Funny: Am I French?

This happened recently on one of my official visits when travelling across the United States. My typical flight connection takes me through Chicago O'Hare airport (ORD) . It's probably easier to wade through Walmart on Thanksgiving day than walking through Chicago during a peak evening time frame.

Anyway, I was looking for a power slot to get my now-drained laptop powered up. It's so surprising that a busy airport like ORD does not tend to have good placement of power slots around the terminals. I see so many fellow passengers who are constantly on the look out for power slots, and stay put once they find it although it may be many many terminals away from their destined one.

So, It's my lucky day and I happen to find one! Bummer...it does not work. But, lady luck is still with me and I find another one not too far away. Yey!

I plug in the cord and power up my whining and thirsty gadget. I look around to see a few people (almost) look at me with contempt; almost jealous of my good luck. Around the same time, a few weeks ago, I had borrowed a 'Learning French' book from the local library to satisfy my (then) momentary urge to brush up on my French, which I was so proud about at some point of time. The book is stowed away in my laptop bag. I digress...so let's get back to the airport mayhem...

I authorize myself to get access to my Desktop and right before I can perform any action, I see a gentleman who is standing right next to me and asks me something...inaudible over the din of the airport crowd.

I: "Excuse me?"
He: "Parlez-vous francais?"

At this time, the french in me wakes up and thinks: 'Bloomiboy, what are you waiting for? Don't be afraid...this is the perfect platform for you to showcase your skills. Go for it!'

I: "Je ne m'appelle pas francais...", I break off...

The Human brain...I wonder when mankind will be able to fathom it's complexity. I hate it. I hate it whenever I wish I had two of them - one to make the sentences and another to validate it.

I had just told the nice french gentleman: "I am not called french..."

I felt the floor below me give way. It's the feeling one has when you just do something and realize thet time travel does not yet exist so that you can go back and fix your gaffes. To add on to it, I see the man break into a chuckle, then a wide smile, then a loud guffah. The perfect icing.

I couldn't hold it in any longer...my self-realization has awed my own shamefulness and I join him in his joyous encore.

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Hmm, it's funny when you actually experience something like this yourself...you can identify with me then.

Epilogue: We then started talking in English, introduced ourselves and have a nice short chat before we proceeded on each of our destinations. Btw, he was travelling to Canada on business.