One step, two step, red step, blue step.
Dr. Suess is the man. I just thought everyone in internetoramalamdingdongland should know that.
I had a great cultural exchange today. I was nigh on twelve steps out of the fresh snow packed entrance of the residence when a man holding a sign asked me something in French. To which I could only respond as Jack Johnson would have
(c'mon, everyone knows that song):
"Je ne se pas francoise." (I don't know french.)
The man just looked me up and down for a moment like the English he was searching for was written somewhere between my forehead and my shoes.
"Uh...fire?" The cigarillo flapped in the corner of his mouth as he forced unfamiliar contortions of the face. I handed him a book of matches I had in my pocket. I then couldn't help but notice that he was the straggler of a small band of protesters getting ready to set up shop on the opposite entrance of my residence hall! I made my own unfamiliar facial contortions and sloppily forced out whatever was printed on the sign in French.
"What does this mean... on your sign?"
The man paused. Again he made the searching motions from the snow melting off my boots to the frame of the blue hood outlining my face.
He contorted, "Uhh... UQAM correspondence and money."
I retorted, "The University's correspondence classes are too much money?"
He nodded and smiled. I nodded and smiled along. We both knew that our capacities for each others' respective languages had been met. I wanted to dig deeper, but I already know that college is around $3,000 a year, so how much could "correspondence" college be? I wasn't in the mood to have reverse sticker shock ruin my day anyway. As I began to walk away, I tapped his shoulder in a friendly way saying,
"Se sa! Merci." (I understand, thank you.)
