Haitians

A lot of times, being the FOB that I am (oh how Jon loves to rub it in every single day...), I would look at a word, stare at it, stare at it some more, hoping it will register, and eventually bite down my pride and ask my companions, only to realize afterwards, as I stare at the same word again, this time disbelievingly, how incredibly obvious the word's meaning is, and how embarrassing my question came out to be.

Haitians. Yea.

Last night as I was staring at some many 200 sheets of yellow paper I stumbled across this word countless times. Haitians. HAItians.HaiTIANS. HUH?

Naturally, being the girl who can't NOT know, I asked my companion the almighty Bailey, "What are Haitians?"

And he replies, "Haitians...like, people living in Haiti?"

Well, DUH. *smacks forehead* I should have known.

Unfortunately Jon had to be there, and made me feel incredibly stupid, not to mention post it on Nina's facebook, and publish it to the world.

It's not that I'm trying to be oblivious to the world. Being ignorant is the last thing I want to be. Of course I known of Haiti, and all the unfortunate events that the fragile place has had the misfortune of experiencing. I know of the earthquake that happened, of poverty and the living conditions there.

But when the alphabets rearrange themselves in different functions, and my mind is on a completely different track, thinking of sexually transmitted diseases, suddenly, the words HAITIan and HAITI just don't pop and scream "I'M A PERSON FROM HAITI" to me.

I know, it's my fault that my mind doesn't operate on the "English" track like a well-oiled machine. I haven't entirely put forth much effort to try to improve my English (ever since I completed my SATs and tossed everything in the back of my head). And yes, English as second language can be hard, with all the colloquialism and syntax that aren't taught in the dictionary, but many people have succeeded, so I should be able to do the same.

But still, thanks for making me feel worse than I already do, world.