language barriers -> joys

A friend of mine is in China teaching English.
He received the following email from a student:
__________________________________________

I'm Dick.This is my E-mail address.I think you are very funny.I love people who can tell many interisting tings to me.I think you are my teacher,also are my friend.My

classmates were all like you.Do you remember Paul,the boy can walk spacewalk.He is my best friend,we like playing basketball.Do you know,I was a member of the school volleyball team.I like playing volleyball.Do you like it?By the why,where do you live in Chengdu,If we have time,We will take you sightseeing in Chengdu.

__________________________________________
My dad runs a translation company, so I am acutely aware of poor translations. However, to be honest, I am attune to both the barriers and the opportunities of language differences.
Here's my friend in a foreign place, with different customs and words. But in putting himself there, he opens himself up to opportunities to connect with different types of people.
And the student! The student writes in a vulnerable way which Americans would by shy to near in their communication. This welcomes my friend into the otherwise obscure world of the student in such a raw way.
Does any of that analysis make sense?
I can't put into words how joyful I think this is

body words

It took three flights for me to get to California for spring break last Friday. Yes, I now in San Diego with the family. Rough life.
The second flight got delayed by 40 minutes while in the air. FRUSTRATION STATION. I missed my connection in Phoenix and ran back and forth through terminals to figure out how I would get to Palm Springs to meet my grandmother.
ANYWAYS... I was thinking about words on the long flight. I sympathize with foreigners and how they have to deal with sarcasm and colloquial phrases that locals spew out like CO2. This time I mused over body words that we use to mean totally different things:

leg of a trip (mine had three)
video footage
tooth and nail
hair on teeth
to have a heart for (oh, Christian-ese)
stab in the back
pain in the neck
by the seat of your pants

any more???

word verification

you know those funky letter pictures that are on secure websites- you have to identify the letters to prove that you are a human?
How do they get there in the first place? Are they randomly generated by a non-human? That's a strange thought- a machine figuring out if a user is not a machine. freaky.
Well, today I got UNBURPRA. It sounds like an umbrella but no, more like an un-burping condition. That would be a pretty neat skill. I think burping can definitely get you in trouble.

art

It's such a relief that Statistics involves charts, graphs, and lines. ahh the joy of charting vectors, or drawing a Gaussian distribution. I like it best when each page of notes has at least one picture-like element. I only started to become aware of this while living with a lovely Art History, Studio Art double major last year. With an open math book before us, Emily would draw my attention to the beauty of integrals and Greek symbols**. All my math-trained eyes saw was half of a proof. But since then, my appreciation for the aesthetic qualities of Mathematics and Statistics have grown and even expanded to other places, quite unrelated.

Today I went to the new Arches on Emmet St. with Napatra. She immediately noticed the chalkboard-looking menu above us and asked if it was painted on. It was, indeed, "fontish"- the green letters were wide at the ends of the lines and everything was evenly spaced. Look again, next time you go. How many times have I been there and not paid homage to the menu? Napatra = budding brand design genius.

On a less beautiful note, besides me sits a chocolate cake. [Actually, a Texas Sheet Cake which I made for Anna's delayed birthday celebration.] I thought it would be nice to make it into a layer cake. I think it looks like a muddy stone. But I promise it tastes really good. That's why it is supposed to be a sheet cake and not a layer cake. Oh the lessons of life.

I've decided, in the spirit of blogging, that I will not edit my posts after writing a chunk. I think it's more organic to let it be more of a flow of consciousness.

**"It's the most overused alphabet on the planet... they need to retire it. They could use Russian letters- they're much more interesting"- Marian