This translation was right on

Often we read English translations that are really not accurate or descriptive – particularly when it comes to Chinese foods. The ever-so-helpful “Chicken in Sauce” or “Beef with Grains” doesn’t really help in figuring out the dining options.

The other morning Scott was in a small city in China and went downstairs for breakfast. He quickly noticed that it was not a Chinese/Western Buffet Breakfast as is typical, but rather, a Chinese-only setup. He began opening the lids of the various dishes in order to survey his options. He came upon one dish that was titled “Closest to Flesh and Blood.”

This little treasure looked like skewered meat, but Scott couldn’t really understand the title. He started running through the options in his head, “What is close to flesh and blood, but not in fact … flesh … or … blood? Maybe it’s tendons, or ligaments, or cartilage, or bone? It could be knuckles or joints I guess?” Ultimately he decided that it had to just be meat with a funny name. WRONG … after taking a mouthful of the not-so-delicious sustenance he deduced the skewered items were some random, chewy combination of tendons, ligaments, cartilage, bone, knuckles, AND joints. He then made the bold conclusion there has never been a more accurate translation of a Chinese delicacy.

Salutations

One of the more beneficial aspects of our international assignment has been the exposure to people from all over the world. The ex-patriot community is largely comprised of Europeans in addition to Americans so we are learning about many different cultures and customs.

One of the more curious discoveries we have come across has been how different people close an e-mail before typing their name. In the U.S., typically we Americans stick to “Thanks”, “Thank You”, “Regards”, or maybe even “Kind Regards.”

However, we’ve noticed the Europeans tend to mix it up a bit. It’s not uncommon to get a “Cheers” or maybe even a “Mit freundlichen Grüßen,” but our personal favorite has to be “I Remain.” We really can’t figure it out though. “Thanks” … we get. “Regards” … it makes sense. “I Remain?” Maybe the writer is just trying to get the point across that he or she is still alive, or is just trying to say “In case you thought I was considering changing my name, I didn’t.”

In any event it’s been another of the interesting curiosities as we become more “worldly.”

We Remain,
The Richardsons

This stuff is riveting

The other day while traveling on business, Scott heard a very curious recorded announcement while at the Shanghai Airport.

“Attention passengers, please pay attention to the time printed on your boarding pass. Even while watching the Olympics on the airport television you must arrive at the gate on time in order to board your plane.”

As fabulous as coed, one-armed, blind-folded badminton is, we really can't see missing our flight for it, but to each his own we suppose.

Nothing Like a 3 Year Old Translator

As we have stated before, the speed at which Lillie has grasped English has been incredible. However, she refused to speak Chinese with us at home. We knew she still was speaking Chinese with our driver and housekeeper, but we were unclear as to how much she was retaining. With Annie in the states, Scott has figured out her retention is just fine.

Our housekeeper has been watching Lillie while Scott is at work. It has worked out well so far despite Xue Feng’s lack of English capability. For the most part Scott can fake enough Chinese to figure out what’s going on and communicate with her. However there are times at which he has no clue. Last week, one morning when he was leaving she told him something that left him clueless. Sensing the blank stare on Scott’s face, Lillie stepped in. “She says I need a bath and that she will do it before you get home tonight.”

Now if she could just bargain for purses in the market ... we'd be all set.

The next Willard Scott?

Annie and Juliet are currently back home in Texas for a few weeks enjoying Tex-Mex food and the ability to drink tap water before another school year begins. Thus, Scott and Lillie are holding down the fort alone together in Shanghai. As you can imagine, he is having some very interesting conversations during his "one on one" time with her. One such moment occurred yesterday and today.

Last night about 7pm they were walking over to a friend's house for dinner when the following conversation occurred:

Scott: "It sure looks like rain with the sky really dark and all that thunder."
Lillie: "It's not going to rain today, but it is going to rain tomorrow."
Scott: "It might rain tomorrow, but I really think it will rain while we're eating tonight also."
Lillie: "No!!! - it is going to rain tomorrow ... not today!!!"

About 10pm they were walking home on dry ground:

Scott: "Well it hasn't rained yet but I think it still might rain tonight."
Lillie (vehemently): "It is not going to rain today ... it is going to rain tomorrow!!!"

Fast forward to this afternoon at 4pm. When Scott exited a meeting, he looked out his office window to see it raining so hard he couldn't see more than about 100 yards outside. We're not so sure her sudden acquisition of ESP is ready for Vegas or a career in palm reading, but at least we'll know when to take an umbrella with us.

Where's the Camera?

Tonight we had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. This is a normal stop on our rotation and we typically hit CPK every couple of weeks. We were having an early dinner (a little before 5pm) so the restaurant was quite empty with only about 4-5 tables filled. We were about halfway through our meal when a few guys wearing "USA Basketball" shirts walked in. They were kind of looking around deciding where to sit and walked over to us. One of them said "I am so sorry but your nice quiet dinner is about to be interrupted."

At that moment, LeBron James led the majority of the USA men's basketball team into CPK. Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Chris Paul, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Darren Williams and Dominique Wilkins all followed him in to enjoy a nice "American" meal.

We couldn't figure out why they didn't stop down for some local fare as we assume pig's feet, duck tongue, etc would be good protein boosters prior to the Olympiad, but their loss was our gain as we got to dine right next to this year's "Dream Team" and their traveling party (coaches, trainers, etc).

Little did we know that about one year ago to the day that we were swiping sugar packets to take home to put on our Cheerios, that in that very spot Kobe Bryant would thank us for wishing them good luck and we'd get to hear LeBron James look at our kids and say "how are you all doing tonight?"