Fun Facts About Chinese

Chinese has anywhere from 7 to 14 major language groups and perhaps over 8000 distinct dialects if you consider that nearly every county in China has it's own dialect and there are over 8000 counties. Oh, and people with different dialects by and large can't understand each other. Why is this a fun fact? Because when a hysterical Chinese patient ends up in the ER with no one to help translate, it means your day is going to suck.


And they tell us English is complicated!

Speaking of the Chinese, this article has some awesome gems about China's response to the H1N1 flu. Basically, this poor guy from Virginia goes on vacation to China and ends up spending the whole time quarantined in a hospital because his temperature was 98.9 F when he got off the plane. Did I mention his name sounds Mexican? And everyone that took care of him was dressed in full biohazard suits - even though he DID NOT HAVE THE FLU.

The best lines are these: "Patients get three meals a day -- their choice of Chinese cuisine (mostly chicken and rice) or Western cooking (chicken and rice prepared a different way)." And, "A hospital official asked him to sign papers acknowledging that he had been treated well..."

Now a picture of 2 quarantine victims escaping a Chinese flu ward:

Martha, Martha, Martha: My attempt at home decor

For those of you not fortunate enough to see my actual room after I painted it a delicious Cinnamon Whip contrasted with Rhythmic Blue...Congratulations! You can now feast your eyes on this color experiment gone wrong.


So taking the initiative (after only 9 months) I have repainted to a beautiful, bold Bicycle Yellow.

Visitors! Dave Comes to DC

Dave and I had a great time doing some of the traditional DC sites over the last weekend in March. True to form, it rained. Here's a quick rundown of our itinerary:

March 26: American History Museum - After wandering for 45 minutes looking for parking in the rain, Dave and I both decide we need more time at the museum! Then burgers and peanuts at Five Guys (delightful!).

March 27: Capitol Tour in the new visitor center (which was very nice with plenty of gold leaf and marble to totally justify the $621 million price tag). Dave admires the painting of our Mayflower ancester sitting in the capitol rotunda, and we get a nice education on Representatives Clay, Webster, and Calhoun in the leadup to the Civil War. For lunch fried Saltenas from little El Salvador in Alexandria.


After that Mt. Vernon! Also completely redone and totally worth the price of an annual pass. The Mt. Vernon Ladies Assoc. are pretty well connected if the quality of their Washington movies are any judge. I foresee an HBO miniseries in the making! As Dave commented (several times), George Washington was a stud.
Dave in George Washington's Front Parlor
The squirrels going to town in the pig trough at Mt. Vernon

March 28: Ford's Theatre was also totally redone and now busier than ever. We discoved a problem with their timed tickets as ticketmaster only distributes tickets on the hour, but tours are supposed to take place every 30 minutes. So the ranger decided he was only going to answer random questions, not give a talk. However, we outsmarted him with the question: "Please walk us through what happened the night Lincoln was shot." And he gave his speil anyway (horaay us!). After that we spent the rest of the day back in the American History Museum, which again was just redone. I'm happy to see the Colbert painting has found a happy home. On the way back to Alexandria, we walked over to the Iwo Jima memorial and then visited the new 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon.

Flashback: Megan's Birthday 2008

Some little known photos from Megan's birthday sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's on her birthday. Meg and Abs were determined to build a fort. I'm so proud!

The only hiccup came when grandma wondered out loud if the fort would collapse, smothering the girls with blankets during the night. Megan overheard, and then wondered, "what if the fort COLLAPSES and SMOTHERS us with blankets during the night?!?" She was wary of the fort's potential for deadly disaster for at least 30 more seconds before crawling in with her sleeping bag.

The other highlight of the night came when Megan gave me a quiz to find out just what Aunt Kelli thought about life and everything.

Otra Vez En Espanol

I finally found a show that caters to my lever of Spanish comprehension. Here's hoping they come up with El Departmento Emergencia! Maybe then I can learn to conjugate in past and future tense!

The French Strike Again

I watched a movie today that so resembled the little French girl's story (see Jan. 7 post), I can't help but think the whole country is high on wine and cigarette smoke. I will provide a comparison between the Mister Lonely movie and the French girl. Mister Lonely was funny to look at (like the little Amelie French kid), made no sense (like Winnie the Pooh losing monkeys), went no where (somehow and lion tries to kill himself and ends up in heaven with a hippo), introduced other characters whose stories went nowhere (how did a witch end up in this story?), and ends depressingly (same). But again, it was all very cute to look at. So you can see what I'm talking about, I've helpfully pirated pictures from the movie and provided a "plot" synopsis.

Marilyn and Michael meet in idyllic Paris. They are attracted to each other. She persuades him to come live in an impersonator utopia. Marilyn is breathlessly ecstatic.

Marilyn is married to Charlie Chaplin. They often walk around in yellow boots. Charlie sometimes resembles Adolf Hitler. Marilyn is melancholy.

Marilyn and Charlie have a daughter: Shirley Temple. Marilyn is pretending everything is okay.

At the impersonator farm, Abe Lincoln rides around on a tractor. Wearing yellow boots.

Buckwheat washes the Pope because "the Pope smells." Where did the water come from? Buckwheat has a romantic attachment to a chicken. He's going to be the stepfather to her eggs.

They have a dinner party to toast the sheep on the farm. All the sheep are sick and have to be shot by the Three Stooges. Marilyn is sad.

Marilyn was once a nun (and Werner Herzog was the priest). She falls out of an airplane and lives. She convinces all the other nuns to jump out of the plane and do tricks to show God's miracle. They all die and end up floating in the ocean. She becomes Marilyn. Marilyn kills herself at the impersonator utopia.

Michael rides away into the sunset on a tiny motorbike. Curious George follows. Now it's over.

Why French Stories End Incomprehensibly

It's in the genes!

I love how every story this kid's ever heard becomes a great epic. Also a French trait...


Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.