German Puzzle

It is amazing how the daily events of my life fuel the existence of my blog. Just when I think that there is nothing new to write for the next few days now, something unusual happens and here I sit at my desk and type furiously.

I had just came out after two hours long fight with Immunology questions and thoughts to relax on one of the rare Friday afternoon by watching some good movies in lab. Today Swedes are celebrating “Alla Helgons Day” and its holiday for most Swedes. I enquired about the significance of day but was not surprised to find Swedes in same positions as mine. As far as I am getting holiday I don't complain about it. Anyway I came to lab to just enjoy movie in my 19.4 inch Desktop rather than watching in 15.4 inch boring laptop screen. As I was about to enter in lab, one of new lab members was leaving the lab and greeted me with 'Ciao'. I smiled him back and thought as another chat acronym. Post venturing in lab, I thought of browsing only the meaning of chatting phrase 'Ciao'. I discovered that it's not like any other chat acronyms but is an Italian verbal salutation and greeting meaning 'goodbye' when used in English. Further, I thought to browse the list of chatting abbreviations we generally use. I googled the phrase "chatting abbreviations" and was thrown up with 3,310,000 search results. The third one led me to www.mistupid.com/internet/chattalk.htm.

I was particularly verifying the acronyms CYA, CU- the ones closer to ciao. And Oh God!! I found that 'CYA' means 'Cover your Ass'. Really?? I have been using this phrase throughout my chatting years to gracefully say 'goodbye' to my chatting partners on Y!, gtalk! I always meant it as 'C U After'. I was confused for a moment.

But I had seen many of my friends - a lot of female friends too- also using the same phrase and hopefully with the same intention as I. They did not mean “Cover You Ass”…….Scary Feelings!!!
To reconfirm, I googled “CYA” and followed the second search result. It took me to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CYA and from there I moved on to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_slang_phrases.

And then I had a sigh of relief. The list confirmed that “CYA” also means 'CU After'. Phew!! A big realization indeed!! “CYA” means 'Cover Ur Ass' as well as 'C U After'. Usage Contextual.
Confusion!! ya loads of !! Anyway I have taken the print out of these meaning and going to show the German guy on Monday. Hopefully his intensions should be same as mine!!! Till Then “CYA”..
hahaha!!!!