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I was living in New Orleans at the time, right down the street from a youth hostel. A youth hostel is basically a hotel for young travelers, except that instead of staying in individual rooms, everybody normally stays in one big room with bunk beds. As far as I know, they’re not coed. At any rate, one evening, I was jonesing for pasta, so I decided to go to a local Italian restaurant for dinner. When I walked out of my apartment, I saw these three girls standing in front of the youth hostel, looking around like they were lost. Now I was used to seeing kids go in and out of the hostel all the time, so I did my best to look approachable in case they wanted to ask me for help, and sure enough, they came up to me, polite as you please, and asked me if there was anywhere nearby that they could go eat something nice and not too expensive. They were French. I gave them a few options and told them that I was on my way to my favorite Italian restaurant, and that if they were in the mood for pasta, they could by all means join me. Two of the girls loved the idea, but the third girl, Sophie, was visibly hesitant and started conferring with her girlfriends in French. Red flag number one. I knew enough French to glean that she was dead broke and wanted to find a McDonald's. Being the gentleman I am, I chivalrously offered to pay for her meal, which she accepted with no hesitation. So off we went to the restaurant, which was about a 15-minute walk as the crow flies.
down the street | just a SHORT DISTANCE from your house or wherever you are at any given time
to jones for [SOMETHING] | When you jones for something, you have a strong craving for it. This slang verb is normally used to refer to a drug addiction, but we use if for anything we “have to have” at any given moment. It can also be used as a noun: I had a real pasta jones that evening.
approachable | When someone is approachable, they’re EASY TO TALK TO. You feel you can walk right up to them and ask them a question. The opposite is UNAPPROACHABLE or INTIMIDATING.
red flag | A red flag is something in someone’s behavior or speech that makes you feel that something isn’t 100% right with them. Something that tells you to be careful. Sophie’s speaking French right in front of me, assuming that I wouldn't understand, was the first of many red flags she’d show that evening.Last night, I had my first date with Rebekah and it didn't go very well. Every time I asked her about herself, she'd look at her shoes and try to deflect the question. That was a big red flag for me — I believe in honestly from the get-go. She obviously has things to hide.
as the crow flies | When we walk or drive somewhere, we normally have to take a lot of twists and turns to get there. However, if we ignore all those turns and imagine a straight line to our destination, we can just give a distance or travel time that a crow would take if they flew there IN ONE STRAIGHT LINE.
by all means | This is a very nice way of saying absolutely when granting someone permission to do something or inviting someone to do something.A: May I sit in your lobby until it stops raining?B: By all means!
bunk beds | a combination of two beds, one on top of the other
these three girls | In storytelling, we very commonly used this/these instead of a(n)/some when referring to people or elements that are relevant to the story. These weren’t just “some girls” — they were actually going to play a major role in my story, so I used “these girls” to kind of make them stand out.
sure enough | This simply means «just as I suspected». This phrase is used to preface something that happened as predicted or expected and is thus no surprise. In this case, I knew that if I smiled and made myself appear approachable, the girls would ask me for directions, and TRUE TO MY SUSPICIONS, they did.
coed | [kʰòwɛ́ːd] | This adjective refers to activities or places for both males and females. For instance, a coed soccer team, or a coed dormitory. It comes from the word co-education, which refers to schools attended by both boys and girls.
Now I was used… | This unstressed Now at the beginning of a sentence, is commonly used to inject a side note to a story.
((just) as) [ADJECTIVE] as you please | This pattern is used to emphasize the extent to which someone did something. In this case, the girls ask me for directions in an extremely polite manner. You’ll also hear ever so politely. And it doesn’t always refer to something pleasant: He marched right up to me, just as rude as you please, and demanded that I move my car.
off we went | A lighthearted way of saying we started on our way.I thought we were going to have trouble driving from New York to Montreal, but all we did was show our driver's licenses at the border, and off we drove into Canada.
to glean | To be able to work something out bit by bit by listening, reading, observing, etc. In this case, I knew enough French to make out words here and there and WORK OUT that Sophie was broke and wanted to go to McDonald’s.Angie just called me. She's freaking out; I could barely make out a word she said between her sobs and screams. But from the few words I caught, I was able to glean that her baby has swallowed something and is turning blue. We need to call 911 and get over there right away!
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