Brazilian waxes. Oh la la.

Life never fails to be amusing.

Awhile back I was attempting to purchase a magazine from a kioske along the street. The magazines are kept behind the counter, so I told the man that I'd like to purchase "Ojala" (which means I wish or I hope in Spanish). I though Ojala was the title of the magazine that I spotted on the shelf. The man responded to me, Hola (hello in Spanish). I said hola, I would like to purchase Ojala. The man responded, Hola? Realizing he meant the name of the magazine, not hello there, I said, no, Ojala. He said Hola? I said no, Ojala. Hola? Ojala. Hola? Getting frustrated, I pointed to the magazine I wanted to buy. He handed it to me. Lo and behold, the magazine was not called Ojala, like I though it was, it's title was Oh la la which apparently sounds a lot like "hola" to my ears. Whoops. I just couldn't figure out why he kept saying hola to me...

In class last week a professor we are assisting was teaching his students a few English idioms and slang words like "to bad mouth" or ""no biggie." At one point he asked the class, "do you know what a Brazilian is?" A Brazilian? A Brazilian wax I thought? Why is he asking the class this? I was certain that's what he said, and I was afraid he was going to ask us to explain it to the students. All I could think was, I don't want to be the lucky person who has to explain this one. Then after a few minutes of confused stares, he repeated the word, and it turned out he was saying, "bazillion." As in the imaginary number we have created to signify a ginormous number. Whew. Narrow escape on that one.