Entry #3:

I feel like such a total fool -- twice over.

On my way back from Master Painter's this morning (more on THAT later; I'm just scribbling this quick, while it's still fresh in my mind -- I don't want to forget to unpack my local timepiece), I said "good morning" to someone at a cookstall when I stopped to buy a pastry. Much to my dismay, the woman stared at me as if I were feeble-minded and replied "Are you mad ? It's mid-afternoon, as any fool could see ?". That wasn't very polite of her, but she turned out to be correct.

I hope nobody notices that I was away from my desk for somewhat-longer than I'd planned. Otherwise, I'll likely end up with another reprimand. It's bad enough to get them for "violation of uniform dress code" (when I'm cold, I pull my cloak over my uniform). Getting more of them for an unauthorized work absence too (however short it was), would NOT be a good thing. Regulations say that meal-breaks are to be only one candle-mark and no longer. But if I work an extra hour tomorrow, it will balance itself out enough to satisfy me.

I still haven't fully-adjusted to the local day being four hours longer, and didn't realize how badly it was throwing off my internal clock. When there's isn't a time-display staring at me from a computer screen, I've been judging time-of-day by where it fits between meals and sleeps.

What could be more natural enough to say that "morning" was between breakfast and lunch, "afternoon" was between lunch and supper, and "evening" was after supper ?

However, I just ran into a huge flaw in that reasoning -- the locals apparently eat their last meal of the day much earlier than I got used to doing on Terra.

I've always called "dinner" any meal not eaten in the morning. Which means that at least I didn't embarass myself in front of Mestru Merrick. What I'd referred to as his dinner, was actually his SUPPER (and not his lunch, as I'd thought).

What's much worse is that my time-of-day confusion means that when Gwenn and I agreed to meet at the gates in the evening, we were NOT talking about exactly the same time of day. So I should go DIRECTLY after work, rather than when I had thought to go.

O Goddess, despite the embarassment, I give you my thanks. If not for this painful lesson, I would have unknowingly shown up at the gates long after Gwenn would have left. That would have been shameful indeed; he'd surely have taken offense (or thought me lack-witted) and might not have wanted to speak to me again. I do not know whether I would have been able to bear such a thing. Now I'll not make such a terrible mistake.

I wonder what OTHER surprises this world has in store for me. There's just enough similarities between Terrans and Darkovans that I notice the similarities more than the diferences.

Just once, it would be nice NOT to have to learn about these differences the HARD WAY. Grandfather Malcolm used to say "Clay gains its strength from the fires of the kiln; so too do people gain character from adversity".

But how much character do You think I need ?