Mistakes of a Novice

I've been doing fairly well, getting around with my mediocre french. Having an international data plan and my trusty blackberry helps because I'm able to look up words I don't understand. Even so, there are times when my roommate and I clearly made mistakes.

1) "Nous sommes finit" says MC, hoping to relay to the waiter that we have finished eating. She quickly realizes that she just told the waiter that we are finished...in a dead sort of way.

2) At a brasserie, we decide to order a salad because we needed some greens in our life. We choose a "salade de gruyere" which we think is a a salad with some gruyere cheese. Or so we thought. Out comes a plate full of grated cheese in salad dressing. Note to myself: prepositions are important. Next time, I should order a "salade avec gruyere"...a salade with gruyere cheese, instead of a salade of cheese.

3) MC and I are at the french train station trying to purchase a ticket back to Paris, but none of our credit cards seem to work. We step back to observe what the frenchies were doing. It seemed simple enough, press a few buttons and stick the credit card in. Then why didn't our card work? I read the message on the screen and all I see is that my credit card is "muette." I look this word up on my phone....apparently, my credit card is "silent, deaf, stupid." The french machine is telling me that my US credit card is handicapped. Great.

4) MC grabs me and asks "Did that LCD sign just say that people of the devil should call this number?" It's hard to believe that there are enough people of the devil in the small town of Colmar (France) to necessitate a toll-free-number. So MC proceeds to stare intently at the sign waiting for the sign to change so we could double check what she saw. After 10 minutes, the same message comes up and we notice that the "V" was really a "U." People of deuil (mourning) should call this number. I knew there weren't that many devlish people in Colmar.