in the community: a sausage anecdote
My colleagues Ciprian and Vasi eat sausages and bread every day for lunch. Well, except for days of their fast. They always offer me some and I politely decline. Today, something Vasi said had me giggling. I don’t remember what, but I thought of how in English we use the phrase “sausage fest” to describe a bunch of guys doing guy stuff. Of course, Vasi and Ciprian asked why I was giggling and I launched into a Romanian explanation of “sausage fest.” How we use it, when we use it. I was completely unsure as to whether I could translate the meaning (i.e. is a sausage phallic in every language?). I loosely translated it as “Serbarea Carnatilor” which got me giggling even more because word for word, it means the Festival of Sausages. By this time, Vasi and Ciprian were laughing, too. They were like, “Do you really have Sausage Festivals? We want to go.” “Maybe, probably, somewhere,” I replied. As I walked out the door, Ciprian raised his eyebrow and said, “Well, we men do have big sausages.” So, yes, it translated.