargain, so I guess that is what I must call them. Perhaps HR is trying to avoid difficult issues like whether I should call my roommates 'men' or 'boys' by moving me to an apartment with other girls/women. So anyway, I will attempt to refrain from buying more things over the next couple weeks, since I have an alarming tendency to accumulate possessions, and it would make me very sad to have to move a lot of stuff. I've already picked up two bedspreads, two shirts, a pair of platform shoes, some books, a DVD player, and a lot of hangers, and I've only been living in the apartments for a week. Haha. It's only going to get worse, I'm sure, and then I'll have to look into getting a sea container to ship my stuff back home in. Accumulation seems to be in my blood; it's probably why my family has always stayed in the vast emptiness of the Midwest, since there's so much more space for storing things. Speaking of, I'd like to wish my brother luck in cleaning out his warehouse; he's only 19 (20 in four days!) and he already has a warehouse. Lucky!