Such a strange world

When I'm not busy working or planning the wedding, I like to play an online game called World of Warcraft. It's an MMORPG, or a mass multiplayer online roleplaying game, meaning that if you want to be succesful in the game, you form groups with other players who you frequently don't know. My main character is a rogue, and one of her talents is opening locks. Players can find locked boxes on the monsters and villains they kill, so lockpicking can bring in a small amount of money in tips. As such, it's something I like to do while I'm, say, waiting for dinner to cook.

The other day, I was doing just that, waiting for dinner to be ready, and I ended up picking a lock for someone after some delay because Jud had just served up the food. I apologized for the delay, explaining its source, and the other player laughed and said "bon appetit." Now, I always have this brief glimmer of hope when someone says something in French that isn't horribly misspelled that perhaps the person actually speaks French, giving me an opportunity to brush up my skills. But you'd be surprised by the number of characters with names like "souris" who have no idea what the word they've chosen even means.

At any rate, I responded with my standard "Merci beaucoup!" and was about to log off when I see the reply: "Je vous en prie." Now that's not a phrase that many non-francophones know. Sure, you learn it in French I, but why bother with such a difficult, formal phrase when "de rien" or "pas de quoi" will suffice? (Besides, "pas de quoi" is a billion times more fun to say). So suddenly, I have a flicker of hope. I respond "Vous pouvez me tutoyer." And Fatigue (the player in question) responds: "Je t'en prie." And there's a pause. And then: "Canadienne?"

Finally! An actual francophone! We talked a while as I ate dinner, had a blast, and looked forward to chatting in French again. There's something about the French--they are genuinely delighted when someone who's not from a French-speaking country is willing and eager to speak French with them, no matter how awful their French may be at times. And this is even more true for Americans (or maybe it's just American women). They inevitably think it's really cool and unusual, and that our crappy accents are cute.

So then two days later, my guild joined a larger guild, and it turned out that Fatige was in the new guild. And that there are four other francophones. I spoke with a Moroccan yesterday who said he honestly would have almost believed I was a native speaker, and that I had at least grown up around the language. I have never heard such a nice complement from a French-speaking person in my life, so I was delighted. And he's giving me the recipe for harissa!

I'm so thrilled to be able to speak French with these guys. It's like IMing--almost like talking in real life, but it gives me a few to remember slang I've forgotten. And they seem happy to help me out and to speak French with an American. Of course, that's because I'm willing to tell them that they really don't want to tell everyone in the guild that they're "boring." Hehe. After all the time I spent in France trying to express frustration or confusion with every day things with no one telling me I should really choose other words, I feel it's the least I can do.

And the recipe to harissa!!! In case you don't know, harissa is a spicy sauce used in Moroccan cooking. It's what makes tagines and couscous dishes especially tasty. I always thought it was a magical substance like Old Bay seasoning. It's almost like a paste, and you buy it in neat tubes. While at the back of my mind, I knew you could probably make it, I always assumed the ingredients would be too random and expensive to compile just for the sauce. It seems that's not true. I can't wait to try it out.

Who knew a video game could help you improve skills not related to hand-eye coordination, problem solving, and map reading?