Space Bubbles and The Search

We went to church this morning and one thing became very quickly clear.  This culture has no consideration for space bubbles.  It is customary when arriving at church, to shake hands with the men, and to hug and kiss the cheek of each person in the church.  For those of you who are not aware, I have a space bubble and it is usually about 5 feet in diameter.  In Canada, where space bubbles are known to exist, most people will respect the bubble.  Down here, the space bubble is an unknown entity and it is my job to fit in here, not the other way around.  This means that the morning was spent having my bubble popped at very regular intervals.

Church was thankfully air conditioned and one other item crosses cultural borders.  That item is that if a computer/audio/visual aid is not functioning, the Information Technology Professional will be pointed out in the crowd and brought to the front to troubleshoot and fix whatever the problem is.  In this case, the problem was the usual projector/laptop issue that I am quite familiar with thanks to my work and life outside of work.  Unfortunately, the problem was a broken pin on the cable and there was no spare available.  Ironically enough, there was a computer business right next door and I could see the cable we needed through the window of the business.

After church, the world wide tradition of lunch out is still applicable, except here instead of Grainfields or Smitty's, it was Hot Burger.  It was actually better than it sounds.  Now the search is on to find a television somewhere in this city to watch the Canada vs. USA game from the Olympics tonight.