pass for pause de midi

So, finally, I decided to go to Paris, the city that I've been dreaming to go visit for so long... I always pictured myself going to that city, the city of romance, 'with', you know... 'for', you know... So I kept postponing, re-postponing, and re-re-postponing Paris to further notice. But then I said, fuck it! I don't know when that 'you know' is going to happen. And life is too short. How much longer am I supposed to live with 'you know' and 'you know'? So it's happening. It is really happening. I am going -- I am finally going to Paris, the city of romance.

Part of my preparation for this trip, which I can hardly wait for, is improving my French. And I am learning it by myself. I took French way back in high school. But really at that time I didn't learn much. I mean I didn't pay much attention in the class. To me classes like math, physics, biology, and chemistry were more important than French since I wanted to major in science at university. I am kind of regretting that, but the past is the past. It's never too late. And now I am learning. And also one of my coworkers at work talks to me in French everyday. That's the beauty of living in Ottawa. I have so many people around me who can speak French. And that is awesome. So there's no excuse for me not to learn this beautiful language.

I am getting better... I can read and write now, but I still have a hard time speaking. And here's something funny happened today:

It's 12:30pm at work. I tell my coworker en français, "I am going on a 10min lunch break to the cafeteria". She looks at me, nods, and with a big smile gives me her pass*. I look at her puzzled. "Why is she giving me her pass?", says the voice in my head. So I say it loud to her, "why are you giving me your pass?". Now, she's confused. "Didn't you ask me to give you my pass to go to the cafeteria for 10min?", she asks.

Here's where the confusion came from: en français, lunch break is pause de midi, but because of my lovely pronunciation, she thought I was saying pass instead of pause. And this is the beauty of learning French by yourself! But at least she kind of understood what I was trying to say...

*Where I work, you need a pass to get into the building or go from one floor to another.