Another Day, Another Dari

Repeat after me, "Chotor Asty". Riiiiiight. And they say Dari - the Persian language spoken by the majority of the population in Afghanistan (also called Farsi, although I am referring to the Afghanistan dialect and not the Iranian dialect for the Farsi snobs among you) - is only considered to be a "Category II language in terms of difficulty for English speakers.'

To that, I say, "areh, dorost migi, vali cheh kar misheh kard!" which, loosely translates as, "Are you kidding? Category 2?! If you consider hurricane Katrina a category 2, then maybe. Otherwise, is there anyone here who speaks German?"

I warned you it was a loose translation.

I can't describe Dari as a "beautiful" or "romantic" languange like, say, Yiddish. But, as the saying goes: Beauty is in the eye -or, in this case, ear - of the beholder. And, as is true of most un-beautiful things, beneath the guttoral, phlegm-clearing-esque pronunciations, there is a rich, multi-dimensional and beautifully complex history that comprises the recipe for the language known as "Modern Dari". Not to be confused with Ancient or Middle Dari, if you please. Regardless of whether it's Dari, Farsi, Parsi or Lettuce, it's all greek to me. But, i've got a year or so to master it so I'll get back to you on that. Just don't hold your breath waiting for my progress reports on this one, folks. I predict they will be few and far between (in fact, forget I even mentioned this endeavor).

Meanwhile, progress has been made in both kickboxing and on the Rubik's cube. In matters of kickboxing, my instructor took pity on my scabby knuckles and ordered (pink) "wraps" for me and (purple) my sparring partner / hutmate, Erin. I think that point goes to ... yep, me. I hope my instructor doesn't get wind of this blog. In matters of the Cube, I cannot yet solve the "first tier" but if someone gets it started for me (which really means solving the first two tiers - yes there are only three. noone likes a know-it-all!) then I can almost solve the rest by myself. I hope my Rubik's cube instructor doesn't get wind of this blog either.

Be well and tune in "tomorrow" for discourse on how St. Louis has stolen all of Afghanistan's rain and how I hold myself partially responsible (can you believe the ego on this girl!?!).