Palauan Trivia

I have been trying for much too long this morning trying to post pictures of Palau and my special Young Women, and from my birthday and our trip to the island of Angar(which is part of Palau but is a three hour boat ride away), but my computer hates me, blog spot hates me, and I think the PNCC internect/phone line hate me too....so no pictures for you.
I will have to wait until I have the car (Dave and I share the car, and I take taxis usually when I don't have it, but I don't have any cash today, so I'm stuck at home.) Anyway-I'm going to have to wait until I can go to the PPR (Palau Pacific Resort) hotel loby and use their high speed internet connection to get some pictures going.

I've been trying to upload the pictures of the Dolphin experience Dave took me to for my birthday, and of our trip to Angar, and some other fun ones. Next time.

Palauan trivia: "next time" is a common english phrase used in Palau and is often substituted for "NO", or "I don't want to", etc. The Palauans have a hard time saying no to your face. Saying NO is true in ALL cases-so when you invite someone over for dinner, make plans to go fishing, kayaking, etc., ask them to do something, etc.etc.etc. they will say Yes, even if they mean no. It's very confusing and frustrating and really trains you to lower your expectations of the people around you other wise there is a lot of dissapointment.

Another phrase used and abused in Palau is "Never mind." Never mind is sometimes used for no. I don't know who taught them to use it this way, but it is permenent. They will say never mind if you don't understand what they're saying, if they are done talking about something, if they feel dumb, it's kind of a catch all.

OK-does anyone remember when Nishan got back from his mission and he would nod his head for no and shake it for yes? Well, I guess it's how it's done where he served his mission and I used to always think he was faking it. Well-the lovely Palauan habbit I've picked up is the raising of my eyebrows (up and down once or twice for emphasis) to say yes. EVERYONE does this! When I was getting to know the Young Women in our branch and I'd ask them a question, I thought they were ignoring me and I felt really stupid. Then one of the sister missionaries told me they say yes with their eyebrows. It's annoying when people do it to me, but I do it all the time now. Dave doesn't mind though.

Well-I'll try again later to do some picture posting.