rock, paper, scissors

There are a few signs that occur when I know it’s officially time to go home.  One of the worst is when I start waking up before my alarm, which is what has happened to me for the last THREE days.  Waking up pre-5AM is no fun, but when your body starts it’s own alarm clock even EARLIER than what’s required that’s just ludicrous.  

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but on Sunday’s the workers get early release from the platform at 5PM rather than the normal 6:30 release.  So usually on Sunday evenings we try to coordinate some kind of activity up on the top deck of the boat to spend some time with the guys and provide a little bit of entertainment.  Our go-to game is bingo and it’s usually a pretty big hit!

Last Sunday, we planned a safety quiz to try and tie in some work related information and then agreed that if we had multiple winners the tie-breaker would be rock, paper, scissors.  Long story short, we made out quiz MUCH too easy and pretty much everyone got all the answers correct with very few getting eliminated.  So the night ended up being a gigantic rock, paper, scissors battle.  Normally, this would be a simple way to determine a winner, HOWEVER explaining the game of rock, paper, scissors to a group of multi-national dudes is one of the hardest things I have ever done.  Picture about 200 kids who speak about 4 different languages, and one white girl who speaks only English trying to explain a game.  I’m still not sure if everyone really got it, but they all had a pretty good time :)

A few days later, I was talking to one of the Koreans asking if he had played rock, paper, scissors before, and he started explaining some kid games that he used to play and now plays with his kids.  He said they play a rock, paper, scissors kind of game to decide who closes their eyes and counts, then tries to find friends.  After deciphering, I realized he was explaining hide-and-go-seek.  He explained a few more games (tag, hop-scotch, etc) and I just sat there thinking about how amazing it is that decades apart, and a world away, we are all the same!

My next blog will be coming to you from ASIA!  I’m out of here first thing Tuesday morning, touching down for a quick pit-stop in the states, and headed to the far-East Friday!

“For HE will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” – Psalm 91:11 

26 days down, 2 to go!  xoxo…