oops.

oops #1
The other day David treated me to a sweet and thoughtful evening out for my belated 30th birthday celebration. Looking over the appetizer list at the restaurant, I was disappointed to see that most of the items were in the sushi or ceviche family (i.e. raw). Neither of us being big raw meat eaters, I chose something safe: rolls. Imagine our confusion when the waiter delivered this to our table:

That would be sushi. Sushi rolls, to be precise.

oops.

So what did we do? First, we called over our waiter to double-check that he brought the correct plate to the correct table. (Do you like how our first assumption was that he made the mistake, not us?) Second, we called over another waiter who earlier had asked if we spoke Spanish. I told him the story of what had just happened as evidence that we only speak some Spanish. Third, we ate the sushi. It's been years since either of us had it, and we were pleasantly surprised that we actually enjoyed it.


oops #2

We've been attending a church called El Camino ("The Way"). The pastor and his wife are American and started the church 15 or so years ago. We like them and we like the church ... although the services are, for us, more of a language lesson than anything else. Towards the end of the service last Sunday my brain had had enough and I stopped concentrating 100% on what was being said. Normally this isn't too big a deal since I can zone out to give my brain a rest and then check back in later to catch up on what's being said. However, in this case I zoned out during a time when everyone's heads were bowed for a time of prayer and reflection, and when I opened my eyes briefly (with my head still bowed), I saw that all the legs around us were standing. So I elbowed David and motioned for him to stand up with me. He gave me a funny look but complied. Three things happened more or less at the same moment:
1. We stood up.
2. I saw that only a small percentage of the congregation was standing.
3. My brain started to catch on to what the worship leader was saying, and I realized that those of us who were standing were indicating that we wanted extra prayer for something. (For what, I still wasn't sure.)

My poor compliant husband, more clued in to what was going on than I was, whispered, "Did we just say that we want to pray to receive salvation?"

oops. Sorry, David. Well, I guess a little extra prayer never hurt anyone. 

The pastor and his wife are trying to work themselves out of a job and are in the process of transferring leadership of the church over to Peruvians.

oops #3
I was so proud of myself recently for catching on to Peruvian humor and noticing a play on words. So proud that I even blogged about it. I thought (and blogged) that a new chicken place nearby had cleverly named itself Pico Rollo as a play on words of a popular chain restaurant called Rico Pollo. I chuckled all the way down the block after noticing this, mostly out of delight that I, the budding Spanish master, had picked up on the humor. Last week I laughed about it a second time when I passed the sign again and realized it doesn't say what I thought it said. No play on words. No Peruvian humor. No relationship whatsoever between the two chicken places, other than the fact that they both serve rotisserie chicken (along with approximately 500 other places in the city). oops.

Pico means beak, and Rico means rich, as in rich food.

So ... if anyone reading this has a cross-cultural faux pas to share, by all means, post it to the comments section and make me feel better about myself!