烂醉如泥－ lan zui ru ni - "drunk as mud" - how to describe someone who is so drunk that they have become floppy and wobbly - about the same consistency as mud. I love how the Chinese describe things...
左右为难 - zuo you wei nan - stuck between a rock and a hard place. "Difficulties to the left and right."
积怨已久 －ji yuan yi jiu - long term accumulated grievances. also: 怨恨 - yuan hen - stored up hatred, resentment, grudge. 怨 is not a happy word.
尊师重道 - zun shi zhong dao - this is a favorite one of my teacher. It is meant to describe the attitude of the Chinese towards education. The last character, dao, is the dao of Daoism - it literally translates as "the path", but I've also seen it translated as "the Way" when it refers to religion. All together, the four characters read, "respect your teachers and follow the Way" - the Chinese would not really go for blue sheets, or whatever those horrible things were that we used to have to fill out in college to criticize profs. Now that I think about it, maybe Mark Taylor really was more enlightened than the rest of us, because he didn't even pass them out - just threw them straight into the trash can (in front of the entire class). But I digress...
毫不回避 - hao bu hui bi - completely unavoidable.
开诚布公 - kai cheng bu gong - frank, honest.
扭伤你的脚 － niu shang ni de jiao - (I need to remember this one) - to sprain your ankle. After you 扭伤 your 脚，you can 用冰敷脚 - yong bing fu jiao - put ice on it. Other injuries/diseases might require 抗生素- kang sheng su - antibiotics, or 消炎药 - xiao yan yao - anti-inflammatories.
上当受骗 － shang dang shou pian - to be taken for a ride and cheated. What (occasionally) happens when you buy 昌牌货 (chang pai huo - fake label clothes) or 盗版 (dao ban - pirated) anything at the 购物中心。 You 吃亏- chi kui - get the worst part of the bargain.
储藏 － chu zang - to hide away. 收藏 － shou zang - to collect. 西藏 - xi zang - Tibet.
乡巴佬 - xiang ba lao - "hicks". This all started with a discussion about farming, and degraded into learning the Chinese words for "hicks" and "rednecks" - 红脖子 (hong bo zi - literal translation!). We also learned 偏僻 (pian pi - out of the way, secluded) and 畜牧业 (xu mu ye - livestock).
顺时针 － shun shi zhen - clockwise. 逆时针 - ni shi zhen - counter-clockwise.
沉 - chen - sink. 浮 - fu - float.
暖阳阳 － nuan yang yang - nice and warm (though possibly only in Sichuan province). This goes along with 冷嗖嗖 － leng sou sou - kind of cold, and 热乎乎 - re hu hu - hot! Used to describe the weather - again, I think this is regional, as the automatic Pinyin typing thing on the computer didn't recognize it at all。
雪人赏雪，赏雪人赏雪 - xue ren shang xue, shang xue ren shang xue - snowmen enjoy the beauty of the snow, and those who enjoy snow admire the beauty of it. A nonsense play on words, but truer words were never spoken！
男尊女卑 －nan zun nü bei - “men are respected, and women are humble." I have this in my notes right next to 玻璃天花板－(bo li tian hua ban - "glass ceiling"), 包办婚礼－(bao ban hun li - arranged marriage), and 妇权主义者－(fu quan zhu yi zhe - feminist).
狐假虎威 - hu jia hu xie - "the wolf borrows the tiger's power." My teacher (from the mainland) used this phrase to describe how Taiwan uses the United States to threaten China.
无可厚非- wu ke hou fei - beyond reproach.
滥杀无辜 - lan sha wu gu - to kill innocents.
And on that incredibly uplifting note, I am going to take a break from studying, and postpone this until tomorrow. Everything is seriously starting to blend together, and I think I need a break from trying to read my own handwriting. 再见！
