He said, you're my favorite person. I said thank you! He said, I know I'd be yours too if my name were Karen Farris.

A Swede, a Norwegian and a German come over.

This is how our conversation ensues:

I say, "I have family in Norway!" She says, "Where?" I say, "I don't know, but I have family in Germany too." He says, "Where?" I say, "Ack. I don't know that either."

Some silence.

I say, "You know what I do know? The Norwegian name for grandmother is Mar-Mar. Whenever I would call my great-grandmother Grandma Mar-Mar, she would say, "You know Mar-Mar is Norwegian for grandmother, why are you calling me grandma grandmother? Haha. Haha."

She says, "No, Gammelor is Norwegian for grandmother."

The Swede offers, "Mor-Mor is Grandmother in Sweden, though."

"Oh." I say.

So I wrote my mom the following email and included her response. Amen, lady. Amen.

Re: Did you know?

jessica farris wrote:
Gammlemor - Norwegian for Grandmother
Mor-Mor- Swedish for Grandmother

Karen Farris wrote:

I did not know. I feel misinformed and bereft of country identity.

More embarrassment-- Sean and I have been calling my Argentinian flat-mate Dada. Her name is apparently Theresa, as we found out from one of her friends. I can't count the amount of times Theresa would pass me something, or say something nice, or offer me some tea when I would say, "Thank you, Dada." Awesome.

In other news, today one of Sean's classmates stopped to talk to us outside of the Arts Building. She told us a story, while she ate her salmon on white bread, about how she was evacuated out of Lebanon on a US Navy ship. She smiled the whole story through and Sean and I couldn't close our suprised mouths. I love this place.