Things have been busy here... Really busy... Ridiculously busy. I haven't seen my bed before 11 pm all week. When you get up at 4:45 (or if you're being lazy 5:45) this is not an appropriate time to go to bed.
Never the less, in the midst of the busyness, there are a few new observations I have made that make me smile...
In Mauritius, sometimes English translations aren't grammatically phrased in the most appropriate way. One example would be the signs that you see all over the island. These signs say, "Trespass". What the sign means is no trespassing, but to me, it seems that the owners of the property are encouraging to come and make yourself at home. I'm tempted to do that sometime...
Another funny thing was a juice container that I ran across the other day. Now, when read in total the wording made sense, but clearly their marketing department wasn't thinking when they put the label together. At the bottom of the label in proud, bold letters the container says, "NO COLOR AND NO FLAVOR" then on the next line is the single word "added". If they were really thinking they could have phrased this to make it less humorous to people like me who like to laugh at others unprecise use of the English language. I just sat and thought to myself... no color and no flavor, yummy! :-)
On occasion, I have the opportunity to tease my husband about these things. He speaks English very fluently, but sometimes he isn't as precise as he could be and this leaves room for me to poke fun. One example was when we were in America for our wedding. After meeting my friends and family he said, "I like it here, all of your people have pretty good values". I had to laugh at that... They only have "pretty good values".
As days go by I find that I am noticing fewer and fewer things that seem odd or out of place for me. I guess this is a good sign that I am making Mauritius my home.
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