8/8/08

So, for those of you who don't know the significance of that date, it's when the Olympics are going to start. While it might just seem like a cool date because the numbers are all eight, it actually has a bit more significance than that. The word for "eight" in Chinese (ba) is really similar to the word for "wealth" (fa). Similarly, I also discovered that Chinese hotels have neither a floor 4, 13, or 14. This is because the word for "four" (si) is the same as the word for "to die", just they have different tones.

So, one thing that's completely everywhere now is the five mascots they came up with for the olympics. You literally cannot walk down the road without seeing them. Especially on campus, since there's a huge mural of them directly across from the gate. They're on literally anything you can think of, car seat covers, t-shirts, stickers in store windows, they even have their own cartoon show! They're at such a severe degree of everywhere I go that I swear they're stalking me.

Today I finally went to that mural and took a picture of each of the five mascots (called the Fuwa, which means "good-luck dolls"). I figure I'll give you a brief introduction of them, especially my favorite.

Beibei

Jingjing. And no, I didn't frame that guy in his crotch on purpose.

Huanhuan

Yingying

Nini

One thing that's interesting is how they named the characters. If you remove the repeated syllable from each of their names and stick them together it becomes "Beijing huanying ni." Translated to English, that means "Beijing welcomes you." It's definitely quite a clever little thing added in there so covertly. I mean, I even know those words yet I didn't notice that's what it spelled until somebody pointed it out for me.

Now, I'm gonna be honest here, I have a clear favorite, and that would be Jingjing. First of all, it's because he's a panda, which makes him awesome. My second (and more important) reason I had to get visual evidence for.

That's right, he's about to bust a cap.

Anyway, he's a panda with a gun. Can anybody give me a good reason that any one of the others should be my favorite? Anybody? That's what I thought.