Piece of Evidence

There is a German idiom, which literally translated says “to have a stone in someone’s board,” and which means to be in someone’s good books. I didn’t have a stone in someone’s board this morning, but I did have a stone in my breakfast; that is in my breakfast cereals. I guess that would mean I fell out of someone’s favor? Anyways, here’s the evidence:

The truth is, I didn’t just have one stone; I actually had two! I must be in pretty serious trouble then, am I not – getting rocks thrown at me in the morning already?

Well, it all started with this one little rock. It felt quite unpleasant to unexpectedly bite on something so hard that it almost hurt. But after I found the stone and got rid of it, I didn’t think much of it. After all, this time, I didn’t lose part of my tooth, like a couple of years ago when there was a pretty decent sized stone in the salad that I had gotten in our dining hall. Back then, I even had to go the dentist because of it, to get my tooth fixed with some filling. Yuck!

This time, there was no missing tooth, so why make a big deal out of it, right? At least that’s what I was thinking. But then, later, I had another bite of the cereal (from a different package) for a snack, and whack! Same thing! Another stone.

Now, I’m not sure what to do. In the West, I’d simply take my bag of cereals, trot back to the store and have them replace it, or maybe even have them file a report or something, since two bars of cereals were affected. But here … things often just don’t work like that. The store most likely wouldn’t care, and I’d make a big fuss for nothing. I guess, my only choice is to swallow the trouble, and hope that no more rocks are thrown at me!

Which is I shouldn’t talk about it any more. Anyways, I do have more pleasant things to share. The foreign faculty photo shoot for one:

Faculty Photo

Right after lunch we all found our way to the steps of the majestic administration building of our university, where we gathered for our annual photo shoot. And I thought I’d share a sample with you. Here’s just a photo of us not being quite ready yet (though some of my colleagues are doing a great job looking good for my little side shot, yay for that!). The big official one I couldn’t take, since I had to be in it. Maybe we could put in a word or two to get a digital version of it.