When the principal picked me up to return to the school Wednesday afternoon, the Russian vice principal was in the car. She smiled at me. Like the landlady, she speaks no English and can appear to be rude and dislike me. Like the landlady, I suspect that a large part of the problem is the language barrier (although I doubt that were the language barrier removed, things would be entirely smooth!)
The principal has a nice car, with seatbelts in the back (kind of rare here), and I automatically put mine on. The Russian v.p. looked surprised and said something to the principal, who then said that she wanted to know if everyone in America wore seatbelts in the back. I replied that in many states it was the law, although in South Carolina, just the front seatbelts are required by law. I said that I did it automatically, without thinking. I then said that it was safer, and went on to describe a friend who had been in the middle of the back seat, without a seatbelt, when the car had run into a drunk driver. The guy had flown through the front windshield.
Usually that's a good story to make a point about seatbelts. The principal was silent for a moment, and then he asked me if I believed in destiny? What? Did I believe in destiny, he repeated. That things are destined to happen, or do I believe that we have complete control over our actions. I said something to the effect that it's a mixture of both. I thought of a better response later (which I've already forgotten) but it just seems like a weird response to a story about a guy and a car crash.
The car then went through a miniature lake of mud and the conversation shifted.
Hm.. it could have turned into a deep conversation. But I wasn't in the mood, and the mud changed the subject.
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