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| I kept wondering why the Smart Cars seemed so funny to me. Then I finally realized that it was because I was seeing a real life Urkel Mobile. I know, Urkel drived a BMW Isetta, but they look pretty similar to me. Back in the day, Urkel's car was supposed to be a joke, so now I laugh every time I see a Smart Car drive by. 
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| So I work with a bunch of scientists, and they're pretty serious most of the time. Today I went to a department lunch meeting where two teams were going to be introduced to the group. While waiting in line for lunch, I saw one of the guys from the team and said, "Are you ready for the introduction? Your team probably has something great because you're setting the bar for the entire department. Do you guys have a song and dance ready?" His response was, "well, if we have a song and dance presentation, I think I've missed a lot of rehearsals..." Hahaha. I didn't think that a middle aged quiet asian scientist would have such a quick witted response. Because after he said that, all I could do was picture a team of 12 serious scientists practicing a song and dance in the privacy of their lab...just down the hall from my lab. | | |
| My co-workers are from all over the world, and sometimes my conversations with them cause me to think about whether my actions/comments are culturally Chinese or American, and sometimes my conversations with them just make me laugh. One day for lunch I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. My co-worker exclaims, "Why are you eating a breakfast food for lunch? Peanut butter and jelly is only for breakfast!" I had to find the nearest non-asian American and ask whether he had PB&J for lunch growing up, and he did, which confirmed it as an American custom. I guess Europeans don't eat PB&J for lunch. Another day I brought layered jello. Apparently that's a Chinese American thing. Sometimes it's just a language issue, which results in tons of hilarity. Like one time I asked my co-worker what he did over the weekend. He said, "my wife and I bought a crib." My response was, "you bought a house?! That's great!" He said, "no, we bought a crib for the baby. Jenn, sometimes you are really strange." Hahaha. He's Swiss. Another time he asked me to do something for him, and I said, "No prob bob." His response: "No, no...I do not go by Bob. Only by Roberto." "No, you don't understand, I say that to everyone." "You call everyone Bob?!" Today another co-worker (Vietnamese) brought a bunch of candy from home because she didn't want her son to eat all of it. I dug through it and pulled one out exclaiming, "Yay! I found a Fruit by the Foot!" My Indian co-worker's response was, "That's disgusting! Who would try to market that! No one would eat anything made by a foot." "No, it's the measurement foot. A better translation would be Fruit by the Meter, because it's about a meter long." Hahaha. | | |
| Today at church we had a guest speaker Rev. Fred Pei, and he had a pretty cool message. He said, "May we have the hands of Martha, the heart of Mary, and the life of Lazarus." His message was a prayer for the church that we would serve like Martha, love like Mary, and live a saved life like Lazarus. I missed a lot because Rev. Pei was really excited while he was preaching and I don't feel like everything was translated to English. Even though I didn't get all of it because of the language barrier, his excitement transcended all languages. It's a very powerful prayer for today's Church. | | |
| Well, I'm packing and getting ready to leave early tomorrow morning. Some other cool things that have happened: Fun at the Forbidden City: 
Beijing Duck in is different in China. Rather than having bread, you eat it with these thin rice tortillas: 
Taro Pie at Mc Donalds. Yum! 
Mel's friends cooking a genuine Chinese meal for me: 
Thanksgiving dinner that we had tonight with Mel's team (pics to come) Going to go home soon. Fresh air, here I come! | | |
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