I'm sure I am already forgetting many of the great expressions that Eva and Annette have been teaching me from their homeland (Canada.) So many evocative turns of phrase. Here are a couple I want to be certain to remember (and use!) One evening when we were at dinner with a particularly loquacious individual, Eva told me later that "her mouth was going like a whipporwill's arsehole." Ha! Today, she said that something was "as black as a the inside of a cow." Of course their accents are distinct. "Owoot" is the pronunciation of "out," for example.
These are useful: anybody who gave us trouble was called "buddy." "Buddy didn't have our hotel reservation.." and the like. Eva and Annette also referred to each other as "Mrs." constantly. As in: "How you doin' there Mrs.?" "Okay, Mrs., how are you?"
I have been teaching them a few Yiddish expressions, but they somehow don't have the same resonance in this crowd. ("Mishegas" and "shpilkes" were two they liked.) We were joking that a Jewish Newfoundlander would probably be saying: "She must have had shpilkes; her mouth was going like a whipporwill's arsehole!" We laughed at that one.
Our bus driver, Armin, who is German, had a unique way of telling a joke -- they go on for four days! He would start and after about ten minutes, we would all go about reading or doing other things waiting for the punch line. Usually, I had to pay close attention, so I could translate for the others into a more concise version. It took me about a minute to tell the same joke. But Armin is a pleasant, jovial fellow with a quick (sometimes!) wit and a calm demeanor. He's an excellent driver and we always got where we were going on time, and often, early. His van has 2 GPS systems - one a male voice and one a female voice. At times they sounded like they were arguing with each other.
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