Salad days with Gabriel!

Omar throws up the shaka as the salad bar is unveiled. The gesture of course one of invitation, entering common practise on the Hawaiian islands to indicate friendly intentions. There are many stories linked to the popularisation of the shaka. The most well-known of which is a Hawaiian sugar-mill worker who lost his three middlemost fingers in a work accident. Subsequently, when he waved to the children from the shoring boat he worked on, they would mimic his odd wave by tucking their middle fingers into their palms and waving back. It remains a friendly symbol to this day and today is no exception!

Imanali and Mr. Miguel serving themselves intently.

(left to right) Ayu, Gabriel, James, Davyd, Aleksei and Maksim Here you can see the boys all enjoying some dinner together as well as James demonstrating another friendly hand-sign. The famous ‘thumbs up’ which originated in the ancient Roman Colosseums where Gladiators would fight for the entertainment of the Roman citizens and gentry. When the fight would reach its end, an opponent knocked to the ground and yielding, it would come to the crowd and to the politicians present to give a ‘thumbs up’ for the warrior to be spared and fight another day or ‘thumbs down’ and be slain. That’s where the sign comes from. Or so everyone thought. Turns out, this was assumed from paintings produced in the 1860s, far, far, far after the fall of Rome and the events depicted. The actual origin of the ‘thumbs up’ is as violent. It was popularised by RAF pilots during the 2nd World War. Specifically the ‘Flying Tigers’ Unit who operated in the Chinese and Cambodian theatres of war. The Chinese base personel would say “ting hao de (挺好的)” to the pilots and give a ‘thumbs up’. Meaning “All good!” and the thumb sign being the symbol for the number 1. Pilots adopted the sign to communicate with Chinese ground crews that they were ‘OK’ when landing or good for take-off.

(left to right) Ryunosuke, Aoto and Boris enjoy some lasagna on the comfortable upholstery available all across the CDL boarding campus.

(left to right) Omar, James, Mr. Miguel and Mr. Gordon. Mr. Gordon expresses how thrilled he is as he prepares a meal for a student arriving late to the dinner.

Here, Leonid shows another interesting hand-sign. The two fingered sign the Australians refer to as the “Forks” were once and probably still are, rude. Originally used as an insult to the French troops at the battle of Agincourt (1415) by the English soldiers, whom -upon capture- would have their index and middle finger amputated to prevent them from operating a longbow, therefore showing their intact indexes and middle fingers became an insult. This is also not true and was made up by British newspapers during the World Cup in 1975 as a psych-out against France. The ‘V’ as a rude sign -at the time- could not be found as rude anywhere outside of the UK. It was really popularised during the 2nd World War (sound familiar?) by Winston Churchill and his government’s ‘V stands for Victory’ campaign and has spread since as a universal sign of ‘peace’ after being appropriated by the anti-war sentiment of the mid 1960’s. Who know Lasagne could be so educational! That’s what you get with these In-House dinners. Truly diverse conversation. Because we all come from somewhere and it’s not just the things that are different that can make for a profound experience, it’s the many things that remain the same. No matter the dish, no matter the locale, the company makes the evening and good company can be found and made, anywhere!