I am already accumulating Lost In Translation moments, so I thought I might as well write about them now since (seeing as how things are going) I will probably have more by the weekend.

#1) We were at a cafe this weekend simply to get to know each other. Everyone was giving their orders of yummy cakes and lattes. A few people ordered chai (Ukrainian word for tea) and naturally I ordered black tea with milk and sugar. Nothing out of the ordinary… if I was in the States or maybe England. The waitress didn’t know what to do with me. Milk with your tea? Who would do such a thing? The poor girl asked again to clarify and again Lena (translator) clearly said that I wanted milk with my tea. The waitress was so dumbfounded she had to go ask the cook if they do such a thing. She came back and reported that they would give me a little milk on the side. It came out as steamed milk.

#2) We have all been assigned different kitchen duties for the next two weeks. I am on a team with two other girls cooking breakfast. Lunch and dinner are prepared by our cook, but he gets the weekends and breakfasts off. The two other gals that I am with do not speak ANY English. They are wonderful girls and I am sure we will be able to prepare something for breakfast, but communication will be interesting as I discovered today. I thought we were going to be making croissants for breakfast, but I was informed at dinner today we are making pineapples. Pineapples? Yep, I was assured with sweet smiles we are making pineapples. I was missing something. Do you mean we are putting apples in the croissants? Nope, we’re making pineapples. Finally, we grabbed our translator  who then told me we are cooking apple pies for breakfast. This makes sense when you put your adjectives in the wrong place. Apples in a pie, pie in an apple. Mistake understood, except I’m making apple pies for breakfast? I’m still not sure about that one.

#3) While cleanign up after dinner tonight, I found a package of salt with the following label:

The White Food Common Iodine Salt: Salt for cooking, salting, and preserving of food-staff and for prophilaxis of thyroid gland diseases.

?????