Allô, Allô?

The plan being to call Sharon in France this afternoon, Ma needed to dust off a few French phrases for the purpose of appearing lingually sensitive when asking the host family to speak with el daughtero.

Reaching back into the musty memories of high school, I dredged up a few things I thought might be useful.....

-"Bonsoir! (smile broadly) Je suis la maman de Sharon Hoyt." (nervous grin)

-"Es-que la maison de Madame Joisiane? Je ne parle pas Français très bien. Je suis une Améicain très stupide." (with attempts at cheerfulness coupled with humility)

-"Es-que Sharon là?"

Armed with what I thought could get me through, I went outside for an international phone call consult with the hubby, who was working on the garage. After several trips back and forth, I discovered the correct calling code which would circumvent the operator "who you don't want, whatever you do, because that would cost us ten times as much."

*punching in of telephone number*

"Allô?"

"Allô?"

"Allô, allô?"

"Allô, allô?"

Having established that I could indeed say "hello," and that I couldn't be heard very well on the other end, I felt it was time to move on to something more daring...

*shouting*

"Je suis (uh...) la maman de Sharon. (ummmm......) Sharon Hoyt?" ("please, oh please let them understand me")

What followed was a rather humorous exchange of loudness whereby it was established that I spoke Français only a "petit peu" (little bit) and the woman on the other end spoke no English. Also, Sharon was not "ici." (here)

But, we were both pretty adept at "Allô," (hello)

I assumed this meant that Sharon was not back at the house, yet. But in reality, the study abroad program had given the wrong phone number to Sharon, and I had reached the mother of Sharon's host mom :-D

I hadn't worked out a French disengagement-from-the-phone scenario, but the very nice lady gave me the impression that she was going to tell someone...something, and hung up.

In a few moments Sharon called me, gave the corrected number and then I called her back so the host family wouldn't have to pay another phone bill.

Eventually, after narrowly averting an international incident, we had a lovely chat together on the phone. Sharon sounded quite chipper. She had been to church that morning where she met missionaries who'd attended Grace, (can't remember the name) as well as another Grace student. They invited her home for dinner.

She sounded in good spirits and ready to take her placement test tomorrow.

Now, I'd better practice a bit more on my French phrases, like...."So, what do you think of the war and all?"

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