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Last October on a cable car going up the Swiss Alps. Me, my wife, and a couple from England (we didn't know them). The car was full of Chinese tourists. Anyone who knows Chinese, know they tend to speak loud and very fast. This went on for several minutes. Their tour guide started talking to the English couple. After a few minutes, the man said to the guide. "Wow. Your English is good for being Japanese."
Every single conversation stopped and you literally could hear a pin drop. All eyes were on this man. The guide stuck her finger in his face, started shaking it, and said, "Were Chinese. Not Japanese." The loud/fast conversations IMMEDIATELY started again.
Like many of you, we have a lot of interesting stories. Probably the best one occurred in Key West about 20 years ago. Since I don't like to travel with dirty clothes, the night before we left, we headed over to the laundramat. Clothes got washed, and when we opened the dryer, it was filled with $20 bills.
Last October on a cable car going up the Swiss Alps. Me, my wife, and a couple from England (we didn't know them). The car was full of Chinese tourists. Anyone who knows Chinese, know they tend to speak loud and very fast. This went on for several minutes. Their tour guide started talking to the English couple. After a few minutes, the man said to the guide. "Wow. Your English is good for being Japanese."
Every single conversation stopped and you literally could hear a pin drop. All eyes were on this man. The guide stuck her finger in his face, started shaking it, and said, "Were Chinese. Not Japanese." The loud/fast conversations IMMEDIATELY started again.
I'm not saying I approve of what the tour guide did, but I think I can understand why the Chinese were unhappy at being called "Japanese". Perhaps they still carry their emotional baggage from WWII with them.
My relatives were slaughtered in cold blood by the Japanese during WWII, and that's a little hard to forget!
1. On a cruise about twenty years ago in the Southern Caribbean, we took a Delta flight home. We were supposed to go to Atlanta, but ended up making an emergency landing in Miami. It was quite a sight to see sparks coming out of the engine that failed and watch the fire trucks all around us on the ground as we landed.
2. My son got sick during a trip we took to Eastern Canada in 2004. I ended up hospitalizing him in New Brunswick. Had a firsthand experience with the Canadian healthcare system that I found to be quite positive.
3. I found a large alligator golfing on a golf course in Cancun, Mexico that scared the bejeezus out of me.
Hah, I am enjoying everybody's stories. Budke, for real? I would love to hear more.
A couple of mine:
My first night in London in December 1974 I was eating a spaghetti dinner with friends when we heard a tremendous explosion that shook the windows of our flat. The IRA had exploded a car bomb outside Selfridge's department store on Oxford Street. (Fortunately warnings were given, and nobody was hurt, but there was a whole lot of damage.)
Much more recently, I spent a Halloween night in New Orleans.
I would not know where to begin. Good times.
My DH and I were with friends and crossing into Canada by car in the 70's. I was asleep in the back seat. There was a stop at the border and some Mounties told my DH to wake me up. They made me get out of the car, checked my drivers license. Got everyone out of the car and asked a lot of questions. Came back to me and separated me from everyone and asked MORE questions. Finally a Mountie came out of a building handed my drivers license back to me and said, "Sorry M'am. Enjoy Canada."
We found out later they were looking for a German woman who was part of a terrorist group. There had been a tip that she was trying to enter Canada. Apparently I matched her description pretty closely.
Went to Disneyland last year, and it was pouring rain. We got there 45 minutes before opening, sat in the line to enter the parking lot, and didn't see a lot of cars.
We finally get inside the park, it's still drizzly. As the park opens, we stroll our way to It's A Small World and see ZERO lines. We ask the employee standing there if the ride was open, and she said yes. We jumped in, and we were the only ones on the entire ride. As we finished, the operator looked at us and asked "Do you want to go around again?"
We opted to leave and hit the Dumbo ride, and the same thing happened. Nobody was in line. The operator let us go for two rounds before we got off.
In our 3 trips there in the last 3 yrs, we never had a chance to even get close to those 2 rides, and the rest of the time we were there on that 4 days vacation that started so rainy, we never got close to it again. I consider us extremely lucky.
Hah, I am enjoying everybody's stories. Budke, for real? I would love to hear more.
A couple of mine:
My first night in London in December 1974 I was eating a spaghetti dinner with friends when we heard a tremendous explosion that shook the windows of our flat. The IRA had exploded a car bomb outside Selfridge's department store on Oxford Street. (Fortunately warnings were given, and nobody was hurt, but there was a whole lot of damage.)
Much more recently, I spent a Halloween night in New Orleans.
I would not know where to begin. Good times.
My daughter told me about a convention of college business leader's club in New Orleans. Maybe not starting is a good idea. LOL I purposely did not mention the college she represented or the club she was an officer in. I think the only thing they did at the convention was check in. Then it was party time!
There are many unusual things happened during my trip many many of them.
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