Searching for masculinity and maternity in the American Southwest “[T]he strangeness and wonder of existence are emphasized here, in the desert, by the comparative sparsity of the flora and fauna: life not crowded upon life as in other places but scattered abroad in spareness and simplicity, with a generous gift of space for each herb and bush and tree, each stem of grass, so that the living organism stands out bold and brave and vivid against the lifeless sand and barren rock. The extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life forms...

As a foreigner in Russia, I noticed that personal in shops are not smiling at clients. It surprised me, as in the west, personal are very politely smiling at costumers. Maybe this is fake smiling, in the west a lot is fake anyway, but getting a smile, makes you smile back and that makes you feel good and polite. Smiling is part of the service level that shops provide in the west. I tried to use humour and jokes to lighten things up, but whatever I did, it was not working. Personal react like they are tired and if they got a bad mood every time is encounter them...