"Did He Eat It?"

I don't think I have to tell you what was put on my plate next, I think you can guess from the photo:

PS- I'm not referring to the soy sauce

Answer

Yes, my friends, I ate it. What did it taste like? (cue 'big reveal' music!) fish. With lots of tiny bones. I'll post round two tomorrow.

"Did He Eat It?"

I know you guys have been salivating to see the next addition, well...here it is! However, this is going to be a series of "Did He Eat It?" We went to a 'shabu-shabu' restaurant which I beileve is Japanese for 'good Lord no!' Just kidding, I think it's Japanese for 'hot-pot'. (If you look closely, very closely you can see my chopsticks acting as a pointing mechanism taking your eyes towards the elegant copper pot which represents the 'pot-that-is-hot') Anyway, back to the show, this was casually introduced to us by our friends Leonard and Marcy:

"oh, that's good, it's fish jaw."

"what?"

"fish jaw"

"you mean jaw jaw. like chew jaw"

"yup"

"I see"

Ok, did he or didn't he (that's a big jaw even in the picture)

ps- look for more to come!

For the Love of Language!

So I've been speaking with some people and have realized that tones in Mandarin really do matter. I'll give you a few examples of how using the wrong tone on one word say 'juan' (that's pronounced jew-ann not a name). I think I say 'booklet' but I actually say 'curly'. No wonder they look at me funny.

Another example is at the hardware store I'm looking for some two-sided tape and wanted to say "for example if you hang something on the wall" but I said "for example if you hang in bed". Or when I told my professor that our college has many "special characteristics" but actually said "it's trash". Or when I was trying to use the word 'maybe' but said 'Jesus'. Or when I said "no thanks I do not want your booklet" to someone who was handing out some sales material I said, "no thanks, I don't want your curly". Oh, and my favorite is if you mess up the tones on the phrase "wear glasses" it sounds like "to carry eyeballs".

I'm sure there are more, I just can't think of them now.

Jessie's Continued Job Update

I just realized that I have about two posts in this whole thing without pictures. You guys are getting spoiled, so this one will help ween you off.

Jess has had a job teaching youngsters English for about a month now. Well she just recently got two more "jobs", she's crazy! Just kidding.

She was recently hired at a "cram school" which is basically an after school program to teach English to kids ages 6-12. This position is in the evening but is only going to be for a month and a half due to the current teacher going on a break. She also took on a tutor student who is studying to go to college in the US. So her days are going to be full.

Continue to pray for our encouragement of one another and our growth not only in Christ but in each other. 

PS- Sometimes we ask ourselves wether we will be seen as weird if we do one thing or another (e.g. eating things that are really big with your hands instead of chopsticks) but we've come up with a new motto: "Do it! Because we're weird anyway!"