Tuesday, April 10, 2012

when is a vest not a vest?

I know it's time to go home, because:
  • It's been warm and sunny the whole time I've been here and today it's raining. It always rains the day I fly home.
  • Yesterday I used the words " your folks" in an email. I never say "your folks" at home.
  • Yesterday I rushed into the Precita Park Cafe at 4.15 on my way back to my SF home and asked for an Americano to go. The extravagance! I would never ever buy a coffee to take home to drink from a cafe that was five minutes away from home. I'd wait till I got home and then make a coffee myself.
  • I am not American yet, however. Also yesterday, I was in a shop ogling one of those long sleeved sheer cotton T shirts with a fraying scoop neck (like rock chicks wear) and I asked the shop assistant if they had a vest in the same fabric and she showed me a sweatshirt and a cardigan, and I left the shop baffled. Then Wendy explained that I should have asked for a tank top, as a 'vest' is a jacket over here.
  • Lastly, I need to be able to write blog posts in my usual package (Windows Live Writer) and not on this stupid Blogger template which does not understand the concept of a paragraph, nor sensible bullet points.

2 comments:

Jean said...

Oh the joys of spending time between two countries that, on the surface, have the same language .........good job you did not ask for suspenders .....that was a big shock for me .......in America they are men's braces .......imagine the conversations that discovery produced!
Jean

Sue Hepworth said...

Yes, and there are still some English idioms that crop up that I have to explain to Wendy - such as when I told her I was going for a kip. She hadn't a clue what i meant.