"But you don't eat acorns..."

This is what my host mom said to me at dinner last night after I tried to explain the different kinds of squash to her. Now, for me, squash is a big deal and I understand that a lot of Americans don't even know what the differences are between a spaghetti squash and a butternut squash, but trying explaining those to someone in French, where those words don't even exist. Let's back up a step so you can fully get the impact of what happened:
Last night, we were talking about Halloween and how it's not celebrated in France... And Alix piped up and said that she loved the round orange things, as she started motioning her hands in the air in circular motions. I just looked at her and my host parents were like, "Oh! Poitrons!" (Translation: Pumpkins) And I died a little inside that they don't fully get to appreciate the pumpkin... Then, I was further surprised when my host mom started talking about a "poitron" that her friend had given her. She turned to me and said in her very thick French accent (spelled how she said it) "booterrenut" and I was like "Oh! Butternut squash! I love that!" They asked me if it was the same as a pumpkin, so then I had to explain that there were different kinds of squash (and we didn't know the word for squash at the time so they kept using "poitron"). I brought up the acorn squash because it is one of my favorite things to eat during the fall and I didn't know the word for acorn in French, so this is what the conversation looked like
I said: "It's like a seed that grows on a tree..."
Host Mom: "Like a flower?"
Me: "Not really... more like a nut"
Host Dad: "Like a coconut?"
Me: "Nooo... It's small... and I don't know what tree it comes from..."
(So my host dad grabs the dictionary and he looks up "acorn" and finds the word)
Host Dad: "It comes from the maple tree..."
Host Mom: "But you don't eat acorns. They're really bitter and hard."
Me: "Right. That's just the name of the squash."
Host Mom: "So it's just a name?"

So many of our conversations are like that... Things that I try to explain and it ends up being a game of twenty questions with the dictionary. The funnest part about this whole conversation would be the literal translation of what we were calling the squash:
"pumpkin of spaghetti" and "pumpkin of acorn" and "pumpkin of butternut"
Needless to say, it was hard for me to keep a straight face during that time.

I now now the correct word for squash: "une courge"

Feel sadly for the French during Halloween next week when they continue living life as normal and they do not begin to see ornamental "courge" appearing everywhere.

A couple more fun language incidents that have happened to me this week:
1. On Sunday, I was trying to talk to Alix about the train station, but kept mispronouncing the word and ending up saying things like "Let's go back to the war and check the times" or "Is there a bathroom at the war?"or "What time did we leave the war?"

2.I was trying to tell my host mom that we learned terms for body parts in class on Monday and I ended up saying we learned different parts of the heart, which was partly true... and then later I mixed that word up with the word for a main street...

3. Today, a Chinese guy was trying to describe why it's dangerous to meet people you don't know because they can don disguises and follow you and instead of using "make-up" or "disguise," he used the word "decoration" which means to literally have decorations on your face... It was hysterical.

Good thing God gave human beings a sense of humor.