the art of doing nothing

this is one of my new favorite photos. its this mini park, mini tree sanctuary between IEP and Ciwara.

My how time flies. I cannot believe that it is Monday already. I’m already looking forward to Friday!

But I can’t lie. I had a pretty fabulous weekend. Not fabulous in the “look how much I’ve done, or seen, or been” sense. Rather, this past weekend was completely the opposite. I purposefully did absolutely nothing.

That may seem odd. I know a lot of new PCVs really fight boredom and are constantly looking for something to do, someone to hang out with, somewhere to go. I’m just the opposite. It may be because I have the benefit to have a structured service that has put me to work early. I’ve already made syllabi and lesson plans, had Saturday meetings, and working lunches. I go to work in the morning, come home for lunch, and go back to the office for a couple of hours in the afternoon. I have a pretty good schedule that I’m told will only get crazier once school officially starts.

Plus, I have discovered, I am rarely bored. I just don’t get bored easily. I relish in daydreaming, in watching hours of TV, or searching meticulously for the right answer online. I read for hours thinking just minutes have past. Sure, here there may not be hours of TV to watch, but now I take afternoon naps, plan dinner menus, and continue to read for hours. I schedule Skype dates, write very long emails, and do daydream for hours.

Now maybe, if that was my day all the time, I would get bored. Or at the very least get stuck in a rut very quickly. But, I guess, lucky for me, that’s not the case. So I get to purposefully do nothing every once in while, when a blissful weekend becomes free.

Such was this past weekend. Friday was a usual workday but I received TWO care packages from America and got my workout by carrying them home. (Quite a feat let me tell you!) I spent the evening relishing in care package goodness, and eating my weight in s’mores while watching free TV episodes I downloaded from iTunes (perhaps one of the best iTunes features right next to podcasts which I am just delving into). I topped it all off by finishing the book One Day (yes it was a book before it was a film) which I quite enjoyed and look forward to downloading the film when it comes out if only because I think Jim Sturgess is a cutie pie and I adore Anne Hathaway. Friday. Check.

Working out is always questionable on the weekend. The lure of my pillow and the fan humming is sometimes too great. So I did what any good person would do, and I prayed for rain as a scapegoat. No such luck. But I rolled over anyway, claiming to workout later, and didn’t get my lazy self out of bed until almost 9. It was glorious.

I spent the morning watching French TV with the family (they seem to think that is all I ever want to do) and reading my new book, (thanks Savoy!) The Book Thief. I didn’t get much reading done because one of my favorite American shows, The Good Wife, came on and I tried to follow it in French. Not much luck. I was very lucky in that I had potatoes for lunch—yummy—and then once I had a full belly, the rain started. Blissful, I excused myself and took a very long nap. Ahhhh, Saturdays…

I woke up to find the rain stopped. I looked around and everyone seemed to be doing their own thing, so I sat down in my own area and started reading once again. Only this time to be interrupted by Iman, my 2ish year old host brother, and Fanta, my 13-year-old host sister. I officially had two shadows for the rest of the evening. Entertaining a 2 year old who doesn’t really speak the same language as I do is one thing; a 13 year old is an entirely different manner. We sat. We played with Iman. We read my abstract art alphabet book. Twice. Then silence. Yet another awkward turtle moment. We sat some more. Iman came in and out, but it was basically me and Fanta. My cool points were depleting so fast I was losing track. Finally, I succumbed to my hunger and told her I was going to go cook dinner. A reprieve. Time to think of a way to get back to my A game. Ok, so maybe I don’t have A game, but sometimes at least it is A for effort. I cooked pasta. I retuned to my room and my iTunes TV to eat. I just finished and was waiting for the conclusion of my very bad cop drama when my audience reappeared. And entered my room. Side note: this is the first time really anyone has been in my room. I was just praising the Lord I hadn’t just done laundry and would have hat clothes and underwear all about. That would have amped up the awkward radar 100 fold! They sat down and watched the end of my cop drama to which I tried to translate but thankfully Iman was only interested in scaring me with a toy rat, and Fanta was busy detracting him from such ventures. Then we moved on.

Luckily the evening ended on a much less awkward note. Fanta and I got to witness Nana, the 76ish year old woman I live with, try on all her new outfits from the tailor. Awesomeness if I’ve ever seen it. The tailor made the sleeves of her dress so big it looked like she had wings and was going to just fly away! Fanta, her mom Helene, and I burst out laughing and didn’t stop until the final dress was being folded up. I figured I should end the day on a high note and went to bed. I know, I know, sleeping again.

Sunday continued in the same vein. Sleeping in. But I did do laundry AND clean the bathroom. So, yeah!, to getting some chores done. I sat outside with the family and read and listened to them all chat as lunch was being prepared. I must have looked a hot mess because everyone kept saying how tired I looked. Finally, after a lunch of rice and okra sauce, which is actually not too bad, someone said that I should go take a nap. So I did. (I know, I’m like 4 years old taking naps and whatnot.)

Afterwards, I was super lucky and found my Mom online on Skype and got to chat to her for a while, and my Dad for a bit. Silly internet connection though and it was a lot of repeating ourselves, but talking to home always makes the days better. Before I knew it dinnertime arrived. More pasta. More TV. (I got a the pilot episode of a new comedy Free Agents with Hank Azaria…anyone seen it?) And finally back for family time.

You will be happy to know that the laziness and sleeping in ended this morning, as most weekend luxuries do when Monday rears its ugly head. Back to work. Back to a routine, or something like it.

But, c’mon…don’t you just love a lazy weekend?

for some reason whenever i want to stay in bed i think of this song. and then it gets stuck in my head. so now may it be stuck in yours. :) (Snow Patrol, Chasing Cars)