The Rest of Winter Vacation 2008

So, what have we been doing since we got back to our school? A combination of continuing to laze around and preparing for classes to begin. We don't start teaching until next Monday the 17th of March (Happy St. Patrick's Day!), so here are some observations before we are consumed with school again:

The other night Nick and I were watching an old episode of 'The X-Files,' when Agent Mulder made a preposterous claim (as he is prone to do). Agent Scully, the so-called reasonable one, replied "And if your sister is your aunt and your mother marries your uncle, you could be your own grandpa." We listened to it twice, then paused the DVD to try and figure out if this could be possible. After pencil and paper were drawn and various diagrams scribbled out, we didn't have much figured out. I thought that you'd need to add at least one level of branches, i.e. change it to something like "if your mother marries her uncle." If you want to have a go (or as we say in Chinglish "have a try"), then let me know what you come up with!

The many foreign languages in use over here boggles my mind. I do know that lots of Westerners have come through the country, but does that call for the following things?

1) Whenever we send a package to the U.S., we are handed a nice-looking receipt with the mass of the package and price, as well as tax added. This receipt comes from a small pad of similar receipts that are filled in by the computer printer. The only issue with all of this is that the whole receipt is in French. Do the clerks know it's not English? Do they care? Are these relics from a time when French was the only diplomatic language? Who knows?

2) I knew that baking soda existed here, I just didn't know what to look for. During the times when we have been at supermarkets looking over the packets of white powders trying to figure this out, we came across one package that immediately made us laugh: Saleratus. Perhaps Shakespeare has come around labeling foods here recently? A quick check of the all-knowing internet when we got home revealed that that particular packet was in fact baking soda. The company had used the oldest, most outdated term possible to label it. In case you don't want to look it up yourself, it comes from sal (=salt) aeratus (=dried, aerated).

So not only are we learning Chinese, but also French and Latin. Watch out, new volunteers! China is more advanced than we knew.

Also, another blog recently wrote a post about a wave of terrorist acts that he perceives to be the beginning of a long line leading up to the Olympics. I'm not sure I believe that, but the article is a good summary. Read it at the Shanghaiist.

Cheers!

P.S. The picture is a batik fabric that I bought in Dali to hang on our our wall.