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

Baby Kittens

This seems like one of those stories that should have been written about 2 weeks ago in order to not have to give so much backstory now.  However, we have neglected the blog lately, and so a backstory is necessary.  But it is short:

Our friend Nick has moved into a new house.  The previous tenants had a cat, who gave birth to 4 baby kittens about 3 weeks ago.  Around a week and a half later she died.  Yes, this is terrible and sad, but the four kittens are alive and well.  Logan and I have been helping take care of them (which just means they have stayed at our house while Nick did some traveling and as he doesn't have a refrigerator right now, he can't really keep emergency kitten formula on hand.)  They will move over to his house once he gets a fridge, and we will continue to feed them and let them live in my office until he is ready for them.  Anyways, here is a video we shot today.  Mostly you just hear them crying, and Nick has complete rights for renaming them, especially the one we've dubbed as Graham....she will probably receive the name Baz.  (That's for you, Angus.)  

--da



Kittens from L & DA Heinrich on Vimeo.

Toothpaste (A Video Test)

When we first moved to JH, you may remember that I posted about getting caught in the rain and frying my IPOD.  Two days ago, I received a new Nano in the mail...small, cute, blue, and it has the ability to take video.  So here is my first test of what the Nano can do, and what all I have to do to get the video online.


Toothpaste from Daryl-Ann Heinrich on Vimeo.

enjoy.
--da

Manting Park

One of our teachers holds season passes to a park here in town.  Before school let out for the holiday, she loaned us these passes.  We found out that they are only good for the daytime hours....around 6:00pm you have to buy a much more expensive ticket to gain entrance into the park.  During the day, it is really a large, quiet, enjoyable park.  At night, however, it becomes the site of the "show of all shows"....or something like that.  Regardless, you pay a lot for a ticket, but then you can eat all you want, drink all the BaiJiu that you want, and enjoy dancing and singing and minority performances.  (Go here for a brief introduction on BaiJiu.)

Not wanting to spend the money, or experience what all you can drink BaiJiu is like, we opted to use the free passes for a morning at the park.

Here is the view from the entrance.  A statue commemorating Premier Zhou Enlai's trip to our city to celebrate the Water Splashing Festival...can't remember the year he came, but it would have been in the month of April, since that is when the Water Splashing Festival occurs.  Go here for an introduction to Zhou Enlai.....

The rest of the photos are just from around the park.

Cash

With the release of Johnny Cash's newest posthumously published album, there has been renewed discussion on his life and music in the Heinrich family.

Here is a brief biographical sketch Mars Hill put together a while back.



Enjoy! -LH

Chinglish #4

In a western restaurant here in our town, Logan found this sign in the restroom.  I really don't know if this counts as chinglish, but the characters read:  Please do not defecate.  I just think its funny.

--da