Foreigners.

I am a first-generation American. This means that both my parents were not born here.
J is a 1.5 generation American. In his case, it means that he was not born here but he came in his childhood or early teens. J was 10.

There are many funny effects of being born to parents whose first language isn't English but I will always have problems with cliches and idioms and stuff like that. My parents speak great English. No problems there. But, English grammar wasn't my strength and still isn't.

The only reason I am writing about this is because I have been loving some of J's English moments lately and I wanted to share.

When he sings Old MacDonald to the kids he sings:
Old MacDonald Had a Farm
He-Hi-He-Hi-Hoooo.

I don't know why but that makes me laugh EVERY SINGLE TIME. HE HI HO!? HA HA HA. And I tell him, J, "it is E I E I O". And he goes, "well not when I sing it, these are the new words." But the good news is that Lulo is teaching J the alphabet. Oh, my poor kids and how they will be teased.

And J says foil paper (instead of foil), towel papers instead of paper towels, ufolstery instead of upholstery. Anyway, I know this is not that interesting but I think his little word things are funny and I wonder what our kids will say to their teachers which will cause eyebrow furrowing.

I guess all of this is coming to my head because this time of the year I always sort of chuckle at some little cultural things that I remember from being a kid. I am Greek Orthodox (or at least I was before I was excommunicated for marrying outside of my church). Anywho, I am Greek Orthodox and our Easter is usually not on the same day as Easter in most other Christian churches. Our Easter is NEXT Sunday. And when we "fast" for Lent, we don't just give up jelly beans or booze or chocolate, we give up anything that originates from an animal - so eggs, milk, cheese, milk, fish, chicken, beef, and the things that those things make up. We also don't eat or drink on Good Friday (from sun up to sun down). But when I was growing up, we usually broke the fast at 6:00. So, yum. Seriously. I will do the Good Friday starvation this year (which should be interesting after EB) but unfortunately I won't get the yummy goodness that was my mother's breaking the fast on Good Friday dinner. I can smell it now in my memory and it is Monday and I live 45 minutes away.

I didn't fast this year and I usually fast for only 1-2 weeks of the 40 days. My parents do all 40 days. I couldn't do it this year because I couldn't wrap my head around doing Weight Watchers and fasting. Too much. Plus, it just felt too crazy this year. Duh, it will every year. But, I just couldn't.

But I remember the fasting weeks in grammar school. I would take crazy sandwiches to school - like fava beans in pita bread or halvah in pita bread or falafel in pita bread. Bread, bread, bread. Always had to have pita bread. Deep freezer full of pita bread. Oh yum. I want me some of that now. Because my Mom is Greek, it was sort of similar to the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding when the kids mocked poor Voula for eating "moose caca" or Mousaka (yummy eggplant joy!). I don't remember being mocked for the food - probably because they were too busy mocking my nose or my hairy legs (because my Mom didn't let me shave until I was starting to look like an ape). But, whatever.

I started my second session of EB this morning. It was nice not having it be my first session. It was fun seeing all the newbies getting there. Honestly, I didn't have a chance to see if they were ALREADY kicking my ass on their first day because I was too focused on keeping up. But, I did fine. It was a fairly large group for 5:30 a.m. I hope it sticks and some people stick around. It can only be more fun with more people, right? More personalities? Hmmm.

I did great on my run. I was terrified that my timed mile would somehow be slower than the last one I did before our week off. But, it wasn't. I came in at 10 minutes, 39 seconds. Not bad. My goal is to come down to a 10 minute mile, consistently. When I told my over-achiever husband that he said, "you know you really should be doing like a 7 minute mile." What? In what universe? I couldn't do that when I was 16. Anyhow, he is special. He is going to be polishing his Husband of the Year trophy the next couple days so hopefully I won't be getting any more of those kinds of comments.

WW is going fine. I am a little hungry but I'll live. Right now, I sort of want some pita bread with fasting stuff inside. I love fasting food. I wish I was at home with my Mama and we were eating some yummy fasting food.

I also could use a good laugh. But, I know how I can have a good laugh - he, hi, he, hi, hoooooooooo. ho. ho. ho. Yep that did it.