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News this week from the Kingdom of Nepal - come visit!

Well, you may be disappointed to learn that the photo displayed in the Royal Nepal Airlines advertisement for tourism was of the well known Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. Royal Nepal has apologized to Peru for putting the picture on a poster under the slogan "Have you seen Nepal?"

Apparently, for Royal Nepal Airlines, the answer is NO. Kinda gives you pause when you think about flying with them, doesn't it?

Nepal has just emerged from a very difficult time when there was a Maoist revolt underway. Politics have settled down, and things are better in the kingdom. Now they are hoping for the tourists to return.

Our family has had a personal connection with Nepal for about a dozen years now, from the time when our daughter, Amanda, did a homestay with the Karki family in a village some distance from Khatmandu. Amanda and Meena are the ones in the photo with the flower leis. The photo was taken in 2005 when Meena went back to see her family for the first time in four years.

Nearly six years ago, Meena, one of the daughters in the family, came to the US, went to high school in Marquette, Michigan, for a year and then on to study nursing at Northern Michigan University, graduating in May 2006.

Much credit goes to Sally (pictured here with Meena) and Bruce Closser who hosted her in their home for her high school year and guided her through NMU as well. All those who know Meena feel we cannot thank them enough for all they have done for her.

Several years back we had the opportunity to live in a small town in Normandy, France. The nearest large city was Rouen, where Joan of Arc met her demise in 1431. Legend has it that when she was burned at the stake, her ashes and heart were thrown into the Seine, which courses through the city of Rouen. The Roman Catholic church purports to have fragments of her bones which are about to undergo DNA testing to see if they could be from the martyred young woman.

No matter what the tests prove, even more fascinating to me is the indisputable fact that had you been outside of the restaurant La Couronne (pictured to the left, it was established in 1345 and is STILL serving up meals) you could have looked across the Place du Vieux Marche and watched her bruleed yourself! The website for La Couronne states that "The location of the stake can be seen from the windows of the dining room." How's that for ambiance?

One thing that has always amused me about the French is that they have had an official group that approves (or disapproves) a word's entrance into the language in hopes of guarding its purity. They do not care to have words like "le babysitter" or "le weekend" to be considered equal to historic, pure French. (Anyone who saw the original 1973 version of "La Cage aux Folles" will remember that Geroges' son's fiance's father had a title something like "minister of the moral order.") When we lived in Normandy it was very popular to have the names of American universities on shirts -- whether they existed or not!! Also popular on shirts were the words "training" and "jogging." Go figure.

From where we are located at TheBigDay in Portland, Oregon, we can't look out on anything as historic as where Joan of Arc was burned, but we do have our connections with France. One of our founders has been traveling to la Belle France twice a year for many years. When they married a year and a half ago, many of their guests had the opportunity to use our website from across the pond, visiting Terry and Pascale's "enregistrement de lune de miel."

Here are a few more phrases that just might come in handy on your next trip to Japan.

What is your name? - Onamae wa nan desu ka?

My name is ________. - I've seen several different versions of this: Watashi no namae wa __________ desu. or Watashi wa _________ desu. or Namae wa _________ desu. I think we used the last in my Japanese class. Good luck!

How are you? - Ogenki desu ka?

Fine, thank you. - Genki desu.

Yes. - Hai.

No - Iie.

You might see a couple of patterns in some of the above. Questions often end in "desu ka" - pronounced dess ka.

The "o" at the beginning of the words for name (namae) and what is essentially "health" is a term of politeness used when referring to others. Note in the responses when you are talking about yourself it is not used. So, you ask "Ogenki desu ka?" but answer "Genki desu."

Japanese has, like German and French, different layers of language. I can still remember my French teacher in high school telling us that the personal form of verbs in French was used for mothers, fathers, children, cats and dogs. The French acually have a verb that is used when you talk about someone who is trying to use the personal form of verbs with you - tutoyer. Our friend Becky in Paris talked about some guy who was tutoyering her and how she kept using other verb forms back at him to keep distance between them.

In Japanese you can find three layers - one for talking to peers, one for those above you (teachers, bosses, etc.) and one for those of lower status.