Sunday, May. 18, 2014 - 10:44 a.m.
Jolly Old Mr Beaver ******************** I once tried to explain what beavers do to a mainland chinese lady during her first time out of China
She was in amsterdam on business as government business translator for hemp factories doing European orders She was seriously suffering culture shock in the company of undisciplined Caucasians showing off to each other and very drunk As neither of us drank we made polite sober conversation looking on at the antics of our come-by-chance peer group I explained I was not American but Canadian'; very different although we do look all the same she smiled politely but didm;t seem to approve of any of us On occasion a drunk American' would call me beaver leave it to beaver etc as that was his one Canadian culture template Its the thought that counts even if it is breathing loud booze breath right in your face To avoid politics & entertain her I explained about beavers to my icey cold Chinese tame friend and attempted to set the story intro an ideal Chinese community format so that she could identify and appreciate it I told her how families of beavers several generations live and work together chew through huge trees with their mouths like skilled engineers and build dams so big people sometimes have to be blown up with dynamite and release millions of gallons of backed up water A family of beavers can flood a hundred acres easily to build their own private lake they build large wooden homes where they winter over together and they store up food and guard each other they are very similar to Canadian people hunkering down and sharing everything and never waging war on anyone work for the common good their food is wood they live in paradise of nature Chinese lady thought i was putting her on and was annoyed at me playing her for a fool I swore that I was telling the truth but since she didn't believe in God' I just made matters worse So I pulled out a canadian nickel from my coat pocket and showed it to her she broke out laughing uncontrollable 'and asked between giggle blasts in a perfect oxford accent was I teasing her again ? I said no, this is our real money I brought it from home, Canada she turned the nickel around and around laughing tears of hilarity shaking her head in disbelief our American host assured her I was indeed Canadian and been in the woods and had studied beavers up close beavers were, in fact our national symbol he had never himself seen a beaver in downtown Chicago and yes this was real Canadian money I am funny guy but don't lie to get a laugh she laughed even harder pointing at the images on the nickel shaking with hilarity Is this the money of your country? pointing at the lioness of Queen Elizabeth and the beaver on the reverse side " A woman and a rat ? "
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