Que?

I phoned Los Tios (a Mexican restaurant) this morning to make a reservation for tonight. The Scottish/Mexican conversation was not an easy one!!!

"Can I book a table for tonight please?" I said in my best AmeriScots accent
"Okay. How many?"
"Seven"
"Six"
"NO! Seven"
"Okay. Seven. What time?"
"Seven pm"
"Six pm"
"NO! Seven pm"
"What' your name?"

Oh God. You can imagine the fun we had with that? Kerry is not a common name over here, nor in Mexico it would seem....

We got there eventually - although I worry that we're going to arrive there and find I've booked a table for 13 at 9pm a week on Tuesday....

I am going to miss confusing the heck out of folks with my accent. Only one week to go...better ramp up the use of arcane Scottish/British words and phrases which have no meaning here. Fortnight is a good one. Whereas we acknowledge it means 14 days, in the US its a phrase used mainly in fairly tales and has no sense of actual duration. If you say that you'll send something in a fortnight then they wouldn't be sure when they'd get it, but it wouldn't surprise them if it arrived in a coach and horses!!

Half past when telling the time also is the source of great confusion! I made the mistake of saying something was scheduled for half past four when I first started in the office. There was a look of utter confusion on the face of the person I spoke to and he asked "Does that mean three thirty?".

Of course there is the reverse aspects to this cross-cultural contamination...I now litter American phrases throughout...in fact I sometimes have problems remembering what the British words are for things. There may have to be some re-education when I get home. And if I use "like" in conversation (as in: "it was like totally awesome") please feel free to kick my ass!!