oh that L’esprit de escalier

English is my native language, but I guess I never thought about how there's not always a word for everything. . . Here's a few words that don't exist in the English language:

L’esprit de escalier: (French) The feeling you get after leaving a conversation, when you think of all the things you should have said. Translated it means “the spirit of the staircase.”
Waldeinsamkeit: (German) The feeling of being alone in the woods.
Meraki: (Greek) Doing something with soul, creativity, or love.
Forelsket: (Norwegian) The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love.
Gheegle: (Filipino) The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is unbearably cute.
Pochemuchka: (Russian) A person who asks a lot of questions.
Pena ajena: (Mexican Spanish) The embarrassment you feel watching someone else’s humiliation.
Cualacino: (Italian) The mark left on a table by a cold glass.
Ilunga: (Tshiluba, Congo) A person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time.
Pochemuchka (Russian) - A person who asks a lot of questions.
Chantepleurer (French) - Singing and crying at the same time.

In some ways, finding this made me feel quite uncultured and like I should become a linguist or anthropologist or something and actually learn about other people outside my own happy little bubble college town. But finding this made me wonder what other similarities and differences my language has to others around the world and whether there are words unique to English.

Waaait. I can claim a tiny bit of culturedness! I learned some sign language this past year, which was a really fun and interesting experience and showed me that there are so many different ways to communicate similar things. Sign language is particularly captivating because it's so physical. Sometimes, hearing-people talk quite boringly, but ASL users are always telling a story and always so animated. It's often like watching a performance.

Anyway, I just think it's cool that different cultures are creative in different ways. Am I going to adopt at least one of the words in the above list into my everyday vocab? Duh. (Slowly, but surely y'all, I'm gonna triumph over the whole uncultured thing.)

Click to view larger. (Photos from foreignlanguageexchange.com and bab.la)

curiosity never killed no cat

LOVE IT. Old Mr. Fredricksen would be proud of this National Geographic adventure.

Inspired by the small yellow house in the Pixar film, UP, this lifesize version was connected to 300 colorful weather balloons, was 1o stories high altogether, reached an altitude of 10,000 ft, and flew for about an hour. The experiment, conducted by a team of scientists, engineers, and world-class balloon pilots, was conducted last March as part of a National Geographic Channel series called "How Hard Can it Be?"

Why's it so brilliant? It proves curiosity reigns. It demonstrates how you can look at something and merely think its cool OR you can look at something and actually think about it. You can wonder how it works or if it's possible or if the process can be made easier or if there's something more complex going on or if you could do it on your own.....Just keep on asking until you understand or until you're content. Curiosity is what keeps us dreaming and going places in life.

broskis

This is the story of how my little (now 6ft tall) brother is simply awesome.











Background: Like true Americans, my family has a rich tradition of loving Star Wars. And we have also all read the Harry Potter books, with the exception of my dad who - last time I checked - thinks Harry Potter might very well be of the devil.

My younger brother especially loves the far, far away galaxy. One day, I was doing homework in my room, and I could hear strange noises coming from the intercom by my door (it connects throughout the house). I went over to it to listen more closely and I recognized my brother's voice making explosion noises - "Pyew pyew! BABOOM!" I also thought I heard him singing...

Amused, curious and unable to concentrate on homework, I walked to my brother's room and found him playing LEGOs with both his Star Wars and Harry Potter sets. The sounds I had heard were the result of an enormous LEGO battle strewn across his floor, of which my brother sat in the middle, holding a triumphant warrior in each hand.

He then explained to me he had discovered something ingenious - that Dobby the house elf and Yoda the jedi master were long lost brethren, and they even had a theme song (which he sang for me and the chorus went something like "Two Bros! Out to clear the danger...")

I thought he was just a typical brother at the time but looking back, he was a creative little sucker. I mean, look at 'em, they have very similar features. Ahhh....I laugh every time I remember this :) My brother makes me happy.

Even better is that he could probably still sing me the theme song if I asked him to.

broken smiling pig people

Pretty much from the moment my high school stats teachers showed my class a TED talk, I've had a not-so-small obsession for TED. I listen to these clips while getting ready in the morning, cleaning my room, or while doing my homework. I have a million of them downloaded for free onto my iTunes.

If you're unfamiliar with it, TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas. Scientists, researchers, comedians, experts, explorers, photographers, designers, mathmeticians, survivors, and really just anybody from anywhere in the world can be invited to give a TED talk. Speakers are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes or less. They can be funny, inspiring, informative, persuasive, fascinating, or just entertaining.

I can seriously spend hours watching these videos. Annnd, in fact, I just did. If you're good with multitasking, it's great to have playing in the background.

I'm serious. Right this very minute, go check out TED. Or get a taste for them by watching below.

P.S. Watching the videos below might make the title of this post make sense.

thaaat's why

Admittedly cheesy....but I mean come onnn - unicorns, people. It's funny :)