The Obamarama has finally landed, to our south. We have Queen Elizabeth, it's so much easier and cheaper, eh?* To judge by what Madame President was wearing, she and Dizzy Lizzy share their dress sense. Miaou miaouw miaow goodness which one is correct?
So, otherwise, the war stopped and everyone says that nothing will change, what a waste of life. I don't like looking at bombs, that's why I spent my spare time 'fussing' with these blogs as husband said. Still I haven't found out about 'comments', but I think nobody visited here yet. I have managed to find the spellchecker and even put it here, to help if the visitors think there is a mistake, you can check up on me!
I imported a picture for my last post all by myself (I'm learning the blocabulary as you see) which I searched for on Google Images, and cropped in some other program I forget. I also found, (look at the left here) from one of the Google Alerts last week, a blogger who had central Asian costume sketches, so I cut and pasted the Tyvan one, made it a better size, and put yellow around it. (Then it got our flag colours!) I hope she doesn't mind. She also had a collection of videos (inc. in Tyvan) showing and speaking many different turkic language colours. A little bit weird.
Hello, why is the i not before the e, that's the rule, isn't it? THERE IS NO C IN WEIRD. Bl**dy language. Excusez mon Francais, as they say in Quebec. I'll never finish learning it, (English, not French - nospiki) but thank you to clever Ms Spell-Checker for your assistance. Even if you don't explain it for me. To me. Whatever.
Still obamamania on TV. Get over it. Why is he black, he's just as much white, exactly half each. And I'm yellow? Not the last time I looked in a mirror. Anyway, whites are pink-orange. Now I can say all that in seven different turkic languages!
* In Canada everyone ends the sentences with 'eh?'. The Canadian language is a bit more like British English in some ways, spelling is mostly not like American, for example: Br E 'colour, defence, centre', not Am E 'color, defense, center'. But it's a bit mixed so I did buy the Canadian Oxford Dictionary to help me adapt. Some pronuciation is different: when a Canadian says 'oat in a boat' s/he is not talking about horse food in a small ship. It is our way to say 'out and about'. Besides that about 25% speak French, of course. All of Canada is officially bilingual, like Tyva.
When I checked that % just now on Wikipedia, I was reminded of something I always think is very funny: why Canada is called that? Well, the truth is that the first Frenchman was in an Indian village just after he arrived and he asked what was this place where he was. They told him 'Kanata' which he carefully wrote down, so now the second biggest country in the world is called 'village'. Doh. (Actually the same thing happened with the Russian colonisers in Siberia, there are some places like - the river River, and Mt Mountain!).
Sorry if I seem preoccupied with language etc it's because I spent most of my life and energy studying it. Ooof. Gottagivitup. But it was my ticket out, as they say. It still takes me ages to revise for example my punctuation here and then dear husband checks it for me afterwards. Even gives me marks (kisses!) to make me try harder! I think it's too easy to write nonsense here. Stop.
Gadgets are cool!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
It was great!
Oh, it was so great, because I got a Google Alert*. And that is why I just saw a video which is about ten couples from ten different countries. (If you click your curser over the title of this post you'll go there, my kind and clever big guy just made that for me!) One American man organised a kind of travel quiz competition for them all to drive across the US, and they had to go to special places and do many different things, keeping a logbook and taking pictures. They stayed together every night to have a party where they told their adventures of the day. But what was special was that one of the couples was from TYVA!! I didn't believe it, it was our most famous man Kongar-ool Ondar, and his wife! Here is his photograph with his cool traditional ponytail hairstyle! He is not only a politician but mainly the best older throat-singer in Tyva, he was the first to come to the West to show that style of singing which is typical of our culture. It was so funny to see him react to seeing the horses on TV in the motel (we have a lot of horses in Tyva, and the throat-singing began with the lonely herders on horseback, entertaining themselves being inspired by nature). They were also barn-dancing, visiting some hippies living in yurts and singing with some native tribesmen and so on. It was one hour long, so interesting and entertaining.
I forgot to say - he met a young Tyvan girl working in the motel, I think, who got such a big shock to see him in America, it was funny - she couldn't believe it!
(Later) Now I found some links for throat-singing which I put here at the bottom of the blog. The first four are famous ensembles and last five just some demonstrations of the different styles. See I made the list look like a lady dancing!
* If you want to find out what new things are on the Web about Tyva then you can ask that kind man Mr Google to send you an Alert each time to your e-mail, it's very simple - just remember to make two alerts, one with Tyva and another with Tuva. Of course you can make an alert about anything, like poodles or flying-saucers, that fascinates you! You should also subscribe to TyvaOnline from Dina Oyun, who is the next most famous person. (look on the left side). It's also in English. Actually I forgot, really THE - anyway in Russia - most famous Tyvan (half) is the Russian Minister for Crisis, Disasters and Catastrophes - there really is such a person, Sergey Kuzhugetovich Shoygu! And by the way, he is surviving from the early days of Yeltsin, so he must be very good at whatever he does, anyway he gets lots of practice in Russia!!! He also discovered an old Uyghur fort 'Por Bazhyn' on an island in a lake in the 'taiga' (n. 'A subarctic, evergreen coniferous forest of northern Eurasia located just south of the tundra and dominated by firs and spruces.'). Why is there not a word for that? I think this * is now too long, I must shut up.
P.S. 'Men Tyva men' does not mean I'm obsessed with the males from my homeland!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Here I go. Umm .... where? Mmmm.
Now the steppe must be freezing, like what they call the prairie here. So the little shonchelai bulbs are dormant, a bit like me, waiting to bloom when it gets warmer! Perhaps that is the thought that was behind my choice of 'nom de plume' ('nom de fleur' I guess they may say in Quebec!). My toes got very cold when I took Percy (poodle) for a walk, my boots are too thin - but pretty! The ice-water can get inside, so next time it will be galoshes. Sigh. Ugly.
It would be better if it was really cold, dry cold. Then we could also drive normally. Then I could ask (....... ) to send me some felt boots by post and everyone would look at me: 'Has she broken both her legs?'. Hahaha! I should try that, they've never seen such things. Already my lovely warm fur hat is so remarkable for them, they look at me when I put the straps around my arms by habit. So I tell them about the naughty boys at home, and they are surprised, of course. Nobody steals hats here.
I must write about more serious things. Of course, I'm all on my own here so far, talking to myself as usual - it will be interesting to see when someone arrives to visit my blogger-blog. My secret idea is to find out if someone from Tyva will discover me - I don't even know how they could do that, actually. Then I can have some fun with them and anyone else who likes Tyva - and Tyvans, and Tyvan things and ... whatever. Some good gossip, I suppose. And if they like me live far away from home they can go to
and cry. Then call your mom in Tyva.
(Some days later: I found a 'gadget' that puts Tyvan things from YouTube at the bottom below here. Now we can cry every day!)
Is there spell-checker here? Hm, have to look for it, getting lazy already, see a lot of mistakes when I look again. Where is husband when he is needed?
Now I want to see what it looks like. 'Bye.
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