The Things I Stare at All Day Long....

JOURNALS and TEXT MESSAGES...yep, I stare at these two things all day long and, after a while, the strange things that are written in/on/through these become a blur in my more and more "Chinese-ized" mind. What I mean by this is, I am starting to look at things in a different light. For example, the shoes/clothes/sunglasses/purses that I thought were hideous before because they are covered with sequins or beads are now starting to look, okay. Or the text messages with questions that I thought to be so strange before are now becoming somewhat, normal. Don't get me wrong...there are still a lot of things that make me say, "HUH?" but I am definitely getting used to living in this culture. Listed below are some of the recent text messages I've received, as well as some of the sayings that are written on those journal covers that I stare at everyday...

Text Messages:

"Today I read the magazine The Economist and came across an article about an excellent editor. The title is Bottle Her but Keep Her. I'm not sure about the meaning of BOTTLE HER. Can you give me a hint?" ~ Casey

Oh, how I wish I could give you a hint, Casey!

Also from Casey: "Shannon SOS! Can you tell me the difference between the two words amiable and affable?"

SOS! SOS!

The last one from Casey...she decided one day to find out if my name has any shortened versions so I told her "Shan" - this is now what she calls me. She's so cute!

Finally, one that couldn't be answered even with the help of 4 other native English speakers, "What is bush-apple?" ~ Jessy

We tried out "bushel of apples" or took a shot with "apple bush" but she informed us that these were not correct either...I'm still stumped!

Journal Covers:

All over China you can find Chinglish, the combining of Chinese and English (or poor translations) on menus, signs, billboards, official building signs and pretty much anything trying to express English! This includes the covers of all of those journals. Here are some of the best sayings...

"What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two babies."

"I feel if in my fingers I feel is writte on the koow i love you i slways wind on the know i love fingers."

"This is the most comfortable notebook you have ever run into."

I did not change any of these...they are typed exactly as they are written on the journals. My favorite has got to be the second one and how it ends with "i love fingers..." HUH? Okay, so maybe I'm not as "Chinese-ized" as I thought... :)