deux crossant

Exam week. The bad news is there is a 4 hour exam every afternoon. The good news is that we get the morning off to study everyday. Rolling out of bed this morning, remembering that I ran out of bread, I decided to run out to the corner bakery two minutes away. With a dash of rain, and my trusty Tevas, I got two crossants. And how? Easy.

The nice lady at the bakery doesn't speak a word of english, and my french stops at counting to four. Well, thank goodness, I don't really need to buy five of anything this year. Everytime I go, I use "un" plus the best prounciation I could muster of whatever the sign if front of the bread says. But, today, I was in a much better situation. I knew that "two" is "deux", and crossant is, well, crossant. That was easy. So, I proundly said, "deux crossant" (I don't know how to say "please") while holding up two fingers. Money and food exchange hands, trade completed.

On the way home, I smiled. Crossant in Europe taste just a little better than in the States, I was going to enjoy fresh crescent for the first time in Lausanne (I have class Saturday mornings, and bakeries don't open on Sundays). How nice. What make me laugh even more was, what would have happened if after I said "deux crossant" while holding up two fingers, she replies"how are you this morning?" I would probably be really dumbfounded, probably thinking that something went wrong with the crossants.

I guess it doesn't make a difference how many languages I speak, as long as french isn't one of them, I could be in deep trouble just buying "deux crossant".