Monday, June 22nd, 2009
Lately
i’ve been craving a microphone like a junkie craves a syringe. I love
my roommates to death, but sometimes a girl’s gotta turn the music all
the way up, grab her hairbrush and just sing like no one’s around. and
when people ARE around, it makes it much more difficult. My singing
addiction is only stimulated by listening to 20+ folksy/jazzy
songwriters on balconytv each day. i love this job.
In other news, i think i’m coming down with the plague. yep, it’s
back, and it’s kicking my ass. i suppose a night full of chicken noodle
soup and Imogen Heap songs would cure me, but it’s hard to find the
time when there’s so much alcohol everywhere. i don’t know how the
irish do it! My liver hates me…good thing alcohol poisoning is just a
myth.
- JAMIE
One of my favorite AND least favorite things about Dublin—or Europe
in general, I suppose—has to be the lingo. In a way, it’s kind of like
a game almost to try to figure out if what you’re saying is going to
fly or not. The whole pants vs. trousers thing threw me off for the
first couple of days, as did bathrooms/restrooms vs. toilets (we would
NEVER say “toilets” in Kansas, btw), but the most intense word usage
difference so far is definitely “fanny pack.”
Thankfully, I didn’t
find out about this one on my own. A few days ago, my roommate came
back to the apartment still a little red after the conversation she’d
had with her boss. You see, her coworkers (all older men working in the
psych department of a hospital) apparently tricked her into using the
phrase, knowing she had no idea what it meant.
“What’s that thing that Americans wear on the side of their hips?
You know, right here?” he said gesturing to the correct placement of a
fanny (yes, fanny!) pack.
“A fanny pack,” she said innocently.
Cue bursts of laughter.
The funniest part of the whole thing was that she STILL didn’t know
what it meant after she came home. But neither did the rest of us.
That weekend, we went out with some friends—also from the States and
completely clueless—and I remembered that I wanted to ask someone what
it meant. Ha. And to my surprise/shock/embarrassment/amusement–it’s a
vagina. I honestly thought it was another word for ass or something.
Guess not. I’m still sitting here giggling, actually. Immature, I know,
but what can I say? I’m 20 years old and allowed to be a little (a lot)
perverted. All I think is, “vagina pack, vagina pack!” and you can’t
help but think about the literal meaning….if there is one……it’d
probably make a fortune.. but I won’t get into that. Another topic for
another day.
Your devoted street-wise linguist,
Archi
