OK, this computer is friggin hot! Not in a sexy way either. Like in a 170 degrees way.
Well, this Thanksgiving was fairly uneventful. I did watch Borne Supremacy though, and it reminded me of a story I'm not sure I've told anyone. Borne checks into that hotel, and the hotel clerk says he needs to hold his passport. That's when it all came back to me...
Back when I was working for UL and they sent my ass to Germany for my virgin trip outside of the US, I was checking into this hotel. The hotel was near the client I was visiting, kind of in the middle of nowhere. My head was kind of spinning from the million things that I didn't understand that I had encountered from the airport to the hotel.
When I was checking in, the provincial and kinda seedy looking hotel clerk demanded my passport and said he would give it back when I checked out. That didn't make any sense to me, especially since I had just read all of this literature I had received at the post office where I got my passport that had tips for protecting your passport and suggestions that you make copies and take some with and leave some with your family and blah blah blah. They certainly didn't make it sound like leaving it with some stranger at the front desk of the hotel was kosher, and the way clerk was asking for it didn't seem legit at all.
Anyway, I was like "My passport?" He insisted that he was required to hold my passport. Anyway, I refused and it took me an hour to check in, because I had to call our travel agent's "emergency hotline" and see if that kind of thing was normal. By the end of it, I'm sure he thought I was a big American idiot. Maybe he was right.
Hmmm... that wasn't as interesting a story as I thought. I should have stuck with my plan to keep stealing Elaina's blog posts. I'm keeping that as an option for later.
So I got my tix home for Christmas. I get in about 7AM on Saturday, Dec 16, and leave about 6AM Tuesday, Dec 26. That's TEN DAYS in Chicago, folks! I'm planning an evening of drinking gluhwein at the 11th Annual Chicago Christkindlmarkt, which will take place on Saturday, Dec 16. Put it on your calendar... Coincidentally, part of the reason I love the Chicago Christkindlmarkt is because it reminds me (a little) of the Augsburger Christkindlmarkt that I went to during my first trip to Germany mentioned above. I'm currently searching for something resembling a good Christkindlmarkt near DC. Anyone know of something?
OK, must sleep. Happy Thanksgiving...
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6 comments:
Oh Tom, I disagree - I love stories about strange overseas interactions
~ MK
OK, I got three MKs reading this blog. Would this be MKik, MKan, or MKat?
WAIT, so what happened after that? Did they make you give up your passport? I think your instincts were right.
So, after arguing for 45 minutes, the clerk screamed "Achtung! Geben Sie mir Ihr passsport, ober Ich zerstöre Sie!" Then we started slapping each other. Slaps turned into embracing. Embracing turned into passionate kissing. Before I knew it, we woke up in a spoon position on the lobby sofa. Dieter screamed, "Erhalten Sie weg von mir, amerikanischer Tourist!" Then I said, "Fine! Take my passport."
That is almost an exact word for word account of my first visit to Germany, exept for the yelling, embracing, slapping, and spooning.
I can only infer that there must have been some passionate kissing then, huh? I have to ask then, Why no spooning after the kissing?
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