Sunday, May 27, 2012

Translation Error


So I have my first embarrassing translation situation this week, but I will save that for the end. This weekend we went to 天津 (tian jin) with a group of foreign students. I had my first chance to ride a high speed train. It was the coolest thing.  It goes 200MPH and is a smooth comfortable ride.  天津 is a newer city then Beijing. There is a lot of western influences. There is sections of the city with Italian, German, Muslin, and American architecture. It gave me a feeling of being home for a second.  We also went to a food market and tried some Chinese snacks. They were not very tasty.  Now to the story I promised. Last week I learned the characters for homosexual and being the mature adult that I am I wrote them down in phone to call Andy by it later that day. After the trip to 天津we went to visit my friend's restaurant to practice Chinese and enjoy so good food. There was a new girl there that night and we started talking to her and getting to know her. I tried telling her my name, but it is not common so I also have it written in my to show people the characters. So without hesitation I took out my phone and pointed at the screen to show her my name Chinese and in my broken Chinese I said“我是,我是/“  (It means I am I am) as I pointed at myself. She gave me a very puzzled look. So checked my phone my phone and on the screen was not my name, but the characters for Homosexual. It was very embarrassing.  I then pulled up the right characters and had to explain to her that I wasn't gay, It was just something I learned that week in class. Hahah

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Summer is coming.


Well Blogging has been slow lately. I apologize for that. Things in china are going well. Its starting to get hot and with the hot weather comes bad smells.  Especially on the subway.  There is way too many sweaty people cramped into a small space, but that’s china for you. Every day here I am becoming a little more Chinese. (No, that doesn’t mean my eyes are getting slanted. Or at least I hope not). I did make a new friend the other day. It is a restaurant owner down the street. He is really friendly even though we cannot communicate very well.  His name is Yuan Qing. The first time there I was just walking by and wanted a little snack so I stopped to get a couple of skewers of lamb. (Lamb is the best meat ever). The guy sat me down and started just giving me free tastes of food.  It was awesome. Now he wants to take us out to meet girls haha.  My teaching is going great. I am making good money and get a chance to ask Chinese people questions about the culture. I learned that in southern china you can eat baby soup. Yes made of real baby. It ruined baby jokes for me haha.  I had a great opportunity to face my fear this past week by eating a tarantula. It was gross. It tasted of peanuts and cobwebs. The texture was bizarre. The exoskeleton makes it hard and crunchy. Once I bite into it, it crumbles into flakes and the tastes keeps coming back all night Not cool. Well until next time.