Notes from the field

Naomi has a new nickname. It's "Babyzilla". I gave it to her yesterday when, single handed, she turned our room into a combat zone. I'm thinking it would be a good name for a baby clothing line...

One of my favorite quirks about China are the many strange translations of Chinese you see. For example, at breakfast yesterday there was something labeled "chocolate cake". Only it wasn't chocolate...or cake. Or the previously mentioned "peas with ketchup" that are actually baked beans.

The English descriptions of parks and monuments tend to be particularly funny since the Chinese tend to use very flowery prose when writing about them. The translation is often like this, "The halls of Huo Zhong Jie combine the culture of an upright official, gardening arts and ancient building styles to form a special humane attraction of ingenious conception".

Another classic example is the literature from the orphanage. Their motto is "We stick to the culture belief human-oriented, homely center, sincerely love". Of course if one of us tried to write in Chinese I'm sure the result would be even funnier.