Lost in translation...

This is a little story about how even though St. Thomas is part of the US, it is a totally different culture.

One of my patients found out it was my birthday tomorrow. A minute or so later, she asks "I don't mean to pry, but I know you must have recently graduated, and how much do you make?" I thought, wow, that sure is brazen of her to ask my salary. I paused for a second and said "how much do I make?" and she said "yes." I explained to her that I would tell her how much average starting salary is for my job, and she proceeded to look at me strangely. And she said "no, not your salary, how much do you make, you know, how many years." About the same time, a conversation I had with the upstairs neighbor came into my head (people here when asking age or talking about age refer to "making" an age), so I said "ohhhh, you mean how old will I be!" Then she began to laugh as I said "sorry, still getting used to Island terminology" and told her I would be 26.

I'm sure this was much funnier in the moment, but I thought it was a nice story of how things are different no matter where you go. Of course, I guess "how much do you make" comes from the Spanish and French wording of the question of age which roughly translates to how many years do you have. Another odd saying is that if anything is broken, it is "mashed up."

Time to get ready for the Birthday Extravaganza Weekend, so far the plans are: lunch with the coworkers, dinner with the upstairs neighbors at Oceana, scuba diving on Saturday, and St. John on Sunday! Should be a great weekend, I'll be sure to take pictures!