What if You Were Your Own Twin?

Every now and then you find out some new possibility this world offers that really leaves you speechless. Rachel and I were watching some ABC 20/20-esque program last night about medical abnormalities. In this segment, a woman had given birth to two or three children over the last few years and for some arbitrary and unimportant reason DNA tests were run on both the children and the mom. It was discovered that the DNA from the mother did not match that of the children. It seemed that there was foul play afoot. Perhaps the mom had stolen children or perhaps had an illegal surrogate mom business going on the side. The courts threatened to remove the children from her custody. However, after some serious medical detective work, it was discovered that mom had at one time, very soon after her own parents conceived her, been one of two twins. The abnormality is that one of the twins was actually absorbed into the other, mixing the DNA of the individual twins!

This means that her twin's DNA is literally existing inside herself and that in some way she is her own twin!!! This means that certain bodily organs are from her original DNA and others are from that of her twins and thus explains the DNA issue with her children. Such a condition is known in slang medical terms as chimera. I'm not really shocked about most things I hear in the world but I must admit this bit of news took me off my game for a moment. Anyway, the case of the mismatched DNA was solved, the mothers were cleared off all speculation and life was back to as close to normal as possible after hearing such uncanny news. Just thought you might enjoy this tid bit. I once again stand in awe of the creative process.

PS. For more information, see: http:www.m-w.com/dictionary/chimera

いいおもいでね！！！/ Good Memories!!!

While rummaging through some stuff from Japan, I found a list of things Caleb (Holsey) graciously copied for me. So, many thanks for the cheer up during paper writing week. I share a few from a long list in hopes of cheering up other current/ex-AET types who need something to laugh about these days. Without further ado:

You might be an AET...

• If your indoor shoes at one school are your outdoor shoes at another.
• If you say 'hello' more than 200 times a day.
• If you've ever gone to K's Denki with no intention to purchase anything, just to sit in the massagine chairs.
• If you have ever pretended not to understand Japanese to avoid explaining an awkward subject.
• If you've ever taken a nap while sitting on your school's 'western' toilet (for sake of sempai, not encouraging this behavior:) .
• If you have a teacher you still call 'sensei' becasue you honestly don't know her name.
• If you have ever told a bad kid exactly what you think of him in fast English with a big smile on your face.
• If you have ever carried on an hour long conversation via C-mail...
• If you have a set path that you walk through every corridor in your school from 4:30-5:00. (I started on the third floor and worked out to the tennis courts.)
• If you think 'Ne?!' is a complete sentence in Japanese. (Still using that in my head.)
• If you've ever answered the question "How are you?" with "I'm super!"
• If you've ever ordered at a restaurant without using words.

Hope that brightens your day. Now, back to the books...