Peeps!

Good Ol' American Sugar

This evening we were sitting on the couch, puzzling over the Simpsons in French, when our doorbell rang. The doorbell ringing is a strange occurance because guests usually buzz at the front door on the street. Which meant our guest either a) knew the front door code (which could only be Wally) or b) was already in the building.

The answer was b. The guy from the apartment above ours was standing at the door with two boxes. He handed me the boxes and said a bunch of stuff. For the life of me I had no idea what he was saying. I said quite carefully "I'm sorry, I don't speak much French" (I'm a real pro at that sentence). He answered "No problem" en francais and repeated everything in French at the same rapid speed. I whimpered and called for Dave. He joined me at the door and the neighbor repeated everything a third time. Dave blinked. The neighbor gave up, we said merci beaucoup many times, and he went back upstairs.

We closed the door and burst into frustrations. "What just happened?" "I didn't understand ANYTHING!" "All I heard was "donner! (to give)" "How could we not understand a single word? Not even the concept?"

Well, I'm assuming the concept was that the mailman gave him the boxes to give to us but seriously, we couldn't understand the guy at all. He might as well have been speaking Greek.

So that was frustrating. But I quickly got over it as I tore into the boxes. Dave's sister and brother-in-law sent us a great box of American stuff. A gossip magazine (Jennifer Aniston has a new boyfriend? Who knew?), a few toys, a book of math puzzles (Lisa knows her brother so well), and some candy. Starburst!

The other package was from my parents, an Easter present that took it's time getting here. A shirt for each of us and more candy. Peanut M&Ms and Peeps! I had forgotten how funny Peeps are. I'm going to take them into work and give everyone a sugar buzz.