I had an adventure last night. Come, dear readers (Em and Matt), and let me tell you about it.
At Loyola, everybody goes to Hamilton's on thursdays. Athletes, Loyola professionals, nerds, frat boys, sorority girls, and visiting 16 year-old siblings all gather at the establishment that will accept ANY ID (I am 5' 4" and hispanic, and from Corona, CA.). When Hamilton's closes at 1:30, everybody heads to the Seven Eleven across the street for snacks and such; without fail, the employees crank the music, and a purchasing Doritos evolves into a dance party. Honestly, it's a good time (because we're drunk).
So this is what we (Adriana and I, both six drinks deep by the end) did last night. Hamilton's, Seven Eleven, and then our friend's apartment. We left at 2:15, and started heading home. We walked past the Chicago International Hostel (where three of our very own Copneconic internationals stayed in August) where two people were sitting on the porch. Then the magical moment:
We stopped, looked at each other, turned around and walked up the steps of the hostel to make some friends. We met Adam, from Australia (asshole asshole asshole) and Clair and Cora from Ireland. The girls worked at a camp for kids with disabilities in Minnesota all summer, and as Adriana and I are both camp people we had lots to talk about. Adam said he wouldn't want to work with kids and that a camp job sounded like a summer of hell. We chatted for a while and then I wandered inside for some reason or another. The desk clerk was talking to Adam, who was having trouble understanding. Because I was drunk, I thought I could save the world and said, "Maybe I can help," and the clerk looked at me and said, "Parlez-vous francais?" Stunned and overly excited, I told him I did, and then resolved their troubles by translating.
The clerk's name is Mohamed, and he is from France. We talked for at least an hour, me in French and he in English, and we would correct each other's mistakes. We made a deal to tutor each other. I plan on keeping this deal.
I am going to take Kate and Emily to visit and we shall speak some franch. It'll be cool.
While I was fine tuning my language skills, Adriana was busy becoming best friends with Cora, taking pictures, looking at a new dress she bought, getting numbers and emails, and making plans to visit. Apparently, we are going to Ireland sometime this semester.
Planning on being fluent by Christmas,
peace, love, and ponies.
"You have the skills, you just need to wipe the dirt off of them."
"You mean 'dust them off.'"
-Mohamed et moi
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1 comment:
Genius. There needs to be an international hostel in Fenton that I can wander by every week.
When I was in France this summer I had a great conversation in a truck with a guy that worked at the winery. His English was slightly above my level of French so it was pretty comical but we loved it. The highlight was him explaining what animals he hunted by saying the word, then making the noise. After wolf and rabbit, they were all birds so it became a little more difficult.
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