Lost in translation

[superbadgirl]

Over halfway on my walk to Job 2, I realized I'd left my apartment without any supplies for Girl Thing. I don't know how I manage to do that so often, but I do. Anyway, I ran to the drug store before the office hours began and picked up a box of tampons. The woman at the register, sweet thing that she was, rang me up. When she came to the tampons, she scanned them, looked puzzled for a minute and then put them down on the counter instead of in my bag. She continued ringing everything else up, and when she was done held up the box and asked me what they were.

Me: Tampons.
Her: Oh.
She fiddled around with the register.
Her: But what are they?
Me: They're...tampons.
Her: Tampons...I don't...?
Me: They're, uh, they're for when you have your period.
Her, blushing: Ohhhhh! Say no more. I understand now.

Turned out she's only very recently Stateside, from Africa, and is still learning words. Bless her heart. I figured it was something like that, but the whole conversation was very amusing to me for some reason. LOL, I've never had anyone have to ask me what that particular product was before.

Rented two apartments today, to twenty year olds. MAN, I hope I was never that clueless. These encounters also felt like I was speaking to someone whose native tongue wasn't English. I really don't remember when I got my first apartment, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't as unprepared as these two were. I felt like a life coach or something.

But bonus points to the one who assumed I wasn't old enough to have 10 years of rental history under my belt.