Resthome coworker observation: Good exercise.

The other week at the resthome, one of my (Tibetan) coworkers asked me if I had lost some weight, and I said I wasn't sure but I probably had, since for like over six weeks I had been watching my eating after the campaign and I had been trying to take the stairs at work more often, to shed a few extra pounds that I had picked up.

"Oh, our religion is the best for that," she was like, laughing.

She then explained that going from standing up to kneeling to prostrating face first and then back again over and over again is really, really good exercise.

Resthome coworker trivia (2 of 2): True crime in the Philippines.

The other week, me and my one private assisted living client with disabilities ended up watching a true crime show on TV together, and part of it involved a 1960s case from the Philippines where a body of a woman was found neatly dismembered in a couple of places and the case never ended up being solved.

On the show they were saying that the case was famous there, but you never know with those things, so the next time that I was at work, I went and asked a few (filipino) coworkers about it.

The very first one I saw not only knew the name of the victim, but also the slang deriving from the case, "She was a chop chop girl," she was like.

One other person had vaguely heard of the case, and yet another when I described it mentioned "chop chop ladies," which I took to be a (filipino English) general category dialect term for dismembered female murder victims.

I found that slang a bit f*cked up, to be honest...  To say the victim "was a chop chop girl" makes it almost like her whole life was just that, or that there was something in her that brought out her disposability and fate.

That said, the term's vividness is something else, though.

"Chop chop girl."

Resthome coworker trivia (1 of 2): Nepalese social media.

One of my (Tibetan) coworkers was born and raised in Nepal, after her parents fled there after the Chinese invasion of Tibet.

(All the other ones are from India, where it was more common for fleeing Tibetans to end up.)

So, she was saying the other day that corruption is a big problem in Nepal, especially lower level officials who you have to bribe just for them to go and do their duties, but she was also saying that things have been a bit better lately, since the rise of smartphones and social media.

She said that people there record officials who want bribes and then go and put that footage online, and that sometimes it goes viral!

It's led to some improvements, she said.

Resthome resident joke (2 of 2): Waiting.

The other week at the resthome, one resident who I had to escort back to his room after dinner wasn't quite ready yet when I first checked in with him since he was still sipping his coffee and finishing up his dessert, so I did one other thing first and then I came back, only to find him there, waiting.

"Oh look, [my first name] is here, [his first name]," a (filipina) coworker was like when I came back.

"Oh, it's not a problem," the resident was like. "I'm not a doctor, but I have a lot of patients."

(That is, 'patience.')

Resthome resident joke (1 of 2): Initials.

The other week at the resthome, I escorted one resident in a wheelchair up to an upper floor to go visit a friend of hers, and when we were coming back, she pointed out the resthome logo, a design of intertwined initials from the resthome's name.

"That's me," she was like, and then she stated her name.

And, I had never noticed it before, but her first and last initial was the same as those from the name of the resthome.

Now I can't put on my work uniform without seeing the logo and thinking of her.

Resthome surprise.

The other week at the resthome one of my coworkers got fired, supposedly because there had been some problems with her as a supervisor.

Everyone felt really bad since she was such a nice person, and it wasn't really clear if there was as major problems with her as a supervisor as they said they were.

But, one of my (Ethiopian) coworkers and I talked more, and she said she used to work as a pharmacist, and that the supervisor job means passing medication and so it's "dangerous" and needs "focus."

She shook her head, as if our former coworker should never have made the step up and become supervisor.

"Know your level," she was like.

Inappropriate humor of my one (Tibetan) coworker (3 of 3): Interjection.

Later that same week, me and that same coworker and another coworker were moving a resident in bed who had a cast on, and I guess I was saying the (Midwestern) interjection "Op!" or "Op op!" as we were moving her, since I wanted us to do it very carefully, since she was in a lot of pain and we had to be careful so we didn't hurt her and make her in any more pain.

"Op op op op op op op, op op op op op op op," my one (Tibetan) coworker with an inappropriate sense of humor was like, imitating my tone of voice, "That's what you sound like."

And, she smiled devilishly.

Our one (Ethiopian) coworker who was with us I guess hadn't noticed what I was saying and so was confused, so I explained to her how I say "Op!" or "Op op!" when people have to be careful or watch out or if a mistake is made, and how it's something that English speakers in the Midwest do, if they grow up in certain parts of the region.

At that, she shook her head and just laughed lightly, the sound sounded so ridiculous to her. 

She genuinely found it ridiculous and funny.