14 Mar

manicure and well-manicured

Who taught: Patty

Well-manicured (source: http://www.designelegant.com/)

It has been more than a week since my last post. Sorry about that! Last week, I went on a business trip to the bay area, specifically San Jose and San Francisco, and came back yesterday. I had a chance to meet my friends there. It was great to see some friends that I have not seen for almost 4 years. Cannot believe that it has been that long. Time really flies. It was funny because I enjoyed talking with them but Jessy said we all talked about something most people would not understand at all. Well, what can I say? All of my friends are CMU alumni and they are software engineers. I mean, literally, every single one of them is software engineer. How cool is it? It is awesome.

Anyway, during the  trip, we either drove or took a train to get to meeting places. One of the things I noticed was that house style of the west coast is very different from that of the east. In Pittsburgh, houses are built mainly of bricks. But, I did not see any houses that are built of bricks there. They are usually one-story house that are painted with very different colors. It is actually very beautiful to see them. Along the bay, there are hills that have houses with different styles and colors. It was even more beautiful because of sunny sky and blue ocean. As we were passing by those houses, Patty said, “Some of the houses are really well-manicured. Don’t you think?” That’s an easy expression to understand but I did not know that we can use the verb, manicure, to describe houses that are painted. My feeling with the expression is that the color of a house should matter. It seems like the house should be painted with a vivid color like yellow or multiple colors. What do you think, my friends? Does my feeling sound correct? What if the inside of a house is painted well? Can I say also that the house is well-manicured?

I need to admit that the bay area is very beautiful but my heart is in Pittsburgh. It is my home. 🙂

Oh, for your future trip to the bay area, I would like recommend you to visit Los Gatos downtown. It is a small but very lovely place to walk around and there are nice restaurants too. Speaking of restaurant, I went to this French restaurant called Le Garage in Sausalito. The food was amazing. You should check it out too.

02 Feb

stoned or baked

Who taught: Stan and Braverman family

Stoned or Baked (source: http://www.nogoodforme.com/)

A few days ago, I wrote about “edible.” Well, yesterday, I learned a new thing about the word, edible. What if someone on the street asks you like, “Hey do you have any edible?” What would you answer? I would try to think whether I have my lunch box or not. If I have, then maybe my answer would be, “Yes, I do. Why?” Well, that answer could be very dangerous. Do you know why? It is because the word, edible, also means something else. It means marijuana. In my opinion, this usage of the word is not very common in the east coast but in the west coast. How funny is it? You can say “it is edible” to mean something people can eat. And, all of a sudden, the other people would possibly think you have marijuana.

Speaking of marijuana, drug is a big issue in the United States. Hunting my house around, I have learned a lot. One of the things I got to know is related with the size of high schools. Some parents prefer to move to a school district where its high schools are small in terms of class size. The reason is that it is better to prevent their kids from getting into troubles with drugs. Another thing that I learned is that there are many cops in high schools during the day with dogs to find out whether there is any drug or not in the schools. That is scary to hear. In my whole life, I have never even seen any drug.

There are a few expressions that are related with drugs. When you do drugs, you become very happy and kind of abnormal, laughing a lot with no reason. At least, that is what I heard. 🙂 Then, people say, “Are you high?”, which sounds easy to understand. But, there are other expressions such as stoned or baked. Some people say, “Are you stoned?” or “You are baked, right?” These are ridiculous. There is no way we, non-native English speakers, can figure out what they mean. It is like, “Are you saying that some people throw stones at me and I got hurt? or Are you saying I was in the oven for a while?” I actually do not get these. What are the origins of these expressions? Can anyone tell me? For example, a few weeks ago, Stan posted his old picture in which he is smiling on his Facebook. I commented, “Stan, you look so happy.” And, a few hours later, one of his friends added another comment, “You look totally baked.” I was like, “What is going on? What the heck does this baked mean?” I had to look up all the dictionaries to find out what that means. Luckily, there was Urban Dictionary. Without it, my life in the U.S. would be a lot harder. Urband Dictionary is my friend and…… your friend too.