The End of the Quintile

 Well it is Sunday. Opened my eyes and wondered what day it is. Then I remembered! 

How I ended the first quintile in school with a good laugh! And since I like to share my moments of laughter, this is what happened...😅😅 My answer to an email had the three of us rolling in the aisles. 

This is what can happen to teachers when they read an email at 7 a.m. in their classroom at the end of the school quintile and they decide to answer it very early in the morning. 

I am the kind of person who wakes up everyday at 5 a.m. YES, in the morning! Indeed it is very early! And Franz Kafka was right when he wrote in his book that "this getting up early makes a man quite idiotic"😅

My email would be the perfect joke for a stand up comedian! He or she will have the audience rolling in the aisles.

I arrived in my classroom at 7 a.m. and I opened my email box. I received an invitation for lunch and the different times were written in military time. I read 1400 for 1400 CFA. YES! It happened to me. 

Since 1400 was not written 14:00, I thought that our friends were asking us to chip in, which is totally okay for me! I know things can get expensive. We can have a party and ask our guests to bring additional food or cash.

I replied to the email confirming that I will bring 1400 CFA with me on the day of the party. 

My friend replied, "NO MONEY" "It's Time"... This is when I only realized that our friend was not asking for money, but he was asking us to come at 1400, meaning 2 p.m. 

Indeed why do we use an a.m. p.m. 12 hour time rather than the 24 hour military time? 

This what happens when you speak 5 languages.

I speak five languages and one of them is Arabic. I have only used the 12-hour clock in Arabic. Most countries use a 24-hour clock (which is known in the U.S. as military time) instead of the 12-hour clock. Since he has written 1400 without using the colon ":", I have read it 1400 CFA 😂

I write 14:00 using a colon. Therefore, I was confused when I had read 1400 without the colon. 

Indeed humor is culture specific, meaning that most jokes tend to be funny only among people who share experiences in that culture. But I hope that most us will consider this funny experience as a cosmopolitan one. 

Have a great Sunday 💓