All four of us had terrific belly laughs because it took three of us and some charades to explain things that Susan saw in our house. She went from one game head to another, pointing and clicking her camera and then excitedly speaking a stream of unknown words.
We loved hearing Anna's Chinese response! She has gotten effortless as she gave the translation while Susan nodded and replied "ahh...ahh". We were clueless.
At one point Anna had to go get her iPhone to check the Chinese-English dictionary for "antelope". Most of our animals are not found in China and that is why Susan was so fascinated with them; she stood and gazed a long time at the three species of mountain sheep. Anna tried to explain that they lived in the mountain range that came down from Alaska through Canada, the U.S., and down into Mexico. We looked up "Alaska" in Chinese and had another good laugh. Susan was fascinated that the sheep had glass eyes.
When we got to the sunroom, Susan was delighted because she finally saw something familiar. The Chinese ring-necked pheasant was imported to this country from Asia in 1857. Mike was showing Susan the pheasant's origin on the computer.
Both women had many turkey questions and Mike had a lot of fun describing the habits of the wild turkey. He demonstrated the mouth call and the box call and explained his goal was to sound seductive like a girl turkey. Mr. Turkey responds by fanning his tail and "displaying" for his prospective love interest. In the process, good sense is tossed to the wind and the hunter gets a chance to bag him. Anna gave a giggle-translation for that story. The hand motions were priceless.
Mike took down a piece of driftwood that held a pair of wood ducks. They touched them and we talked about how the feathers were real, but the insides of the duck were gone. Taxidermy must not be big in China.
Mike's lanyard was interesting to Susan and she asked lots of questions about the duck bands. Mike had Anna explain to Susan that the ducks are banded before leaving Canada. Then they fly south for the winter, some stopping in our neighborhood and others going on down to South America before returning in the spring to their original area. Susan wanted to know why one of the bands was worn smooth. That was because the particular duck had worn it for 13 years. She asked why there were several small bands and Mike said they were from a quail and dove. That sent us back to the dictionary, which Anna found to be not particularly helpful. The Chinese word for "dove" referred to the chocolate Dove candy.
As we headed upstairs, I heard Susan behind us asking Anna about another item. Anna said..."she likes your picture of the American president, George Washington".
Anna must have been exhausted last night, but we thoroughly enjoyed our visitors. We laughed a lot with two precious women that are our friends for life. The night caused us think about how another culture perceives things that we never give a second thought.
We got new eyes from their visit...not glass ones, but new ones all the same.
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