Little linguists

So one of the fun things about Italy was watching the boys cope with the surprising fact that people everywhere didn't speak English. We had sort of prepped them for this, but I think despite the prevalence of Spanish here in Tejas, they really couldn't conceive of it. At some point towards the end of the trip, Jamie seemed a little worn down by it, and admitted in a tired moment at the end of the day that he wanted to be where people spoke English again. But he actually did great with a little Italian. He was very good about saying "Grazie" and "per favore" at appropriate moments and often curried some real favor with it. By the end, he had also gotten to be able to really order a gelato in Italian, and I don't just mean "Gelato, per favore." He could say the whole thing, "Un piccolo cono, con ciocollato e straciatella, per favore." It was really cute. Unfortunately Rome being Rome and Romans being Romans, the gelato place was often far too busy and loud for the barristas to even note that he was doing it. He was pleased about his knowledge and looked forward to coming back to Houston and baffling ice creams stores with his Euro-skills. And then in the car yesterday he announced to a friend "I know deutsch! I know the word for German: deutsch, and for Rome: Rom!"

For his part Connor was a little shyer than Jamie about speaking to actual Italians, but he was picking it up in his quiet, attentive little way. We had to ride an elevator up and down to our apartment a few times everyday and an automated voice would announce the floor. Suddenly one day just before we got to our floor Connor beat the voice and said "Quarto piano" complete with rolled r and a little Sylvia Poggioli lilt. Clever bunny.