Thongs

Junior Quartet on Tuesday.  Packing up at the end.  This takes forever and usually includes the line "Can't we just do music all day?" (Did I mention I love my job?).  I have no idea how this began, or even if there was a why.

Viola: Oh, did you know, in England, thongs is another name for underwear?  [giggles all around] So if you're wearing thongs, it means something totally different.
Violin 1: What do they call thongs, then?
Viola [pronounced carefully, with a 'this is so weird' subtext]: Flip flops.
Cello: They call them flip flops in America, too.
Violin 2: They call them something weird in New Zealand.  Oh... um...
Me: Jandals.
Violin 2: Yeah.  Jandals. Why can't everyone just call them thongs?  That would be easier.  On everyone.
Viola: I know!  Now when I say I'm wearing thongs... Well...

Giggles. 

Henry Purcell

A bit of general knowledge at the end of a lesson today.  10-yr-old girl, Rondeau.  Pronunciations done a bit more phonetically...

Me: Who composed this piece?
Girl: Henry- wait.  Is it the arranger, or the composer?  Mary Co-hen or Henry Prewcell?
Me: Who do you think the composer is?
Girl: Henry... Prewcell.
Me: Try again.
Girl: Prercell
Me: Purcell
Girl: Oh!  There's no r before the u. 
Me: Where's he from?
Girl [quickly, like she's in a trivia game]: Spain! Argentina! [I couldn't help but start laughing here] Brazil!  ... Oh wait... France!  Oh yeah, Spanish is a different language.... Brazil!
Me [loudly, slowly]: Hen...ry...
Girl: Paris?
Me: Paris isn't a country.  Henry.  Where would a Henry live?  Henry?
Girl [puzzled]: England...? [I nod] England?!  But that's so normal!

I figured out that her confusion was stemming from the title of the piece, which is in French (this is the same child who agreed that French is a silly language) and it has a subtitle 'From the Moor of Abdelazar' and I must have explained at some point the Moorish reference.  That was the end of general knowledge for today, I couldn't risk any more.