Lost in translation - part 1

I say part 1 because I'm guessing that there will be more "lost in translation" stories following our trip given that neither of us speak French or Italian, in fact because I know several basic Spanish phrases (though I should know much more as I took 6 years of it between high school & college classes!) and was able to utilize them during a trip to Spain a few years ago I am somehow overconfident that I can quickly learn some key phrases that we need by memorizing them on the plane off of these laminated cards that we got from Borders for $8 each.  Sounds like a plan, right??

So I wanted to see if we could still make dinner reservations for a restaurant at a hotel nearby where we are staying in the Loire Valley towards the end of our trip, and I decided to email my questions in French, and simply plugged them smugly into www.freetranslation.com.  I felt truly Parisian, and was delighted to see a quick response resting in my email inbox.  But I was crestfallen when I opened it up and realized that I in fact could not read a lick of the message, but after going back to the website and figuring out what he meant (and it said it was from the hotel owner, how cute is that?), I savored the first note in French that I've ever received, I'll post an excerpt here: 

 

"Chère Madame,

 

Nous vous remercions de votre message, nous serons heureux de vous accueillir à l'Auberge pour le dîner du Dimanche 13 septembre 2009 à 7.30pm.

 

Merci de nous reconfirmer le nombre de couverts souhaités.

 

Bien cordialement,"

 
Oui, oui, sounds good to me, whatever he said!  Never fear for those of you who can actually read that, I did write back and confirm the number and names within our party :). 
 
The second story has nothing at all to do with our trip, but just cracked me up.  Several weeks ago our nephew Kieran asked so many questions about me having a baby that I asked him if his mom/my sister put him up to it (both of them deny this).  And no, we are not currently trying to get pregnant, before I move on!  Anyway, these questions included where the baby would come from, how many there would be and what gender, and most importantly, whether he should go to the store and buy toys for them :).  Still more hilarious was his younger sister Tanith who just repeats what he says and pipes into the conversation by saying things like "you already had the babies?" as she looks down at my not-exactly-flat stomach - ha!  So Kieran concludes that it would be best for me to have two at one time, both boys so he can play with them. Oh boy. Then last week I made the mistake of telling him about my friend's new babies - that only served to confuse him.  I told him that our friends had two girls, but because they came out little they would need to stay at the hospital (my sister's work) for a bit to grow and then they could go home, but it would be fun to go to the store and buy them some presents.  Apparently he is a thinker like my husband and shares the same penchant for delayed processing :), because the other night he repeatedly asks my sister if they can go to the store and buy some presents for my babies.  She patiently explains to him that I don't have any babies, but my friend does, but he got quite upset and was insistent that I do already have them (where he thinks we stash them when he comes over to our house every weekend is beyond me!).  She was cracking up and he was getting upset that she didn't believe him.  Funny little guy, he is!
 
I'll leave you with those stories, and look forward to sharing more soon.  5 European cities in 11 days, here we come!!!