C'est Ge-ge!

Language is a funny, funny thing.

My neighbor, Marion, moved in just a couple of days after I did.  Her family is Italian, but she grew up in the south of France.  Her friendliness comes from the fact that she is new to town and doesn't know anyone, but I think it's also because she is not Parisian.  Parisians tend to keep to themselves.  Ben, we've developed a fast friendship.  

We have a system.  Marion speaks to me in English and I respond in French, that way I can correct her mistakes, and she can correct mine (which seem to be more frequent. mais c'est pas grave).  Sometimes, neither of us can understand what the other one is saying.  Like tonight, she came to my room and said, "I want to make a tea, but it's not really a tea, only it's like a tea, but not really.  You want?" 

I looked at her for a second, "Uhhhh, quoi?" 

"It has the duck bonbons"

I mean, at this point I was past confused.  

"Duck bonbons?  Tu sais que 'duck' est 'canard'?  

"Noooo, not duck, darrrrrkkkk" 

I still didn't get it--a tea, that's not really a tea, only it's like a tea, but not really with dark bonbons???????  

Anyway, I never really found out what she meant, but the "tea" was good.  So I drank it.  

The same goes for me too.  Sometimes she looks at me like I'm completely crazy.  When I get excited, or I REALLY want to get a point across I start to speak fast, screw up my tenses, and end up going around in circles trying to explain myself.  

In the end, there's always sign language.  

I'm pretty optimistic about the situation though because 1. I can tell my French is improving already.  I've learned so many cool slang words and phrases (like, c'est ge-ge.  It's an abbreviation for "c'est genial" which is like, "that's cool"), plus, I keep a little notebook nearby so I can jot down all the words I don't know and I go look them up at night.  2. Tonight we watched "L'auberge Espagnole," and we decided that if they can do it, so can we!  We also decided we need to meet some more people in our building and go out like they did.  

So, that's on the agenda for tomorrow.  

C'est ge-ge.