Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm

I went to the airport today to pick up a new facilitator and I arrived a little early so I went to Burger King (one of four in the entire country) and as I'm eating my oh-so-tasty lunch, a Chinese man asks if he can sit down because of the lack of available space. Sure, says I, thank you, says he. We chat a little as we eat and he asks if he can practice his english with me, which is already quite good. He says that a hobby of his is idioms. So I answer a few, such as "as the crow flies," "blowing smoke" etc as he takes out a journal and writes them all down. Most Chinese are quite studious like this so I pay no mind.Gradually, I notice they seem to be taking on more of a violent/military nature such as "armed to the teeth" and "down the hatch" I was a bit curious and asked what job he had, he said casually he was in the army and quickly asked me another idiom. Wanting more information here, I decided to stroke his ego a little bit. "Really? the army? wow, that's impressive. What is your rank?"
"Captain. I graduated from the Military Academy four years ago."
At this point it hit me that I was talking to an active officer in the Chinese military, and one who had graduated from something similar to our West Point.
Intrigued I go on answering a few more idioms but try to read what little English he has written in his journal upside down. There was about a dozen english idioms and the definition in Chinese and then a source "All Hands, September 2009" "Chips, April-June 2010" "All Hands, February 2010. This was in the middle of the journal and every page up to that point seemed to be neatly filled the same way.

"So you collect idioms?"
"Yes, my hobby is to translate them so they make sense in Chinese."
Before too much longer he announced he needed to leave for his flight, as he was on holiday and needed to get back to work soon. I had an extremely busy day but afterwards I came back and Googled the sources this Chinese military officer with a keen interest in idioms had so painstakingly listed. All Hands is the official US Navy publication for sailors and their families and Chips is the US Navy official technical journal. Now if I weren't so easily trusting, I would think he gets a hold of these magazines and translates them into Chinese and got stuck on a few of the idioms that only make sense to a native English speaker. The fact that he's an officer in military would have nothing to do with it, and his co-worker's hobby of hacking into the Pentagon would be a sheer coincidence.