“Je m'appelle” Voula

I realized that up until this weekend I have successfully managed to avoid speaking French. Seriously, “Bonjour” may have been the only word in my French vocabulary: Which I only knew because of the song in the Disney movie “Beauty and Beast” when Belle goes to town and is greeted by the baker with his same old bread and rolls to sell like always. But anyway, I am not quite sure if this is something I've entirely subconsciously either. For, I have always referred to the food chain Au Bon Pan as “ABP,” and chose to study Spanish in high school unlike my two older sisters who had studied French.

This revelation came to my attention this past weekend when we hosted a group of 40+ people from the neighboring (French speaking) islands of Guadalupe and Martinque and I attempted to explain amongst some other things; what time the “long walk” (hike) was leaving, why the hot water may take a few moments to come on (energy conservation), why their choices of juice were now guava and karambola aka star fruit (because the pineapple had just run out), and that there really wasn’t anywhere on property for them to buy more cigarettes.

This experience was significant for me because it probably was the first time in my life that I was at a complete loss, and regardless of how bad I wanted to, could do nothing about it. Allow me to explain….

I am by no means fluent in Greek and Spanish (sometimes I wonder if English too), but I know enough of each language to get by with a valiant effort to speak the language or a fun combination of the language + English. And when traveling to places where I didn’t speak the language like Italy and Bulgaria, I have always been accompanied by someone who could communicate for me.

Therefore, when the group first got off the bus and invaded Jungle Bay with their stylish clothes and beautifully spoken FOREIGN language, it was the first time in my life I had to use the shoulder shrug + palms in the air combination to express the fact I had no idea what they were saying. Unlike Renee Zellwelgger in Jerry Maguire, they lost me at “Bonjour”

But I’m happy to report with what little English they knew, and with my very expressive hand gestures I was indeed able to explain the concept of energy conservation to the guests, and even managed to pick up a few words in the end. My favorite is the word for water which is spelled l’eau but actually pronounced “OH.” It was quite fun walking around the Pavilion Restaurant on Saturday night with my water pitcher and just asking “Oh?. Oh? Oh? ” So although the French language ruined my subconscious (or not so subconscious) attempt to avoid it, in the end I think it was a draw. To which I say: Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Au revoir until the next adventure, and thanks for reading.
Voula