Blow Me Down!

It's Talk-Like-A-Pirate Day. I had no idea! I found this joke online, and I laughed out loud. Mild, pirate-intrinsic language which I didn't know how to edit out. Anyway, here 'tis.

A bartender looks up from the bar and sees a pirate with a peg leg, a hook hand, and patch over one eye.

Startled, the bartender asks "What happened?! Just a month ago your body was relatively whole, now..."

The pirate responded:
"Aye, 3 weks agor a conn'n ball took me leg. Now juss this peg to use.
"Thin 2 weks ago I gave up my h'nd in a sword duel.
"Thin 13 days agre a cursed bird shat in me eye."

The bartender, perplexed, said, "But you have a patch over it; certainly a little guano would not cost you an eye."

With a chagrinned grin the pirate told him, "Well, it were my first day wit der hook..."

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That made my day. This morning's class was kind of less than good. I'm realizing how hard I need to be studying. Ouch. So today I made flash cards (yes, flash cards) of all the vocabulary we've covered thus far. I made 113 flash cards-- character on the front and pinyin (phonetics) and English meaning on the back-- today from lunchtime until 2 something. Then an American friend of mine and I studied them all afternoon and evening. We stopped tonight to eat some PB&J, then we studied a little more. Finally he left to go to the café across the street, and I did my written, turn-in homework for tomorrow.

Mandarin does not come naturally to speakers of other languages. It just doesn't. If I need to study a full three hours a day, then I will, but that stinks. I hardly ever study in the States. I'm one of those sob-stories who never studied in school. And I really don't study much in college, either. Maybe this will encourage me to have better study-habits. I spent most of my afternoon in the park near the center of campus, and that was cool. I almost met some people. I think it could happen. I talked to some random girl who wanted to know about my textbook.

T