Bonjour, MF'ers

        Tonight, my roommate made something called "lemon tart" and it was delicious! 

As we sat at the kitchen table in our usually silent apartment we started talking.  Fabian and Max are one french physicist and one German physicist.

I asked Fabian, "Did you make this from scratch, because it's delicious!"

Fabian: "Scratch?"

Me: "Yeah."

Fabian: *laugh* "I'm sorry, but what is SCRATCH."

Me: "Scratch. Like, not from the box.."

Fabian: "Oh, yes," he smiled as though I'd just given him a gift. "Scratch.."

I love our little interludes because I guarantee there will always be something that needs translation from either side. He once said, "I hate LA. What is in Los Angeles, anyway? I prefer Santa Barbara."

I said, "I once saw Jay Leno in Redondo beach."

Fabian: "Who?"

Me: "He took over for Johnny Carson?"

Fabian: Blank stare

Tonight we got to talking about Netflix. He wants an account, so I brought my current Netflix disk into the living room to show him how they are packaged. French Kiss was one of the movies and I felt my face turn tomato colored as my fully-french roommate gazed at the disk design. 

"It's such a dumb movie!" I said, embarrassed by just the title “French Kiss," yet secretly knowing I truly love zis movie, oui oui!. 

"If you really want to see what American film makers think of the French, you have to see this."

"Oh, I know," He said, eyes gone wide and a big laugh coming from him. He continued, "Every year they have a (and he made air quotes with his fingers) 'french festival' in downtown Santa Barbara with (more air quotes) 'french food'. And this cartoon--The rat who cooks?"

"Ratatoulle?"

"Yes! Everyone in this movie wears a hat that I have not seen in my generation, that my grandfather does not even remember wearing. A beret?"

I couldn't stop laughing. I had to hide my face because I was laughing so hard at how funny it must be to him! 

"And they carry around Baguettes," he paused, then said, "Okay, the baguette might be true, but this hat!"

I started telling him about Sex and The City, how Sarah Jessica Parker gets her baguette and her beret because she wants the ultimate french experience--

He's laughing as I'm telling him about this incredibly cute episode.

--and how she starts talking about the Eiffel tower and how amazing she thinks it is, and how in an instant, the Parisian girl shits on her dream of the Eiffel tower--

He's still laughing.

--and how my friend Kristy speaks French and how she is going to be here, soon, and how he will have to meet her because she's my best friend.† And that she has taught me a few french phrases.

"What?" he asked.

I said, "Aurevoir and Bonjour!"

Best lemon tart I've ever had.