Gospodja??

We have a group of elementary school kids in the house right now, because the Croatian school system requires them to have five days of "school in nature," and Fuzine is a perfect place to meet this requirement. Anyway, I was walking down one of the hallways today, and several boys came up and started talking (really fast!) to me. Needless to say, although my language skills are improving somewhat, I had no idea what they were saying. I looked at the one who was standing directly in front of me and said, "Ne razumijem hrvatski" ("I don't understand Croatian"). He looked at me like I had said, "ice cream is falling from the sky," or something equally as bizarre. "Ne razumijes hrvatski?" ("You don't understand Croatian?") He looked at me and blinked. "Govorim engleski" ("I speak English"), I replied. "Gospodja govori engleski!" he informed his compatriats. I smiled and continued on my way, laughing to myself. I was laughing for two reasons. First of all, because I get this reaction often here. I don't look all that different, so people just assume I am Croatian until they hear me open my mouth. Second of all, I have never been called "Gospodja" before. It's like being at home and being called "Ma'am." Makes me feel so old.... Joj! (Croatian for "oi vay!") Later in the evening, as I was working on some ROM preparations on my computer in the office, two girls took up positions by a post in the hallway outside the office door, which was open. I could hear them speaking quietly to each other in Croatian, but didn't really pay attention until I heard them say, "engleski." Well, duh, of course I knew they were talking about me. I just smiled, but kept working. So cute though. I heard one of the girls say in slow, deliberate English, "how are you today? Excellent!" Hopefully the kids who come to our Fuzine Youth Festival next week will be as interested in me and in speaking English as the kids here this week are!