Je m'appelle Greg et...

Four stories.


1) So the other day I was walking to class, and some man probably a few years older than I approached me. I hadn't paused or made eye contact and I definitely didn't know him, but he proceeds to stop me mid-stride and start speaking to me in French. I awkwardly smile and shrug and he says "Ohhh, Anglais?" I nod and he puts his hand on my shoulder and grins, then asks me if he can try on my sunglasses? Haha I was way awkwarded out but I went with it anyways and he tried them on. He smiled and said "I look good right?" I flashed him a very confused thumbs up, he patted me on the back and I power walked my way out of there. I've seen French men be crazy and outgoing but normally in dark bars, to girls, at night...and none of those criteria were filled. How bizarre is that??


2) At dinner last night Madame T was questioning me on what French phrases I'd learned so far, so we went over the usuals...
Je m'appelle Greg, J'ai vignt ans, J'aime voyager, dance, et musique etc. etc. etc. Once those were worn out, Madame gets this little smile on her face and says (in French) I've got a phrase for you!
"Je m'appelle Greg, je dors trop tard et j'oblie prendre le petit-dejuner!"

Translation: My name is Greg, I sleep too late and forget to eat breakfast!

Oops!
Haha we all got a good laugh out of that, OH Madame, you old tiger you.

3) For a presentation in my Provence class I'm writing an essay on French trees and a book called "The Man Who Planted Tree" (sounds weird, looks interesting) and I decided to go to the local bookstore, Book in Bar to find it. I get there and the lady's face lights up when I ask for it and she scuttles off to go find it for me. Sadly, they were all out and they needed to reorder, but she asked for my name and number to put in their system so they could contact me when they got it in. Easy enough right? Wrong.
Who knew this process would require me to know my own phone number? Haha or even have the right number saved under 'me' in my address book. I embarrassingly gave her my number with a) the French country code b) one too few numbers
I had to call someone to have them call me back with my own number. She was laughing so hard at me, haha...whateverrrrr, we're kinda best friends now so I'm glad she has my actual number.


4) This entry was originally going to be called three stories, but tonight at the dinner table (of course) another awkwardly hilarious interaction occurred. The fourth and I believe final of Madame T’s children joined us for dinner tonight. We chatted comfortably for awhile in our respective broken languages and indulged in multiple helpings of Madame’s incredible meal. During the cheese course, Andrew went back to try more of a different type of cheese and young Monsieur T (probably about 45) tried to say something that required a dictionary referencing (which we always have at the ready next to the table). After a strenuous search, he looked up with a smile and said, ‘Greedy?’ ‘Fond of food’, ‘Good eats?’ He pointed to the French word in the dictionary and next to it was also ‘gluttonous.’ We got called fat by our host mom’s son!! Haha, I think it has a slightly different meaning here because he looked nothing but amiable when he said it, but it was still hilarious to try and produce the appropriate reaction to being called gluttonous at the dinner table.