Upturned Girl

The beautiful thing about being friends with teachers is that you have so many more great student stories to share. I can't take full pride or credit for this gem of a student, but Charles just told me about one of his more advanced students. She came to him after class asking, "What does the word upturned mean? Someone called me an 'upturned girl,' is that...something sexual?" Charles wrote the word on the board to confirm he was hearing the word correctly. The girl said, "What does upturned mean exactly?" He replies, "Well...sort of lifted up and flipped over...like this," and makes a flip of the hand and a bend at the wrist, realizing that this wasn't what she wanted to hear. I'm sure she was convinced that someone had utterly insulted her with some sort of clever sexual phrase, "upturned girl."

She walked out of the classroom and Charles' head was reeling with other possible phrases sounding like upturned girl in order for her to save face. "Wait! Uptown girl??" he says.

"Yes! Uptown girl! That's it! What does this mean?"

"Uh, that you like to party a lot?"

She says, "So...same meaning?"

My Apologies

It's been way too long. I've unfortunately let go of trying to pick up the pieces of the last few months and put them in some sort of order, so this is my way of saying sorry for being away from the blog for so long. A few things have happened since I wrote last, and one of the more noticeable things is that life here has become normal. No longer exotic, and therefore I feel like there is not as much motivation to tell the stories about the things that are to me mundane. Here are a few tidbits from the last months that are certainly not mundane.

Hong Kong. The trip that I couldn't finish all the lovely stories about, and for which I will be eternally grateful. One of the highlights of the last day of the trip that I still tell people about on a regular basis is.....pink dolphins. They exist and I saw them in the wild. It was awesome. They were as pink as cotton candy! I was tearing up that night at the airport saying goodbye to my aunt and uncle, and Doug met Mare and I at the airport and she says, "Tell Doug what we saw today..." As the subway whistle blew, I burst out in tears yelling, "We saw pink dolphins!" Then I cried all the way home. Such a lovely trip.

Kuala Lumpur. Took a solo trip to KL at the first weekend of May or so. It was a while since I've traveled completely on my own so it was a great experience. Photos are up. Not a whole lot to say about the trip except for great food, great public transportation, and men who aren't afraid to try and pick up an American gal. My favorite incident: a middle eastern man comes up to me while I'm walking through a food market and says, "Hello. Where are you from?" "America."
"Come with me," he says.
"Huh??"
"Come with me. "
"No thank you."
"Oh, I'm sorry for you," and walks away. Baffling.

Charles' arrival. My lovely friend Charles has decided to embark on a Thailand adventure. He arrived at the beginning of May and may make a future appearance or two on the blog. He is also working in Chiang Mai and his company has definitely been worth the wait.

So I've been keeping busy with 'normal' life, but hopefully won't get too caught up in the old 'mundane' and will continue to share good stories. Pictures are up on Picasa, so browse as you may.