Let,s see if I can fit the stupid limit...

For a while now I have been having the idea for this thread. Since Shuu is like home for people from all around the world I thought it would be fun and intersting to learn a bit more about eachother's countries, different celebrations etc. Maybe we can share recipies from our country's cuisine, take a look at the alphabet... Just share whatever you feel like sharing about your country.
i, for one, would LOVE to hear some folk tales, spooky stories and maybe even tongue twisters :3

I remember that someone told me a tongue twister in gaelic when I went to scotland... Awesome stuff, I never got that one right xD

pft! i can't get my own country's tongue twisters, so no way can I do one in gaelic xD

Ah, anyways~! I was going to explain about St. Trifon's day which is nearing. It's my country's day of celebration to wine makers and grape growers. But that's boring and I don't have much to say about it besides it's on 14th of February (we actually don't have Valentine's day) and we joke around that whoever is single will be celabrating Trifon's day and get drunk. Because that's what you do on St Trifon's day xDD

but now i have guests & i'm too lazy to talk about what i was going to talk about.
so maybe i'll just write it later xD

Speaking of celebrations, today, Feb. 2, is Candlemas (also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple), the last day of the Christmas/Epiphany season. As the name would suggest, it is traditionally celebrated by the blessing and distribution of candles, followed by a procession and singing.

In the U.S., it's also Groundhog Day today, a celebration in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where Phil the groundhog predicts if there will be six more weeks of winter or an early spring, depending on whether he sees his shadow or not as he comes out of his hole. I heard he saw his shadow this year, so I guess that means six more weeks of winter.

As for tongue twisters, one of the hardest I've come across is "Irish wristwatch." I can say it once real fast, but after that... >_>

stupid groundhog~
temperatures here are horrible =3= i'm FREEZING on my way to work ; ___ ;


Here's a tongue twister in Bulgarian, quite hard for little kids that can't say "r"

Триста тридесет и три бръмбарчета крачат по ръба на карбуратора.
which reads as
Trista trideset i tri brumbarcheta krachat po ruba na karburatora
which translates as "Threehundred-thirty-three little bugs are walking on the edge of the carburetor"
i should make a video of how i say this xD

I gave it a shot... but not having any experience pronouncing Bulgarian put a damper on things. XD I put it into a voice synthesizer so I could at least hear it, and I like the way it sounds.

Hahaha One of my friends is bulgarian, the next time I see him I'm going to say this xD

PD: Here are two in spanish:

"Tres tristes tigres comían trigo en un trigal", Which is something like 'Three sad tigers ate wheat in a wheat field, and "El cielo está enladrillado, ¿Quién lo desenladrillará? El desenladrillador que lo desenladrille buen desenladrillador será", which doesn't make any sense but it's something like 'The sky is bricked, who will un-brick it? The un-bricker who un-bricks it good un-bricker will be'.

PD: Tip to pronounce in spanish: All the letters are pronounced the same, always. That means each letter makes the same sound, no matter the word it is in.

@PS: In other words, get reminded of your Latin lessons from school xD If you did have such lessons.

Tongue twisters:

"Ştiu că ştiu că ştiuca-i ştiucă şi mai ştiu că ştiuca-i peşte." - I know that I know that the pike is a pike and I also know that the pike is a fish.
"Piatra crapă capul caprei în patru, cum a crăpat şi capra piatra în patru." - The stone cracks the goat's head in four, just as the goat crack's the stone in four.
"Domnule Dudău, dä-mi doua dude din dudul dumitale de dincolo de drum." - Mister Dudău, give me two mulberries from your mulberry from across the road.

I recently remembered this old German children's poem I learned from long ago called, "Ein Männlein steht im Walde." I had it stuck in my head all day. XD

Ein Männlein steht im Walde ganz still und stumm,
Es hat von lauter Purpur ein Mäntlein um.
Sagt, wer mag das Männlein sein,
Das da steht im Wald allein
Mit dem purpurroten Mäntelein.

Das Männlein steht im Walde auf einem Bein
Und hat auf seinem Haupte schwarz Käpplein klein,
Sagt, wer mag das Männlein sein,
Das da steht im Wald allein
Mit dem kleinen schwarzen Käppelein?

Which roughly translates to:

A little man stands in the woods, quiet and mute
He wears a purple little coat,
Tell me, who may be the little man,
Who stands in the woods all alone,
With his purple little coat?

The little man stands on only one leg,
And has a little black cap on his head,
Tell me, who may be the little man,
Who stands in the woods all alone
With his little black cap.

One animal we have in Scotland is the wild Haggis that lives in the mountains. The food is named after it due to similar colors and size even though they're not edible. It's a small animal that looks like a brown possum at a distance. Because they live in such mountainous areas, their left legs are shorter than their right legs by an inch or so. Catching one is near impossible unless you go around the other side of the mountain to negate its field advantage. Some say that some wild haggis have shorter right legs but this is a myth. They're a protected species however, and it's likely to get you arrested if you go hunting for them. Quite a few foreigners have been shown the door for poaching.

They're cute little buggers but they often carry quite a few diseases, they're also quite aggressive and are a major problem in Largs right now because they keep attacking people for their fish and chips. I don't blame them, The Viking does damn good fish and chips. They're not as bad as the seagulls however



Another thing about we Brits, we're often deadpan snarkers and very sarcastic, but we've mastered the art of the poker face to where we are so subtle about it we can tell gullible foreigners just about anything about the country and they'll believe us. I once convinced some Irishmen that Napoleon once dined at Edinburgh Castle. It was a bald-faced lie.

This year in Texas, our house is being invaded by June bugs. In MARCH.

In case you don't know what those are:



Yeah, it's not really culture-related, but it's a factoid about my region. Here's something a bit more culturey: My city, Austin, is awesome, and has many cool weird murals around town. One of my favorites is the "Hi, How Are You" frog.


(larger photo: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_V2GF7zO6_M8/T ... 00/015.JPG )
It's been there over a decade and has withstood remodeling and vandalism. Search the interwebs for "hi how are you mural" for googobs of news stories about it.

You can find more cool Austin Murals at http://austinmuralproject.tumblr.com/#about