As soon as I saw this task, I knew what phrase book I had to use.

Breakfast: I went to breakfast, sat down, greeted everyone, acquired "some crumb." (Crullers, but who's counting?) Nobody seemed to notice that I was saying little, mostly agreeing and disagreeing.

A friend proposed that I accompany him to a tea store. The dialogue I learned which taught me how to discuss such a proposal is an unabashedly positive one, remarking that "this field has by me a thousand charms" and concluding with "we have done a great walk." Note: it's 18 degrees out right now, and it's snowing. So this is *not* what I said. Instead, I explained that "we are having some weather..." - a mistaken attempt at recalling the weather dialogue, which is full of such gems as "I fear of the thunderbolt" but nothing about snow. (The correct line was "We shall have a fine weather today", which can easily be delivered sarcastically. I expect to use that later.)

(Actually, later I misremembered there as being a line about "There is some snowy" - it's actually "some foggy" - and mentioned the "snowy". What can I say, I only got up half an hour ago, so there is some foggy.)

The same friend, oblivious to the strangeness of my speech, asked me what I had planned for the day. Now, mostly the answer is homework, but I don't know how to say that in English, at least not as she is spoke. So I instead told him about the task: "I attempts to translate of French by Portuguese." "SF0?" "Yes." "Don't you have a paper to be working on?" "Yes." "Did you decide not to do it?" "No."

I have no idea which answer he took the no as.

Eventually I grew tired of trying to answer questions like "What were you trying to do?" (After being asked if we had ever succeeded in destroying the balloon and saying no.) The best answer I could muster for that one was "to break upon", which I muttered before proceeding to blurt out "some hydrogen" - which is what the RoboNapolean balloon was filled with.

Of course in the list of chemistry stuff the book has "some cooper", but no hydrogen.

Damn. This is hard.

Especially when you've just woken up and there is still some foggy.

Phonecall to JJason: My friend JJason and I just got off the phone. He wanted to borrow my camera. I said yes. He was also excited about the snow; sharing his excitement from the indoor warmth of my room, I exclaimed, "We shall have a fine weather today!"

"Snowing!" "Fine weather!"

Then we met up and I helped document a task of his. We talked for a bit (he's aware of the task) and then he invited me to go...

Shopping.

Buying tamales at Midtown Global Market from restaurant workers whose native language is Spanish is quite an experience. When they didn't get what I meant by "poultry" I tried again in the other language found in my phrasebook... Portuguese! It worked, since "polho" and "pollo" sound really, really similar.

Then I returned, to do some strategizing with Agent Fourteen. Explaining, over the phone, that the busses were running slow because of the weather got much easier when I remembered that I could piece phrases together - since there's a dialogue about having stayed up until half pass three and then sleeping in too late.

Conferring with Diplomacy allies.

I mostly let my interlocutors do the talking, with me occasionally agreeing. It went smoothly, more or less, but only because there really wasn't anything to say at the moment other than "we still trust each other." (Or, as I put it, "Yes, sir.") As one of the allies was Agent Fourteen, however, he was aware of the task and able to explain my relative silence to an NPC.

IM with Levitating Potato

Interaction with yet another of my SF0-playing friends was also complicated by the task. He and I had an interesting conversation in which he opined about the Revolution while I agreed - mostly by saying yes.

He then sought suggestions as to which group a proposed task should be for. I sought ways to imply different groups, but none were forthcoming. Then he proposed a particularly elegant answer, so I proclaimed, "Which charm!" Eventually I also went for the cop-out solution of proposing "I am confused all your civilities" - and making the statement a hyperlink to HC. I suggested "the gaming" for EquivalenZ as well, without a hyperlink.

Amazingly, we were even able to make me understood.

And then, shortly after, I broke the rules briefly.

Sorry.

My phone rang; I answered, and was invited to a play. There is no way mentioned to indicate that you may or may not be availible and will get back to the person later in all of EASIS, nor to apologize for having missed an earlier call due to your room having horrible reception.

I decided not being rude to a friend I haven't seen in a year trumped staying faithful to my task. But when I got off the phone, I resolved to immediately return to my previous quasifluency.

Movies!

I watched a pair of movies with Agent Fourteen tonight after dinner. When we burst out laughing together and all I could think of to say was "Yes!" it got kinda odd.

And biting my tongue rather than discussing the ending of movie number two was an interesting experience. (I'm not saying what it was due to the spoilery nature of even knowing there's a twist. Sorry.)

General thoughts

This is hard - both remembering what you can say, and actually finding a way to say it.

I've been getting a surprising amount of mileage out of the phrase "I will make march."

Also, a lot of people talk somewhat stilted to you when you're speaking English As She Is Spoke. Some even adopt EASISisms around you. (When JJason did, I accused him of jesting of me. He admitted it. I replied that I jest of me also.)