The sun rarely shines in Belgium, so when I was younger, I learned to play in the rain. My parents would caution me of the consequences of running barefoot in torrential rains, but as a rebellious youngster, I laughed it off and ran outside. That was mistake number one, and thus, I contracted pneumonia. My second mistake, and perhaps the graver of the two, was my consistent pronunciation of the 'p' when I spoke of this fever inducing illness. My mother would always correct me, "You don't pronounce the 'p,' Andie. It's silent." No, thank you. No matter what my mother told me, I had pneh-mon-eeah - emphasis on the 'p'.

Eventually, the rules of English grammar prevailed. Some words have a silent letter and I couldn't change that. Diving into the language of love, I set out to find how to say pneumonia in French. I soon found that the French call it 'pneumonie'. You pronounce the 'p'. I was elated! What I always loved and knew to be true about my favorite word was finally revealed. I was no longer alone in thinking the 'p' belonged there, for the French couldn't agree more.

After 10 years of living in the soggy suburbs of central Belgium, I said au revoir and flew to my new home in Vienna, Virginia. As I was unpacking the last of my boxes, the rain began to pour. I dropped my things and ran outside, hoping to be reunited with my friend pneumonie - emphasis on the 'p'.