What a great start for the new month, which, by the way, is my birthday month! We had


Yes, that's right, we had 7 people today! 
 Angela from the Acropolis, Ashley & Shelby from Westminster, Erica & Kelsey from Stockholm, Brooklyn from New York (Brooklyn), and Jade fell off the Sagrada Familia! 
By the way -and this is NOT an April Fool's joke-  it was Shelby's birthday, so please join the choir:


Topics covered today were various, as many people obviously means many things come up. 
We started with a query about the very simple: How are you - I'm fine, thank you - phrase, and its' correct usage, and if it's okay to answer with "so-so". Well, it turned out, it is okay (although I somehow don't feel comfortable using it).

As two of us came from Scandinavia today, Finland for some reason was one of our topics, and some questions arose about origin & language background, and we were right - Finnish is the ONE language in Scandinavia not being of Germanic origin. And YES, it is part of the EU - for curious people, read on! 

Our maybe most exciting thing to talk (and complain!) about today were "sag pants". Brooklyn shared the news with us that some states in the U.S are considering making this stupid fashion become illegal, even imposing fines in some cases. The question is, where to draw the line - when do  "sag pants" become "sag pants", and "qualifying" for a fine?  
Well, look for yourself - this diagram should clear up all the "grey areas" in this matter!


What I can't comprehend and really feel unbelievably paradox is the fact that America is preaching democracy, freedom,
freedom of speech etc, but don't let people dress like they want to....doesn't add up! Not that I'm on the side of the young people dressing like that - personally I find them extremely stupid!

Another point discussed today was the fact that the English language is lacking a good word or expression for the Japanese "Hansei", and I was asked by one of the ladies (Erica, maybe?) to find out. Yes, and I did my homework:

はんせい　反省
self-examination; 《熟考》reflection; 《再考》reconsideration.
〜する　reflect on ((one's action)); reconsider.

反省会 　a review meeting. 

 

There even is a word for the "drinking party"!

 The request by the same lady for the picture & story about the "Jesus thing" can be found here:

And our (slightly fragile) C.C.C.C looked like this:




And the last one in the serious: "How is British & American English different" (for the time being):




And now, really last but not least - WHAT HAS A HEAD AND A TAIL, BUT NOTHING ELSE?
(This riddle has been brought in by a lady whose real name I know, but I forgot today's "artist name").

Wow, this took a while!

The "Master"