Parlez-vous francais?

Today I went to the beach. A lake beach, but a beach nonetheless. We wound up at Lake Calhoun, playing in the sand, playing on the swings.

We decided we wanted food. Although Linnea is my tour guide, she doesn't own a car so she is not really that familiar with how to get anywhere (this is lending itself to some funny adventures traveling around Minneapolis).

In lieu of walking aimlessly we decided to ask a guy on the corner to recommend a restaurant. He told us he does not speak English. Somehow Linnea suggests that he and I have a conversation in French. This worked remarkably well. He offered to walk us to a nearby restaurant. During our brief walk we learned that he is not French, no, he is from Kosovo and has been in Minneapolis for 5 days. But he speaks French and I speak French. Linnea just got back from South America so she decided to speak to him in Spanish. He does not speak Spanish, however, Linnea continues anyway. It worked this random street corner conversation.

So, of course my favorite part of the conversation is when he repeatedly asks me if I am American ... because he does not believe that I am American because I have a strange accent. I am loving it! My previous claim to fame was buying shorts at the Gap in Paris and the girl said "oh, let me help you, those American sizes are just so confusing!" ... so the Parisians think I am European, and now a European in America does not believe that I am American ... yay! For me this is the greatest feat of being a foreign-language-learner. If you can fool the locals (or in this case foreigners) then you have succeeded in communicating!

So, those are the highlights of my day. I posted some pictures on Facebook ...