What is weird?! I have been thinking about this for a while more so in the last month. I bet you are now thinking right now what is weird, its a simple question, yet somehow you are unable to put it in words. To help explain this I will give a wee story. I offered to make two boys here a hot chocolate. They both, obviously, said yes and I went away made it it was extreamely hot so i told them to be careful for safety reasons. I also brought sugar for them to put in for 2 reasons 1 is I had never used this brand before as coming from Australia where we always use milo, (unless you care about the poor suffering children who are used as slaves to produce cocoa living in Africa, then you actually wouldnt use milo because they are evil, you would use a fair trade brand where the employees also get a fair wage. * please note more to come on why it's acceptable for products coming from Brazil to be regarded as fair, I just need to source more information) therefore not knowing the brand I don't know How sweet it would be, 2nd reason is that Brasilians really like things sweet and kids more so. I personally don't have a sweet tooth, this learnt from the mission field as I find the sweet food Ghanaians and Brasilians eat are, to me, just too sweet. The youngest boy, 10yrs, tried it, once it had cooled down enough. Irregardless that he didn't say thank you or obrigado (portuguese). his first words was "this is weird" (very important to the story). To me i automatically thought, ahhh not sweet enough. But, like so often that I am, I was wrong... Now before I say why I was wrong, I have a question, How do you make a hot chocolate?! Odds on it is how your Mother made it, (except thinking about it not my family as I make it the same as my Mother, though my grandmother makes it different). Interesting, i know right. I can think of 3 ways. 1, the way my grandmother makes them, where she heats up the milk and it is 100% milk, no water. 2, the way my mother and i make it, more like instant coffee, mostly water with a wee bit of cold milk. I wont get picky about How much milk, 5-25% even 50% if you want it colder. But it's the concept. It's water based. 3. I honestly haven't met many people like this, personally, just the one, and he was in Ghana, as most Ghanaians don't really have milk, but he would have hot Chocolate 100% on water I made the hot chocolate based on water which was "weird" to someone who always had had it on milk, cause we will just face it there is an obvious difference. Similarly what do you have On pancakes?! My favourite is pancakes with Bacon, mango, and maple syrup. It's amazing. the most common 'topping' in my household is lemon and sugar. Plan and (to me at least) simple. Yet the table of 7 other brazilians, I admit 6 where from the same family. Had never had lemon and sugar on pancakes even though the love towards both these ingredients, both sugar and lemons are consumed in almost every meal, though not together, yet to me it is astonishing they had never put the two on pancakes. Have been noticing while I've been here in Brazil that there is one boy, who I'm living next door to, tells me that what I'm doing is 'weird' and he is saying it on a daily bases. One of the most common breakfast or snack growing up as a child was mashed banana on toast!! I'll admit it I still love it!! Where for breakfast one day I had it, which again it was deemed 'weird' yet I know it as completely normal. Its even on irrelanvent things, like clean the table after a meal. Another one which to me is completely normal yet to him was weird. Most people should know this, however I will explain. A yellow card in soccer is Basically a really serious warning (as a soccer referee, Ithought that best describes it) but they stay on the field. Yet, in rugby, a yellow card is 10minutes in the sin bin. To me completely normal part of the rules and game. Yet for someone enough doesn't know rugby that well, "what 10minutes in the sin bin, that's weird' !! My answer to the simple question of 'what is weird' is anything that is uncommon or something that is different for us personally. What i want, to say is our own experiences and believes for what we believe to be wierd. Anything that is outside of our normal boundaries is weird. Anything that we don't know or that's new to us. Therefore what I perceive to be weird you may find completely normal and might be a everyday practice. A couple of examples that I have thought of, imaging you have lived in your own little/remote/rural part of the world and travel and see for the first time. A platypus,or kangaroo, seeing snow for the first time , and a lot like in Greenland, or coming from the Sahara or centre of Australia and getting stuck in a tropical storm. Eating sushi for the first time, seriously raw fish wrapped in seaweed, or imagine (or do it) going to a punk or heavy metal gig with that circle or pit of death at the front next to the stage, to me that's glorious yet seeing or more so being in one many people will find weird. To locals these arent anything different.
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