Dating or Married?

I arrived back home this afternoon on my bike after running some errands and seeing a friend.  I parked my bike and walked over to our security guards' desk to retrieve the air pump we had left there under his desk and watchful eye.  Naturally, we started talking...first of all regarding what an air pump is called in Chinese (打气筒), which led to what it is called in English, which led to me writing out the word in English and my  security guard writing it out in characters.  This led to a conversation about how, depending on how clear and precise a person writes, you may or may not be able to read and understand their handwriting.  I immediately agreed, but countered that not all Chinese people write characters in a very (or even semi) precise and orderly fashion.  Of course, he disagreed.  The strokes are always the same, no matter who is writing the character.  (I chose to not try and win this battle....)  We moved onto to me writing and then signing my name for them, and at this point I showed them that my last name is at the end (opposed to the Chinese surname being at the beginning) and that it is the same as Logan's because we are married.

We continued to talk...about America and Chinese and Americans marrying each other and whether it is difficult to get a birth certificate....and then Logan returned home.  And a few moments after Logan walked over to the desk, our security guard admitted frankly that he had up until today thought we were only dating.  I threw my head back and laughed.  Actually, we will have been married 3 years next month.

--da

Boat Racing video

The first day of Water Splashing Festival was Tuesday, and boat races were held that afternoon.  The following is my first actual video to edit and put together!  Many thanks to Nick and his patience in walking me through iMovie.  

Just so you'll know, Wednesday's event was a parade that we missed.  We were told we would be able to see it from our house...and at about 8 we heard something like monks chanting.  So we ran outside, and caught what was the very end of the parade, although we didn't know it at the time.  (So no video of that.)

Thursday was the actual water splashing, and you can be on the look out for a possible video from that day.  

Oh, by the way, my translations in the video are a bit incorrect.  It should be "good play" and not "good fun".  Oops....I know this, and am not for sure why I translated it the way I did.  Maybe because my brain knows that "good fun" doesn't sound as awkward as "good play"....unless you are referring to sports of course.

-da

boat races from L & DA Heinrich on Vimeo.

Its here

Dai New Year that is...

Nick's New Scooter

A few days ago, Logan and I went with Nick to help him pick out an electric scooter.  The following video was supposed to be about a 45 second shot of him getting on the newly purchased scooter and driving off.  But the lady wasn't quite ready to let him go, and continued to pull off the protective plastic wrap around the seat, etc...so it turned into about a 3 minute video.

I still haven't really taken the time to learn how to edit videos, but I have to admit, I kind of like the raw footage.  In a small way, you get to see that as we live here and think we are about to do something simple like drive away on a new scooter, there are inevitable small delays.  There are small delays as someone cuts in front of you in the grocery store checkout line, small (or rather large) delays as Logan tries to get all the paperwork done so he can obtain a drivers' license, small delays as you wait at a poorly designed intersection.  None of these things are life altering.  None of these things are really annoying.  But sometimes it can be the little things that add up rather quickly.

Regardless, enjoy the video.  (And please excuse the bad TX accent...)

--da


IMG 0011 from L & DA Heinrich on Vimeo.

Chinglish #5

At the park that we were able to visit while still on spring holiday.....the English is "Relife Lake."

Correctly translated, it should say "Free Captive Animals Lake", or even "Release Life Lake."

--da