"(gasp) Your feet are cold. You shouldn't be wearing sandals!"
"Why?"
"Because it will make your stomach cold! It's bad for the baby!"
"pttpbppbbb" (That's me, laughing at the person).
"What haven't you heard that?"
A third person enters the conversation.
"Yes Rachel, don't you know these things?"
Me: "That's ridiculous."
"No its not."
"Yes it is, it's not even scientific."
"Rachel, I'm just trying to be your friend."
That shut me up. I think I may have hurt her feelings and I instantly felt bad.
"Okay. Sorry. I like your pants, they're cute."
I asked another educated teacher later where she got this idea that cold feet meant was bad for your stomach. She told me it was known thing in Turkey.
"What about people in Sweden? How do you think they survive?"
"They get used to the cold."
"What do you mean."
"They're skin is better for the cold."
"You think someone's skin is thicker, like a whale or a seal, because they live in cold weather?"
"(laugh) Kind of."
This is what is referred to when people say something is a cultural difference. It may never make sense to me, but apparently it's something I have to accept because this is how the culture thinks, and I can't change that...
But I can't help but think that education might . . .
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